When is a non-profit not a non-profit?
November 8, 2007
When its name is Kaiser Permanente and it reports $2.5 billion in net profits in the first 9 months of 2007, that’s when.
Ironically, the IRS nearly tripled its audits of tax returns filed by middle class Americans in 2007, because they wouldn’t want anyone to get away with not paying their fair share of taxes.
God Bless America.
Entry Filed under: Murder by PRBS. .
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1.
anonymous | November 9, 2007 at 1:07 am
So WHO profited? Sure, people who work at Kaiser got paid their salary (sometimes BIG salaries, like at all BIG entities), but no one “profited.” No shareholders earned dividends. No stock holder investors sold their stock for a profit. I think the money goes back into the business for improvements, research and lowering (not raising) member premiums.
2.
JC | November 9, 2007 at 6:27 am
Right, and when premiums are lowered I’ll eat this blog.
1/3 of Kaiser Permanente is comprised of the FOR PROFIT Permanente Medical Groups (the senior partner doctors are the shareholders). 50% of the profits go back to them in the form of bonuses and retirement benefits, creating an implied incentive to deny care. Only the health plan and hospitals are technically not-for-profit, and you’re right, they can blow that money any way they want to…like on a disastrously wasteful EMR called HealthConnect, for instance.
For fun I divided $2.5 billion by $3,600 (a generous estimate of what it would cost to insure one individual for a year at $300/mo.) and got almost 700,000…that’s right, nearly 3/4 of a million people could be insured with Kaiser’s loose change.
3.
Bridgett | December 13, 2007 at 10:03 pm
But really, who would want bottom of the barrel insurance such as kaiser? That money could be better spent, say for instance, actually providing care for the members they already have. I personally, wouldn’t pay 2 cents a month for kaiser insurance.