North Idaho’s Healthcare Kraken: Kootenai Health
This is the second of a two part series on the consolidation of Healthcare facilities in Idaho, and the globalist agencies behind it. Part one is: South Idaho’s Healthcare Colossus: St Luke. A previous NISGR article, Kootenai Health, Crony Capitalists, and the Health Corridor is also relevant.
By North Idaho Slow Growth Research
Transforming Kootenai Health
Now that we’ve seen how the globalist oligarchs of Southern Idaho have transformed St. Luke into a Medical Monopoly, let’s see what’s in store for Kootenai County. Could such a bureaucratic behemoth of a hospital system as St. Luke ever exist North Idaho? Yes, it could. In December of 2022, the Kootenai Health board of Trustees voted to turn over all the assets of the county owned hospital to a private foundation, structured much like St. Luke Health System. St. Luke is the model upon which those who now control Kootenai Health intend to base their system.
NISGR wrote an article about the Kootenai Health heist last year that exposed the manner in which a group of non-profit agencies—whose boards are controlled by a network of Rotarian-RINOs,—conspired to transfer control of Kootenai Health from a hospital district with an elected board of trustees, to the KH Foundation. And now that KH is entirely in the hands of a privately appointed, totally unaccountable group of stakeholders, the problems we are seeing with St. Luke are well on their way to North Idaho.
Many of the same trends are already apparent. Like St. Luke, the total revenue of Kootenai Health has grown enormously in the last five years, from $551M to $845M, and the rate of growth has accelerated. In the last decade KH began consolidating local clinics and urgent care facilities into its network, and in 2020 it assumed control of two rural hospital networks in Orofino and Cottonwood. And now that Kootenai Health has gone private, the expansion will continue apace.
Kootenai Health 2030
The KH Foundation has already laid out its SMART cities complaint, Kootenai Health 2030 vision of “one connected team transforming healthcare to become a premier medical destination.” To break that down for you, in SMART growth lingo: “one” mean a centralized medical monopoly; “connected” means that health records of all will be digitized and shared; “transforming healthcare” can mean anything globalists want it to mean, and “premier medical destination” means coordination with CDA Ignite’s plans for a SMART City style “Health Corridor”. What could possibly go wrong?
More details about how the Kootenai Health heist happened can be found in our previous article, but this is an excerpt from the letter that was used to justify “privatizing” KH:
“The assessment indicates the nonprofit model provides benefits, such as (1) governance continuity without the limitations of a two-year election cycle. . . . and (2) enhance access to capital and diversified investment opportunities prohibited by the hospital district structure.”
In other words: (1) voters will not be able to limit the growth, influence the leadership, or control KH policies, and (2) insider deals with well-connected investors will not be subject to public scrutiny. It’s obvious that Kootenai Health’s march to medical monopoly was hindered by its “public” structure.
Under our new, unaccountable, healthcare overlords, we should expect more consolidation of regional health care providers, and even worse, we should expect most state-subsidized health plans to direct patients to the KH network, rather independent clinics. The goal is a medical monopoly, not cost savings, increased access to care, or patient choice.
The Kootenai Health Foundation
So, who exactly are our new, unaccountable, healthcare overlords? The fate of KH is now in the hands of the Kootenai Health Foundation, a group of wealthy philanthropists previously known mainly for their festival of trees fund-raiser. At this annual event, foundation members mingle with well-heeled doctors, and like-minded luminaries, feast at the Hagadone resort, and lavish donations upon the hospital.
In 2022 the foundation donated about $3.4M to the hospital, less than half of one percent of its $840+ budget. But according to the KH history page the foundation has only donated a total of about $19M to the hospital between 1983 and 2000, so closer to $1M per year on average, so 2022 may have been an outlier.
And for this modest contribution, —a tiny fraction of the monies contributed by taxpayers, —a coterie of wealthy investors, stakeholders, and money-mongers has been handed over control of an institution that receives hundreds of millions of dollars per year in government subsidies and controls the healthcare options of most North Idaho residents.
We need to know more about who is on the KH Foundation board, and the first thing we want to know is, Does the KH Foundation board have any connections to Idaho Business for Education (IBE), the group of investor-philanthropists that appear to have an out-sized influence on St. Luke’s board of Trustees?
The answer to that question is just one, but its a doozy. The only IBE board member with family connections to the KH Foundation is Judy Meyer, co-owner of Parkwood Business Properties, “Trustee Emeritus” of NIC, former ISBE board member, and recently deposed CLN Library Snow Queen. Although Judy Meyer is not on the KH Foundation board herself, her son Chris has been chairman of the foundation for many years.
The Meyers are an interesting family, so let’s take a closer look at their influence.
Meyer Connections to Kootenai Health
The connections of the Meyer family to Kootenai Health are extensive. Not only has Chris Meyer been a director of the KH Foundation, he is also on the board of Ignite CDA, and his family’s company, Parkwood Business Properties, owns almost all the land surrounding the Kootenai Health hospital. In particular, Parkwood Business Properties owns the enormously important Kootenai Clinic directly across from the Hospital, and therefore holds leases on dozens of critical Kootenai Health medical offices.
