Editorial: Kaiser members worry

A quarter of a million people in Hawaii suddenly felt a pang of nervousness. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported this week that Kaiser Permanente was facing some financial trouble, quoting a memo sent to Kaiser employees by Ron Vance, the interim president of Kaiser Permanente Health Plan and Hospitals’ Hawaii region.

The memo, said Kaiser spokeswoman Laura Lott, was meant as a rallying cry for the staff to rise to the organization’s fiscal challenges. The effect, though, was undeniably more startling than that, at least from the members’ perspective.

The memo detailed the bad news: a year-to-date loss of $88 million, a projected higher loss next year, $400 million borrowed from the national office over several years, delayed capital improvements and, worst of all, in the boss’ phrasing, “no clear path to a positive balance sheet.”

The hope is that the pathway will become clearer once a long-range strategic plan is developed, as Kaiser has forecast, in the opening months of 2020.

Many long-time members still endorse Kaiser, but declining fortunes have been traced to a loss of competitiveness in the market. The cost is higher for some employers, and some have been taking Kaiser off the employees’ health-benefits menu.

If the aim is to counter that through value- added changes to patient services while making the plan a better buy, that could make members happier. It also could attract more of them, which would make Vance and the other top executives happy as well.