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Some guy was telling me how IBM Watson was going to make healthcare more efficient by helping doctors make smart choices. I replied that that wasn't going to help profits, so it probably wouldn't be adopted. Hospitals and insurers really should be merged so the incentives are all properly aligned. Kaiser Permanente works this way and, IMHO, it's actually not that bad.

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You way underestimate IBM sales staff.

The real problem is that Watson doesn't work, and health care providers spent millions on it which could have gone to real, actual research.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2017/02/19/md-and...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2017/07/02/is-ib...

https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2017/02/md-anderson-cancer-...

I always wonder why kp hasn't expanded more.

They've been doing a huge amount of infill in Northern California, replacing whole facilities with brand-new complexes in existing core patient areas. (One example is their Santa Clara facility, which replaced a predecessor less than a mile away with one maybe 5 times its size.)

It must be an insane amount of capital expenditure.

just passed by the SC facility (the one on Homestead?) and it did indeed look massive.

Great to hear that they are expanding in their core practice and geographies. Hope they continue to do well.

That new residential neighborhood on Kiely Boulevard across the street from Central Park is where the prior Kaiser medical center was, going back to at least the 1960s.

Kaiser's HMO is much worse than a PPO. It's not that great of care.

Now compared to Medicare sure it's great.

>Kaiser's HMO is much worse than a PPO. It's not that great of care.

care to elaborate why?

With a PPO I can go to whatever specialist I want. With Kaiser you are stuck with the specialists Kaiser directly employes.

So if the Kaiser clinic by you is good then sure Kaiser is great. However if you ever want a second opinion or want to use a non Kaiser doctor your out of luck.

A PPO plan offers you freedom to choose what doctors you see. It will also enable you to go straight to a specialist without your general practitioners consent.

Obviously Kaiser is cheaper than the PPO plans.

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