Bonuses questioned. (Short Takes: News at Deadline).Should telephone clerks at HMO HMO health maintenance organization. HMO n. A corporation that is financed by insurance premiums and has member physicians and professional staff who provide curative and preventive medicine within certain financial, call centers be rewarded for finding ways to limit the number of doctors appointments they schedule for patients? That question is being asked by a number of regulators and health groups after Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente is an integrated managed care organization, based in Oakland, California, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney R. Garfield. revealed that it had such a plan in place from January January: see month. 2000 to December 2001. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a company spokesman, the program was canceled after Kaiser determined that it was not helping the HMO serve its members better. The program reportedly paid bonuses to phone operators who scheduled appointments for less than 35 percent of the callers and who spent less than an average of 3 minutes and 45 seconds on the phone with each HMO member California's Department of Managed Health Care is investigating the bonus program according to Steven Fisher the department's deputy director. |
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