Healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente is settling a $49 million dollar lawsuit with the state and multiple counties throughout California.
State Attorney General Rob Bonta says they took action after allegations Kaiser improperly disposed of hazardous waste and failed to protect sensitive patient information.
“Kaiser is our state’s largest healthcare provider, it operates more than 700 facilities and treats more than 8.8 million Californians. If they don’t follow the law, if they are careless with dangerous waste or sensitive information, the potential for harm is enormous and it is widespread,” he said.
Kaiser Permanente reports $2.1B profit, 2.9% operating margin in Q2 2023.
Another cost of doing business…
The fines for-profits pay should be scaled to their most recent yearly profits.
Maybe then they’s start following the rules instead of just blowing them off.
Revenue, not profit.
Wut?
As in, it should be a proportion of their overall revenue as a business, if you just take a proportion of their profit then it’s less likely to actually harm them in some way. A single heavy fine calculated from profit will never put them at risk of not actually making a profit due to their horrendous misdeeds.
I will then amend my solution to add this: the fine should be 50% of their profits.
I am somewhat wary of hitting revenue as companies could then use it as an excuse to let go of staff, and that is a cost I’m unwilling to stand up for.
Companies will just spend that money instead of making a cash profit.
Honestly, without specific regulation to prevent it, cost cutting like slashing staff will be the first thing a company does to protect its expected profits regardless of how you do it. That’s unavoidable whether you go for profit or revenue.
Like a company needs an excuse to let go of staff. If they’re going to fire people, they’ll use any reason they can to cover.