NUHW Takes Fight to SEIU's Corporate Bunkmates

As SEIU-UHW dives deeper under the covers with its pinstriped patrons, the folks over at NUHW are waging an interesting battle against SEIU’s favorite bedmate, Kaiser Permanente.

Two of the members of Kaiser’s Board of Directors -- Christine Cassel and Jenny Ming -- resigned their positions after NUHW exposed their six-figure conflicts of interest. Today, only 13 people remain on the corruption-tainted board, including Phil “Brazil Butt” Marineau.

Meanwhile, Cynthia Telles -- another board member -- is under fire for ignoring Kaiser’s mental health crisis and for her connection to the ongoing scandal at General Motors, where she also serves on the Board of Directors.

Apparently, “Six-Figure Cynthia” is none too popular these days after turning a blind eye to Kaiser’s suicides and GM’s fatal ignition switches… while all the while pocketing a half-million dollars a year from the two mega-corporations.

Check out this website -- www.DearCynthiaTelles.com -- which features letters to Telles from Kaiser’s patients and mental health clinicians. The letters are jaw-dropping. Here's an excerpt from one by a Kaiser clinician:

Most of the patients I see have life-altering diagnoses such as Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, and Major Depression. They struggle with suicidality, medication compliance, substance abuse, daily hallucinations, hopelessness, and lack of social or familial support… Most clinics are significantly understaffed, forcing patients to wait on average 4 to 8 weeks for their follow-up appointments. Can you imagine sitting with a patient who is in emotional pain, has finally come to you for support, perhaps disclosing a history of traumatic sexual abuse for the first time, doing your best to build an alliance with them and give them hope, only to then tell them, “I’ll see you in 6 weeks?”

And here's a letter from one of Kaiser's patients:

I have been a patient of KP Psychiatry Department at three KP locations… For many of us, initially asking for mental health treatment is an incredible hurdle. Often the choice to leap or die is made by the glimmer of hope that someone will be on the other side ready to help. I chose to leap. Two years later I thought I made the wrong decision. I was not alone… It was obvious the therapists were overloaded… My condition worsened and I switched medications. Nothing seemed to work. After three years, I gave up.

Meanwhile, NUHW’s mental health clinicians continue to take Kaiser to task by launching departmental strikes, filing lawsuits, and winning a $4 million fine from government investigators for Kaiser’s severe mental health violations, which appear to be identical to the scandal rocking the VA hospitals. 

NUHW’s efforts have been joined by patients, who've filed a class-action lawsuit against Kaiser for illegally depriving patients of mental health care. 

Stay tuned!

SEIU-UHW Caught in the Act of "Partnering" with Kaiser at Fancy Hotel

The W Hotel in San Francisco

It looks like the folks over at NUHW caught SEIU-UHW and Kaiser Permanente in the act of "partnering" at a fancy hotel in downtown San Francisco.

Here’s what happened.

Ten days ago, NUHW activists made an unannounced visit to the “W Hotel,” a luxury hotel with a spa, restaurant, two bars and panoramic views of the San Francisco skyline.

At the hotel, Kaiser's turbo-paid Board of Directors was meeting with an army of business-suited Kaiser execs and SEIU officials. 

Among those in attendance was SEIU-UHW’s Hal “Mr. Giveback” Ruddick, who took over John August’s spot atop the "Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.”

NUHW's visit caught the Kaiser board members by surprise. Apparently, the time and location of Kaiser's board meetings are tightly held secrets. Kaiser's board meets just six times a year in fancy hotels in cities across the US. Each board member is paid more than $200,000 a year to attend the six meetings. Quite a tough gig for the 15 fatcats who sit on the board of “nonprofit” Kaiser. 

Readers may recall that NUHW recently exposed massive financial conflicts of interest, which bounced one member, Christine Cassel, off the board and into national headlines.

Check out the video below to see how Phil Marineau, a Kaiser board member and former CEO of Pepsi and Levi Strauss, responded when NUHW activists tried to talk with him inside a lobby of the W Hotel about the crisis gripping Kaiser’s mental health services.

Soon thereafter, the NUHW activists were reportedly surrounded by Kaiser’s plainclothes security guards who pushed them out of the building -- prompting NUHW to file a police report against Kaiser. 

As NUHW Exposes Scandal, Top Kaiser Permanente Exec Resigns under Fire

 

Dr. Christine Cassel

Last week, NUHW scored an exciting victory when a top official at Kaiser Permanente resigned after the union exposed six-figure corruption inside the giant HMO.

NUHW’s action made headlines in the Los Angeles Times, Modern Healthcare, ProPublica and elsewhere.

Here's what happened.

Despite Kaiser's bogus claims of hard financial times, it turns out the HMO is awash with so much cash that it lubricates its Board of Directors with $1,400-an-hour salaries! 

According to tax returns posted on NUHW's website, Kaiser pays each of its 15 board members more than $200,000 a year for attending only six board meetings!

Hmm... last time Tasty checked, Kaiser was supposed to be a nonprofit!

And in the case of one board member, Kaiser’s gold-plated payouts triggered fears that the HMO is using its six-figure generosity to purchase the loyalty of a top industry insider.

NUHW revealed that the board member -- Dr. Christine Cassel -- also happens to serve as the CEO of the National Quality Forum, a DC-based organization whose decisions affect Kaiser’s revenues under the Medicare program.

Furthermore, NUHW revealed that last year, Cassel accepted a position on the board of directors of Premier, Inc., one of the largest group-purchasing organizations in the U.S. healthcare industry. For this third gig, Cassel took home $235,000 in cash and stock.

That's in addition to her salary at her ‘day job,’ where NQF pays her $561,000 a year!

After NUHW gave the info to ProPublica, the award-winning group of investigative journalists penned an article about Cassel’s conflicts of interest. Top ethics experts who are cited in ProPublica's article said her payouts are "egregious" and called on her to resign. A U.S. senator weighed in, instructing Cassel to cough up internal documents. NUHW called for Cassel's resignation.

Soon thereafter, Cassel quit her positions at both Kaiser and Premier, Inc., making headlines across the nation.

It's similar to an earlier episode, when NUHW ousted a fatcat CEO for pocketing eight pension plans while trying to eliminate workers' only pension. Once again, NUHW has scored an important victory by exposing the corruption among the well-heeled executives atop the U.S. healthcare industry.