Earnings Call & New Board Member

StrangeTony,

Thank you for your words of wisdom to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's.  This week looks like rendering time with third quarter earnings scheduled for after hours release on November 4th and Kindred's earnings call the next morning.

We may need the other mourning for Kindred's new board member.  YahooFinance reported:

Kindred Healthcare, Inc. (“Kindred” or the “Company”) (KND) today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Dr. Sharad Mansukani to the Board effective immediately. 

Dr. Mansukani serves as a Senior Advisor to TPG (formerly Texas Pacific Group), a global private equity investment firm with a capital portfolio of over $74 billion, and as Strategic Advisor to the Board of Directors of Cigna Corp.

Kindred already has a COO from private equity.  Now it's adding a board member from a company that makes money from buying and selling companies.  This is not a good sign, given private equity's propensity to put their profits over everything else.  Mansukani isn't new to private equity.  He's been with TPG since March 2005.  That's over a decade and reflects allegiance to the private equity model and all its management distortions.. 

Dr. Mansukani worked for Health & Human Services, specifically on the new prescription drug benefit which became known as Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage health plans.  Private equity companies have mined both arenas for huge profits.

Consider this blast from the past, which shows how Mansukani navigated both sides of health care public policy for big profits, corporate and personal.

However, to succeed Medicare prescription drug plans (PDPs) need a lot more. Enter NationsHealth (NASDQ: NHRX, NHRXW, NXRXU). This nimble, fast-growing player demonstrated its chops by successfully enrolling and servicing over two million seniors in Medicare drug discount cards. No small feat. Sharad Mansukani, MD, NationsHealth's new chief strategic officer and a business-savvy authority on Part D, was most recently a senior advisor to Medicare Administrator Mark B. McClellan, MD, PhD. 

By teaming with NationsHealth, the folks at CIGNA are showing the market they understand the critical importance of having a enrollment and customer service infrastructure that is flexible, scalable, AND Medicare savvy.

Revolving door Mansukani did a fellowship in quality management at Wharton Business School.  Apparently he missed the part where leveraged buyout organizations, since re-branded private equity, are anathema to quality.  The world's greatest quality guru spoke those very words.

Speaking of re-branding one has to wonder how name changes for Gentiva sites are impacting volumes?  Gentiva trashed much of the value of Harden Healthcare's hospice and home health sites with its botched re-branding.  Might Kindred make a similar mistake?

Thursday's earnings call may shed some color on that.  Will it be red or black?  Dr. Mansukani is off to a strong personal financial start with over 11,000 restricted shares of Kindred stock.  That will help him continue to speak the language of business in the boardroom.  It's definitely not the language of quality.

Anonymous (from the re-branded Gentiva)