And as luck would have it, Ignite CDA recently established a Health Corridor Urban District that happens to be populated almost entirely with property controlled by either Parkwood Business Properties, or Kootenai Health. So in short, Meyer associates are in control of PBP, Kootenai Health, and CDA Ignite, all three of the corporations most involved in the Health Corridor project. NO CONFLICT OF INTEREST HERE!!!!
And this is not a recent development. The philanthropic interests of Parkwood Business Properties go way back. Steve Meyer’s partner Charlie Nipp, was deeply involved in the founding of both the KH Foundation and CDA Ignite over 20 years ago. Nipp represented PBP on the KH Foundation and served as Chairman of CDA Ignite (then known as Lake City Development Corporation) for over fifteen years (1997-2011).
But that was just for starters. Once the Meyer and Nipp families had founded the largest commercial property corporation in Kootenai County (Parkwood Business Properties), and established their influence over the largest hospital in North Idaho (Kootenai Health), and over CDA’s shadow government (CDA Ignite), what was still missing?
How about access to unlimited capital. So in1993 the Meyer and Nipp families, along with several other CDA’s stakeholders, founded Mountain West Bank and they lost no time in establishing one of the first branches in Ketchum, just down the street from their jet-setting, Sun Valley, international-banker buddies.
Why is this important? Well, it turns out that there are close connections between Mountain West Bank and the Kootenai Health Foundation, and have been for over twenty years. It seems that family members of many of the founders of MW Bank, —all allies of the Meyers and Nipps, —have served on the KH Foundation board for decades.
Turning a Blind Eye
“If you want to know who rules over you, look at who you are not allowed to criticize.”
NISGR’s previous article on the transfer of governance of KH from an elected board to a private non-profit, emphasized the role of Rotary Club affiliated trustees and foundation members, and implied that a conflict of interest existed based on their common association with a private club. (It goes without saying that both Steve and Chris Meyer are long-standing members of Rotary International. Of course, they are!).
But the chart above shows that even beyond the Rotarian connections, which are serious enough, the founders of Parkwood Business Properties and Mountain West Bank have been intimately involved with the KH Foundation since its inception. And given that millions of dollars of tax-payer monies have been used to expand the hospital, and may now be used to redevelop the Health Corridor URD, the conflict of interest this presents is stunning.
It almost seems as if the Nipps and Meyers are at the center of a network of well-connected investors whose interest in Kootenai Health is not entirely philanthropic. How could the CDA Press have ignored this glaring conflict—unless its editor was “in on it”. Oh, of course, the CEO of the CDA Press is a member of the Rotary Club.
How could the CDA City council have ignored this degree of self-dealing, unless it too is “in on it.” Oh, of course, the previous mayor is on the board of CDA Ignite, and a Rotary Club member. And one city council member served with Judy Meyer as an NIC trustee; one is related to a founder of MW Bank, and two are former Rotarians.
It almost seems as if a network of oligarchs controls all the levers of power in Coeur d’Alene. How can this be?
“Think Globally, Act Locally”
So what exactly is the problem with having a highly interconnected, and self-interested group of “civic-minded” plutocrats in charge of the Kootenai Healthcare network? And why is further consolidation of control over health care services such a threat?
The problem with the particular group of “stakeholders” who now appear to be in charge medical care in North Idaho is that they have a “globalist” outlook, and they take their direction from international opinion leaders rather than from the communities they claim to serve. This should be obvious by the direction they are taking Kootenai Health, North Idaho College, the Community Library Network, and every other institution and municipality they get their hands on.
In every case, the institution under control of “globalist” stakeholders, sets its goals and direction by whatever ridiculous trendy priorities the elite, “Sun-Valley Billionaire” visionaries of the day put forth, regardless of its baneful effects on Kootenai County residents. And if there is any doubt at all that the Meyers and Nipps are members of the BIG CLUB, and that their allegiance is to a global elite rather than local residents, they will tell you strait up in their own words:
“A Post-Globalist” Vision for Kootenai County
There is more to say about the Meyers and other members of the BIG CLUB of globalist elites that have governed Kootenai County for generations. Who are they, and how could they have attained so much power? But most importantly, is it possible to “take back control” of our institutions from globalist Tyranny?
The answer is yes, but it won’t be easy, and the first step is to recognize the problem. And the second step is to have a vision of what a post-globalist healthcare system, or education system, or municipality, might look like.
It’s impossible for anti-globalists to “take over” powerful, unaccountable institutions such as the KH Foundation, the NIC Foundation, or CDA Ignite. Instead, they must be eliminated entirely. Globalist agencies by which unelected plutocrats impose their will on an unsuspecting community should not exist at all, especially under cover of philanthropy. We need to start solving our problems by “thinking outside the box.”
At a later time, we will discuss ways to regain control of our Health care facilities and other critical institutions, but for now just try to imagine what a world without self-appointed, unaccountable non-profit agencies and FAKE philanthropists would look like. Until then . . .
From nislowgrow.org