Doctors and nurses from Golden Valley Health Centers (GVHC) in Turlock, Modesto, Merced and Los Banos are concerned their clinics may turn into valleys of death if recently hired CEO Tony Weber gets his way.
A group of about 50 total Golden Valley Health Center doctors, nurses, staff and family members from Turlock, Modesto and Merced braved the rain on Thursday to fight for patients’ care at an intense, but peaceful, picket-rally held outside the private Merced residence of John Price, President of the GVHC board of directors.
The GVHC employees showed up at Price’s home after a board meeting was suddenly changed to Price’s home in an effort to avoid heated confrontation with the employees — although he claimed it was a “Christmas Party,” even after several other board members and GVHC executives such as Chief Financial Officer Lue Thao just happened to show up at his house carrying a binder.
At one point four Merced County Sheriff Deputies showed up — each in their own cruiser. But they quickly left after they realized it was an actual board meeting, a peaceful rally, and they were dealing with medical professionals who were unlikely to turn violent.
Doctors, Nurses Worried about Patient Access
The employees who are calling for action, which includes a list of 150 signed supporters including doctors, nurses and other medical professionals say they are upset over recent workload mandates, cuts and terminations they feel will affect patients health care and access to doctors.
In May long-time GVHC Director Michael Sullivan retired and he was replaced by Weber. More than 150 employees signed an open-letter to the GVHC Board of Directors accusing that Weber could be involved “in a potential fraud scheme” aimed at increasing profits on the backs of patients for the federally funded, non-profit organization.
“Mr. Tony Weber, recently initiated a new scheme to overload doctors with patients, thereby decreasing visits and consequently maximizing profits at the expense of patient care and quality,” the letter reads.
Employees say the new management team wants doctors to see six new patients per day, or 30 per week, which equals 1,440 new patients per doctor over the next year, but doctors say they are already at max capacity.
The employees say that by making doctors see more patients than they can handle, it decreases the opportunity for patients to see their doctor as much or at all — which can seriously affect their health and create a ripple effect at other emergency rooms and urgent care facilities throughout Stanislaus and Merced Counties.
GVHC first opened in 1972 to help migrant farm workers and now operates more than 20 clinics that provides service to 100,000 patients, many of whom are low-income or are part of an underserved population of farmworkers and the uninsured.
The formula is that the more patients doctors see, the more insurance companies pay GVHC. This is known as a “capitation” plan.
“Capitation is a payment arrangement where insurers pay a physician or group of physicians a set amount for each enrolled person assigned to them, per period of time, whether or not that person seeks care,” the letter reads. “Under a capitation payment model, increasing load and decreasing visits will allow GVHC to reap windfall profits at the expense of patient care and quality.”
Employees say this could amount to fraud, in addition to patient care concerns, the employees want the GVHC Board of Directors and the State Department of Labor Standards Enforcement to launch an investigation into Weber’s activities.
Weber did not return numerous phone calls from TurlockCityNews.com requesting comment.
GVHC Employees Fear Retaliation by Weber
Dr. Liza Marie Pham spoke on behalf of many of her fellow doctors and employees who fear retaliation from Weber.
“They are going to destroy 40 years of work,” said Pham.
Apparently the employees may not be wrong in fearing retaliation. In 2007, Weber was a defendant in a whistleblower lawsuit in Fresno federal court; he and his co-defendants agreed to pay $400,000 to the U.S. Government and the federal government awarded the plaintiff $100,000. The plaintiff accused Weber, who was the CFO for Family Healthcare Network at the time, and his co-defendants of fraud in obtaining federal grant funding.
Since taking his post as CEO of GVHC in May, Weber fired 17-year Chief Medical Officer Dr. Silvia Diego and the first Latina member of the California Medical Board, accepted the resignation of former interim CEO Christine Noguera and Nursing Director Connie Diers, terminated the manager of GVHC West Modesto Clinic and a former grants manager.
On top of all that — what really has the doctors fired up — is that he hired George Conklin, a physicians assistant, as chief medical officer.
“There is a prevailing sense of fear, there is no freedom to express oneself, without fear of retaliation from the leadership team,” Pham wrote in a letter to the board.
Alleged Racism, Wrongful Termination, Hostile Work Environment
Also in the letter, Pham documents heated exchanges at board meetings, accuses Weber of wrongful termination, creating a hostile and divided work environment, harassment of providers and employees, discrimination and patient abandonment.
In one section of the letter, she accused Chief Human Resource Officer Michael Buda of outright racially biased comments that he says he didn’t remember.
“Mr. Buda verbally expressed racist and discriminatory comments against foreign medical graduates,” Pham wrote in a letter. “More specifically, Mr. Buda stated the following: ‘that doctors of foreign countries do not receive adequate medical training and GVHC does not want to have a reputation for hiring lesser qualified physicians.’”
