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Fired For Putting the Bad News in Writing Email Print

By breakingranks
11/14/2006 01:54:55 PM EST

Last week I put in a request for someone at Kos Health Care to write something about the plight of Justen Deal. No one took me up on it. So while I'm not the best person to be covering this, I'll give it a shot and request follow up coverage from people who focus on health care.  

Justen is a Kaiser Permanente HMO cheerleader. I've long regarded him as a stooge and a flak - someone who must be getting paid for constantly spewing Kaiser propaganda. Apparently, though, he's willing to risk his job and put himself through a world of hurt to bring up a severe problem. Justen put his concerns in an email last Friday, and by Monday Kaiser's CIO Cliff Dodd had resigned. At the same time Justen was placed on administrative leave while Kaiser HR schmucks comb through policies to try to find a rule he broke. There is no such rule. Kaiser is retaliating against Justen for putting his concerns in writing.

Kaiser has a long history of punishing dissent - but this is the first case with enough publicity to bring it to public attention. Justen only wrote his email after spending months trying to get his concerns heard through proper channels, and he genuinely trying to save the organization he loves working for from the fate of Enron. At the same time he sent his email, he posted a web site that documents all his efforts here. I can't imagine how hard that was for him to do.

And Justen's reward for whistleblowing is the usual: executive memos that smear and patronize him have been sent to all Kaiser employees, Kaiser PR weenies are discrediting him everywhere they can (and their smears will be on Google forever), and the MSM is trying to be "fair and balanced" about the whole thing (which always makes a whistleblower regret they said anything).

I can't underscore enough how important it is for dissent to be protected in the health care system. Low ranking employees need to be able to point out problems in order to expose medical errors, treatment inadequacies, privacy issues, technology mistakes (which get more expensive the longer you wait on recognizing a problem), and financial corruption that gets passed on in the form of increased health care costs.

This diary isn't enough. I hope more talented health care writers will pick up the slack. I ask you all to keep paying attention to what's happening to Justen, because his fate will tell you whether truth can be spoken within one of the most powerful HMOs in the U.S.

Update: New, huge Computerworld article here!

Update 2: HISTalk has posted a terrific exclusive interview with Justen.


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Fired For Putting the Bad News in Writing | 2 comments (2 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Sadly Familiar (none / 1)
U.S. media treatment of whistleblowers is frequently disgraceful.

As you pointed out, U.S. media tend to sit on the fence in describing a whistleblower case, apparently unable (or unwilling) to recognize a classic pattern of retaliation - if they cover the story at all. The failure of mainstream U.S. media to name and shame retaliation has the unfortunate effect of encouraging serial retaliation by unrepentent companies and government agencies.

In recent years, some whistleblowers have responded by taking their disclosures overseas where news media more readily publish their stories and demonstrate a realistic understanding of the whistleblowers' dilemma. In the case of Los Alamos whistleblower Tommy Hook, U.S. newspapers readily published smears against Hook, no matter how illogical the claims; but, the same facts elicited fuller and more sympathetic coverage in Britain.  Another whistleblower's story, virtually ignored in the U.S., received full page coverage in the U.K.'s Financial Times.  And a recent documentary on FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds was filmed, notably, in France, not the United States.

Nowadays, many whistlebowers are, like Justen Deal, taking their stories directly to the Internet via websites, blogs, podcasts and even Youtube.  With support from progressives on the Internet, hopefully U.S. news media will be pressured to finally wake up and smell the reprisal.

by truthista on 11/14/2006 11:18:06 PM EST

I agree (none / 1)
I think part of the reason is that media organizations partake in a lot of interactions with the major corporations in their area. Not only do they have to maintain relationships with "insiders" in the corporate PR department - they may have friends and family who work for prominent corporations, and they may have aspirations to work there themselves (or need to maintain their prospects for soliciting political donations or venture capital). And even without those ties, large  corporations are seen as engines of the economy: if they would rather be taken down than respond to criticism, then the whole community goes down with them.

It's also just much easier for journalists to turn individuals into the villains of the story. Responsibility is dispersed throughout the corporation, but the individual is seen as an actor/agent of a story. Unless that individual is a squeaky clean slamdunk for a David/Goliath story, then it's just much easier to tell the story of a troublemaker disciplined by authority.

Ever since Enron, I've paid attention to how society blocks employee dissent. Even if employees  have the courage to speak truth when their employer doesn't want to hear it, they will be crushed by the immense social pressure to silence and shame "deviant" individuals. For all our celebration of diversity, our instinct is to punish the person who speaks counter to power.

I hope Justen can get enough public support to keep his job, but at the very least Kaiser's raw penchant for retaliation stands publicly revealed. And it's about time.

Manifest Dignity!

by breakingranks on 11/15/2006 02:44:54 AM EST

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Fired For Putting the Bad News in Writing | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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