Has Kaiser not raised prices for health insurance premiums or other fees since 2020? Because that would be notable and they absolutely should lead with that.
My suspicion is they didn't mention that because they have been raising the fees they charge their customers faster than they have been raising wages, like many employers.
Either way, it doesn't matter all that much if their wages aren't keeping pace with inflation. That would almost definitionally lead to the kind of labor shortages described in the article.
Aside from the fact that those non-discounted rates are astronomically high in the USA, they also don't have to worry about anyone analyzing the list of services provided, so the medical billing errors in the provider's favor don't have a chance of being questioned.
Large medical provider accounting is right next to Hollywood accounting in the staggering games played with profit, expense, and loss.
This makes no sense. If they are the healthcare provider, then services provided to the indigent go in the expenses column, and revenue is in the revenue column.
And you cannot “deduct” anything from profit, it is literally all revenues minus all expenses. And also Kaiser is a non profit.
I'm no expert but in that case I imagine it would be fully GAAP for the provider entity to bill a non-discounted rate to the insurance entity, even though the insurance entity is recognizing no offsetting revenues because the person is question is not part of the insurance pool.
If the workers get paid more through this strike, it will translates directly to higher prices.
Even after that, Kaiser will stay a low cost provider. Becasue they are non-profit.