“Despite Mr. Buda’s selective memory… As a foreign medical graduate, I am disgusted and insulted at the blatant discrimination against foreign medical graduates by Mr. Buda, who may have violated one or more attorney ethics rules with his racially charged and discriminatory statement,” continued Pham in the letter. “In fact, Section 330 of the PHS Act requires FQHCs to design culturally and linguistically appropriate health services programs. GVHC relies on foreign medical graduates and the foreign language training of foreign graduates in order to meet the requirements of Section 330. I myself speak medical Spanish, in addition to English and Tagalog, and my ethnic background includes Filipino, Chinese and German. Many of GVHC’s foreign graduate providers have similar diverse backgrounds and speak multiple languages as well. This is what makes GVHC great.”
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Ultimately employees say they want what is best for the patients, as one family nurse who didn’t want to be named out of fear for her job said, “It’s not about us versus them. This is about patient care. They don’t realize how much this will affect the patients and they don’t realize how much we care about our patients. While they leave everyday at 4:30 and take cocktail lunches, most of us are salaried employees who work 10, 12 hours a day and often don’t have lunch. That comes back to the patients and their quality of care. The board needs to hear what we have to say.”
TurlockCityNews.com was provided with several letters from doctors and employees, which can be found below.
Even grandma can find dirt on Tony Weber. Did the board knew? If so, why did the board hire Tony? If the board knew but still continued to hire Tony Weber, is it negligence and neglect of fiduciary duty – namely, to act on good faith in the best interest of GVHC? How can one defend that hiring someone with a history of Fraud and Bankruptcy is in the best interest of GVHC? You can’t defend such a hiring publicly or in court. I smell breach of fiduciary duty suits coming …
The average number of visits per patient per year is 3.19. That’s why the average panel is 1500. So at 4000, each patient can only visit the doctor once. How do you reconcile this with 3.19? You can’t. And if you can’t, it is fraud. This is not a victimless crime. Patients will suffer and everyone’s healthcare costs will go up.
I went to the clinic recently on Florida and the clinic was overwhelmed with patients. These changes are affecting the entire community. There are not enough providers to see all those patients. Stop this madness Mr. Weber! Do what is right for the people Mr. Price.
Federal civil rights laws and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects patient health safety. I wonder this warrants an investigation by the US Department of Justice for Civil Rights and HIPPA Violations.
It takes a special kind of doctor and nurse to work at GVHC because GVHC serves the poor, the homeless and the farm workers – the underserved. Try visiting one of their homeless clinics and you will see how special and dedicated these doctors and nurses are. In fact, one of GVHC’s current board member, Alfred Hunt, was formerly a homeless person and was treated and loved by these doctors. Support them. Someday when you are down on your luck, you may need them to care for you. They are the safety net for the central valley. Thank you GVHC providers for your services to our communities.
I have been there with my kids and it is terrible. Even before the takeover, I have had to wait up to 2 hours and they have lost lab work, when I would ask the Doctor for the results. She would not have them. I have changed doctors so many times, and now we are at another clinic. The system is broken. The amount of Doctors is not enough to meet the need. I read that we need 63,000 new Doctors to cover the amount coming into the system.
I am a medical provider at Golden Valley Health Centers who has been terrified to say what I truly think due to fear of being fired or retaliation by Mr. Tony Weber. The fear, the intimidation and the discrimination has to stop! How can I provide high quality care to my patients in an environment like this? The patients and the providers are suffering. Thank you so much Jonathan for publishing this article and exposing the truth for those too afraid to speak!
Mr Weber doesn’t seem like a good fit for Golden Valley, Mr Price needs to be more reasonable as the head of the board and should work with the ones generating revenue, the providers, because without them I don’t think these clinics, nay this organization will overcome this public humiliation. Has anyone asked when the last time something like this has happened at Golden Valley? The patients who are being seen at these clinics are definitely suffering and will continue to suffer; shouldn’t that be Mr Weber and Mr Price’s main priority? It seems like the focus is on making money; with Mr Weber’s background in financial fraud that shouldn’t come as a surprise. They paid the government 400K, but what we don’t know is how much the grants were for, I’m guessing it was in the millions, so where did all that money go? Once again, someone’s pocket! Mr Price is a contractor and Mr Weber wants to build more clinics, despite Mr Weber’s background Mr Price is still defending him? Is there a possible conflict of interest there somewhere? Does Mr Price have a puppet for a CEO so that he can make millions from Golden Valley expanding???
