"...Lycette’s suit states, however, that she became troubled by new Kaiser policies
after [executive Jeffrey] Weisz was brought in.
"Among her other complaints, her suit alleges she expressed concerns about a ban
on referring patients to non-Kaiser specialists or clinical trials outside of Kaiser --
even though doing so would be in the best interests of patients.
"She resigned in April 2013, because of her oath to do no harm and her belief that
Kaiser policies were "making patients suffer," her suit states.
"According to the website for Oregon Health & Science University, Lycette
relocated to Astoria and is now working at OHSU's Cancer Care Center at
Columbia Memorial Hospital..."
Former oncologist claims Kaiser Permanente pushed profits
over patient care, files $7 million lawsuit
Aimee Green
Oregon Live
April 23, 2014
A former oncologist at Kaiser Permanente is suing the health care company for $7
million, claiming she had no choice but to quit her job after complaining the
organization was maximizing profits to the detriment of cancer patients.
Dr. Jennifer Lycette claims quality of care took a nosedive when Northwest
Permanente Medical Group hired Jeffrey Weisz as its president and executive medical
director in 2011. Weisz had previously worked for Kaiser in Southern California.
"During Dr. Weisz's tenure (in California), he established a reputation as a ruthless
administrator who found ways to minimize payrolls by shrinking staff while patient loads
skyrocketed, often leaving the remaining staff members trying to cope with impossible
patient demands which ultimately harmed Kaiser's patients," reads Lycette's lawsuit,
filed Tuesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
In an email statement, Kaiser spokesman Michael Foley said, "The care needs of our
members, patients, and customers come first. Allegations that claim otherwise are not
supported by fact.
"We're reviewing the lawsuit that was filed," he addied, "and will address its inaccurate
allegations through the judicial process."
The suit was filed by Lake Oswego attorney Roderick Boutin.
Lycette's suits claims that during a November 2012 meeting, Weisz ordered Kaiser's
Portland oncologists to cram an initial consultation and bone-marrow biopsy of patients
-- something that should take two to 2.5 hours and be done over two visits -- into one,
60-minute visit. Lycette’s suit states pain medication that must be taken orally takes 30
to 60 minutes to kick in, so a 60-minute visit would leave patients rushed and in pain.
Lycette "openly and respectfully voiced her concerns," and Weisz responded by
shouting at Lycette in "a very angry and threatening manner," her suit states.
Lycette's suit also claims she complained in April 2012 to the then-chief of medical
oncology, Nagendra Tirumali, about understaffing. She says patients were struggling
to schedule appointments and some chemotherapy patients were only seeing their
regular oncologist every two or three months.
Tirumali responded that Lycette was being “emotional,” according to a copy of an
email attached to the suit. Lycette’s suit characterizes Tirumali's response as a "veiled
attack" on her gender. Her suit states she later asked Tirumali whether he would have
accused a man of being "emotional" over the issue of understaffing.
Lycette, 40, worked for Kaiser for about seven years -- from 2006 until she resigned in
spring 2013 -- at its Interstate medical offices in North Portland and Sunnyside Medical
Center in Clackamas, according to her suit. Her suit states she had the highest patient
satisfaction rating, 89 percent, in her department.
Lycette’s suit alleges that before taking the job in 2006, she asked several Kaiser
doctors if they thought they could care for patients without feeling that financial
overhead compromised care. They assured her they could, the suit states.
Lycette’s suit states, however, that she became troubled by new Kaiser policies after
Weisz was brought in.
Among her other complaints, her suit alleges she expressed concerns about a ban on
referring patients to non-Kaiser specialists or clinical trials outside of Kaiser -- even
though doing so would be in the best interests of patients.
She resigned in April 2013, because of her oath to do no harm and her belief that
Kaiser policies were "making patients suffer," her suit states.
According to the website for Oregon Health & Science University, Lycette relocated to
Astoria and is now working at OHSU's Cancer Care Center at Columbia Memorial
Hospital.
Lycette is seeking $2 million in economic damages and $5 million in non-economic
damages.
Showing posts with label good doctors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label good doctors. Show all posts
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Consumers have "no meaningful information about the quality of care," but the same can't be said for Leslie Michelson
Why do consumers have "no meaningful information about the quality of care"? Because businesses are the ones buying the insurance, not the patients. And insurers have no stake in long-term results.
September 21, 2012
Leslie Michelson: Doctor to the 1% (and Maybe Someday to You)
By JOSEPH RAGO
Wall Street Journal
The rich are different than you and me. Not only—yes, yes—do they have more money, but they've also heard of, and many have hired, Leslie Michelson.
...So the health-care delivery system, to the extent it qualifies as a system, "has no quality control, no integration, no coordination." Doctors "tend to operate in an independent and isolated way, and even specialists who've been treating the same patient for years and years typically never, ever speak to one another."
Private Health is designed to backfill these gaps whenever one of its patients has a medical emergency or complex condition, say, a traumatic brain injury or newly diagnosed cancer. A personal-care team parachutes in, led by a clinician employed by the company, and compiles a brief on the patient. They centralize and digitize the patient's medical records, usually dog-eared paper piles that can run to thousands of pages. Research scientists immerse themselves in the latest findings and treatment regimens for the particular condition involved.
Tests are double-checked—biopsy tissues are sent to an outside pathologist, MRIs to another radiologist. For an era of targeted therapies, Private Health runs a full battery of molecular diagnostics "to sequence the entire three billion base pairs of somebody's DNA in a couple of hours," Mr. Michelson marvels.
