front line

If you haven’t heard already, you will be hearing a great deal about “Quality Ratings of Medicare Advantage Plans.”

The most significant feature of these quality ratings is the potential for bonuses to be paid to health plans that meet high quality standards. Medicare Advantage accounts for 10% of all Kaiser Permanente business. So what is this all about? Why should frontline Kaiser Permanente union members, physicians, and managers care about this?

Recently, I wrote about the collective grief that we all share as we watch the disaster pollute our precious Gulf of Mexico and everything in it. Today, I want to share some ideas about how such disasters can and must be prevented. Our important goal in Kaiser Permanente to create a continuous learning organization rests on those strategies for prevention.