KAISER PERMANENTE: TO OUTSOURCE INPATIENT CARE
"In an unprecedented departure from its hospital careThis is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
practices and another step toward abandoning its oldest
hospital," Kaiser Permanente has signed an agreement with
Berkeley, CA-based Alta Bates Medical Center "to take over
women's inpatient care from Kaiser's Oakland Hospital." The
memorandum of understanding, which was announced Tuesday,
"accelerates Kaiser's plan to close its 54-year-old, 344-bed
Oakland hospital" by next spring. SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER reports
that Kaiser is negotiating similar agreements "to farm out in-
patient pediatric" and adult care with Children's Hospital and
Summit Medical Center. EXAMINER reports that the agreement with
Alta Bates "marks the first time in the history of Kaiser," that
the largest health care provider in California, "has relinquished
control over the hospitalization" of its enrollees.
THE DEAL: Under the agreement, "Alta Bates will provide
labor and delivery services, gynecological care, newborn nursery
and neonatal intensive care." Kaiser patients would be able to
keep their physicians, even if they receive care in non-Kaiser
hospitals. All outsourcing agreements must receive approval from
state and federal regulators, "and accommodations with labor
unions, which are worried about possible job losses."
LABOR DISPUTE: Sal Roselli, president of Hospital and Care
Workers Local 250, said that he "feared" the agreement would "not
bode well for care workers or for consumers." He said, "In the
big picture, Kaiser is discussing subcontracting acute care
services all over California." As a result of "cutthroat
competition," Roselli said, "The race to the bottom is happening
all over the industry in terms of providing the least services at
the lowest costs to produce the highest profits" (Hatfield,
10/3).