The goal is to ensure an accurate diagnosis and lay out all the treatment options. Private Health functions as a kind of running, independent second opinion. It operates in the twilight zone where there isn't a "best practice" for when and how to treat, but a continuum of risks and benefits that vary from patient to patient.
The clinician helps locate the right experts, Mr. Michelson says, and then works to "fuse together all these multiple specialists in a single team with a single objective." There are "no redos, no lost scans, no ambling around going from specialist to specialist, trying to figure out what's going on." The most frequent reaction is: "This is how medicine was always supposed to be practiced."
The idea for Private Health came to Mr. Michelson when he was running the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the multibillion-dollar philanthropy Michael Milken set up in 1993. Prostate cancer is a common disease but treatment isn't straightforward. Surgeons end up recommending surgery, radiation specialists radiation, still others "watchful waiting," etc.
Mr. Michelson says people started asking him for advice, which led to the prototype for Private Health. Eventually he decided to improve his process across more diseases and help more people.
One irony is that for all its white-glove extras (a research department, genetic profiling), a lot of what Private Health does are core functions that patients would value and providers or insurers ought to be doing but rarely do (case management, using computers). Why is that?
Cost is part of it. "It's too expensive for us to do it for everybody right now," Mr. Michelson says. Another part, he thinks, is that "the incentives are attenuated because of the structure of insurance," namely, job-based coverage.
Since businesses are the customers, not the individuals who change jobs every three years on average, insurers "act rationally" and don't invest in services with "short-term costs and long-term payback." Mr. Michelson thinks the better option is for businesses to convert to cash vouchers so their workers can buy portable policies. Right now, there is "no meaningful information about the quality of care, virtually no information about price, and no sensitivity to price," but that would change if the insurance industry built "an enduring relationship with consumers," he says.
"I understand that it is woven into the fabric of our society that employers can and should continue to pay for health insurance for their employees," Mr. Michelson declares. "But why, circa 2012, should HR departments be selecting and administering one or two or three plans for a thousand or a hundred thousand workers and their dependents? You don't need a Ph.D. in economics to understand that you will guarantee suboptimization."
September 21, 2012
Leslie Michelson: Doctor to the 1% (and Maybe Someday to You)
By JOSEPH RAGO
Wall Street Journal
The rich are different than you and me. Not only—yes, yes—do they have more money, but they've also heard of, and many have hired, Leslie Michelson.
...So the health-care delivery system, to the extent it qualifies as a system, "has no quality control, no integration, no coordination." Doctors "tend to operate in an independent and isolated way, and even specialists who've been treating the same patient for years and years typically never, ever speak to one another."
Private Health is designed to backfill these gaps whenever one of its patients has a medical emergency or complex condition, say, a traumatic brain injury or newly diagnosed cancer. A personal-care team parachutes in, led by a clinician employed by the company, and compiles a brief on the patient. They centralize and digitize the patient's medical records, usually dog-eared paper piles that can run to thousands of pages. Research scientists immerse themselves in the latest findings and treatment regimens for the particular condition involved.
Tests are double-checked—biopsy tissues are sent to an outside pathologist, MRIs to another radiologist. For an era of targeted therapies, Private Health runs a full battery of molecular diagnostics "to sequence the entire three billion base pairs of somebody's DNA in a couple of hours," Mr. Michelson marvels.
The goal is to ensure an accurate diagnosis and lay out all the treatment options. Private Health functions as a kind of running, independent second opinion. It operates in the twilight zone where there isn't a "best practice" for when and how to treat, but a continuum of risks and benefits that vary from patient to patient.
The clinician helps locate the right experts, Mr. Michelson says, and then works to "fuse together all these multiple specialists in a single team with a single objective." There are "no redos, no lost scans, no ambling around going from specialist to specialist, trying to figure out what's going on." The most frequent reaction is: "This is how medicine was always supposed to be practiced."
The idea for Private Health came to Mr. Michelson when he was running the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the multibillion-dollar philanthropy Michael Milken set up in 1993. Prostate cancer is a common disease but treatment isn't straightforward. Surgeons end up recommending surgery, radiation specialists radiation, still others "watchful waiting," etc.
Mr. Michelson says people started asking him for advice, which led to the prototype for Private Health. Eventually he decided to improve his process across more diseases and help more people.
One irony is that for all its white-glove extras (a research department, genetic profiling), a lot of what Private Health does are core functions that patients would value and providers or insurers ought to be doing but rarely do (case management, using computers). Why is that?
Cost is part of it. "It's too expensive for us to do it for everybody right now," Mr. Michelson says. Another part, he thinks, is that "the incentives are attenuated because of the structure of insurance," namely, job-based coverage.
Since businesses are the customers, not the individuals who change jobs every three years on average, insurers "act rationally" and don't invest in services with "short-term costs and long-term payback." Mr. Michelson thinks the better option is for businesses to convert to cash vouchers so their workers can buy portable policies. Right now, there is "no meaningful information about the quality of care, virtually no information about price, and no sensitivity to price," but that would change if the insurance industry built "an enduring relationship with consumers," he says.
"I understand that it is woven into the fabric of our society that employers can and should continue to pay for health insurance for their employees," Mr. Michelson declares. "But why, circa 2012, should HR departments be selecting and administering one or two or three plans for a thousand or a hundred thousand workers and their dependents? You don't need a Ph.D. in economics to understand that you will guarantee suboptimization."
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