By Ben Joravsky
Over the years those doctors became part of the Anchor Medical Group, an HMO that was eventually bought by Rush Prudential. Pardys didn’t keep track of the ins and outs of health care or of the large corporations that continually swallowed smaller practices. But then, she was happy with her doctors. “They cared about us, they knew us,” she says. “I can remember when my doctor saw some curious symptoms and said, ‘Didn’t you tell me your brother was a diabetic? Maybe we should get you tested.’ I had no major symptoms, but he became suspicious of diabetes long before other doctors would have because he remembered something I had said years ago. Sure enough, my diabetes was diagnosed and treated before any damage. I’d never dream of changing doctors.”
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Ocon and Pardys say the reaction from the board’s central office to their concerns has been cold indifference. “I called the board after I got the letter from Rush to see if there was any recourse,” says Pardys. “I was sent to someone in Risk and Benefits, and I talked to a man who said, ‘It’s a done deal, and you’ll just have to pick one of two remaining health plans.’ So I called my union field rep, who gave me this whole line about Rush’s rates going up 35 percent and how [CEO Paul] Vallas and [board president Gery] Chico had struggled so hard to save the deal. I said, ‘Well, it’s pretty bad that I didn’t learn about this from my employer or my union.’ He said Rush had derailed negotiations by having their doctors contact their patients. I didn’t buy that. It seems like my union cares less about protecting our interests than protecting Vallas’s image.”
A Rush spokesman accused Vallas of “pandering” in his letter to employees and promised to call back with more information, but he hasn’t called.
