http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_Permanente
"Kaiser represents itself as not-for-profit by distributing its profit - about $1.8 billion in 2004 - half to physicians and half to hospitals. 50% of Kaiser's umbrella revenue goes back to its for-profit medical groups. The physician kickback allows them to double their salaries and retire with millionaire benefit packages. Kaiser disclosed to Medicare in 1985 that it sets a profit target each year which is achieved by the withholding of care.
Edgar Kaiser took the "less care, more profit" message to President Nixon (caught on tapes!) that set in motion the HMO Act of 1973. Kaiser was and is only a prepaid health plan. The term Health Maintenance Organization was created in 1973 as a way to get people to let Congress pass such a one way act."
The Kaiser empire is divided into Divisions, which comprise hospitals, which manage departments. The departments have budgets. The departments design independent treatment protocols to reign in spending in order to control cost and maximize profit. It should not come as a surprise to learn that different departments within different hospitals have different protocols.
Of course, happy anecdotes about care at Kaiser are singularly meaningless. Even the 1962 New York Mets won 40 games. The truth would lie in an independent outcomes analysis, which has never been done (or at least published).
I stand firm on the facts reported in my previous post and I remain convinced that in Kaiser, you will be sicker before you get the "expensive" medicine. You will be more disabled before you get a hip replacement, men will get fewer colonoscopys and women will get fewer mammograms. It's just the way the system works.