Believe it or not: National Origin Discrimination is prohibited. Federal law prohibits many forms of discrimination based on someone’s nation of origin, culture, ethnicity or perceived ethnicity. Recent immigrants, including those living in the U.S. on a valid green card or visa, are most affected by these laws. National origin discrimination is prohibited in employment, education, health care, and housing (in addition to other settings) and affects company policies regarding the languages that may be spoken on the job. I find it troubling that Michael Buda, a Chief of HR, who is an attorney, is not informed of this. And if Buda is, he is putting GVHC at risk of discrimination suits. Also, the AAMC’s Center for Workforce Studies estimates that by 2020, the United States will face a shortage of 45,000 primary care physicians and 46,100 surgeons and medical specialists. These estimates take into account an aging physician workforce, as well as the 15 million patients who will become eligible for Medicare and the 32 million younger patients who will become newly insured through the Affordable Care Act. Where are we going to get all these physicians? Ask Mr. Buda.
A Physician Assistant as a Chief Medical Officer? It is my understanding that a Physician Assistant needs to be supervised by a Medical Doctor, so how can someone who needs to be supervised by an MD supervise the MD supervising him? Conklin should step down and realize that he is not qualified to be a CMO.
I do not think Weber can do this by himself, we need to know who are his connections and more importantly how is he so close with the Board especially John Price who seems to be covering him up..we need to include the Board in the investigation! !!!!…
Thank you to Doctors Medical center nurses and staff who joined, they are not Golden Valley health centers employees but they believe it’s worth the fight…more joining..watch out! !!
Is it just me or did anyone else noticed that all the terminated employees are females? In addition to national origin and racial discrimination, add gender discrimination to the list.
Honestly! Most of the Doctors and staff members that are boycotting and fighting Mr Webers decision are neglecting the patients as well!! People tend to forget why we all work in the medical field and no matter what happens with this situation we (GVHC) will be here. Think about the patients. GVHC doctors only think about how now they don’t have someone (Diego) to cuddle them and protect them and more all of the 6th street providers!! If ppl only knew the real 6th street location and the way they treat patients.
Hopefully someone puts Diego, and the ex-manager on blast and start talking about how they use to let major work violations happen at that location.
My question is Why On Earth would anybody on the board Ever hire a CEO who was convicted of FRAUD?!!!
Of all the good people out there who need a job, why would you give the job to a criminal?…
Nice job guys for going!!! I currently work at GVHC and I gotta tell u moral is down everyone is afraid to speak up for down right FEAR!!! We are always “short staffed” and patients are scheduled every 10 minutes. It is impossible to see the patients we have now in a timely manner. Never mind adding more new patients. But heck Tony Weber and his GANG have no idea what that means they are obviously too busy scamming the federal government! Apparently the board is also too busy receiving gifts from our new CEO to even care about what’s happening to GVHC. Thank u Jonathan for giving us a voice!
Based on Dr. Pham’s letters, mine as well call Tony Weber, Anthony Millan and Michael Buda … Moe, Larry, and Curly – the 3 stooges. A CEO with a checked past. A COO with no college degree. And an attorney working as an HR guy. What’s wrong with this picture? Everything! The board must be completely incompetent to have allowed these hirings and things like this to continue. Or some of the board members must have been manipulated or taken out of the decision making process. Else, this whole thing does not make sense. A complete break-down of board and corporate governance. Based on the comments, I bet the bread crumbs will lead up to John Price, the mastermind.
I find the whole PA thing being promoted to CMO as odd. It does not make any management or legal sense. It appears that the decision was made out of spite or as a slap in the face against the doctors. If so, Weber is going to pay dearly for it and Conklin may be collateral damage. The PA Board should investigate here whether this is considered unlicensed practice of medicine. I can almost see it now. Weber and Conklin will argue that the CMO position is purely administrative or other doctors are making the decisions or it is now broken up so that the CMO makes no medical decision? The PA Board should use this as an example and sanction both Weber and Conklin BIG TIME to prevent further manipulation of the medicine in the future.
My comment is directed towards “GVHC Supporter”.
I just wanted to highlight the ignorance of their comments.
99% of GVHC providers are in opposition toward’s tony weber’s decisions & leadership; as was evidenced by their boycott of the GVHC employee appreciation gala. However, NO medical, dental or behavioral health providers have “neglected their patients” during this pursuit of justice and they all continue to work 10-12 hours per day caring for their patients. (Many of which are also seeing up to 10 New patients per day, along with their own patients).
There have been some providers suffering from illness at the W.Modesto location, but unless you are a physician, “GVHC supporter” & have examined these clinicians, I don’t believe you have a right to comment on their absences!
To: GVHC Supporter/
You’re saying that firing a Doctor who had as many patients as Diego without a plan on how to manage all of them is the correct way to actually go about firing a Doctor who has been with Golden Valley over 18 years? Obviously you are either blind or just a Weber supporter (Not a GVHC Supporter) because if you’re saying Weber’s decision to fire someone with her patient size and medical knowledge without accommodating her patients or allowing her to accommodate her patients and hand them off to others, which is a normal practice, was an example of how much Weber cares about patients? Was Weber really thinking of the patients or was he intimidated by Diego’s mere presence?
I’ve got the solution!
Fire Weber and Buda, Remove Conklin as CMO, appoint a Medical Doctor as CMO, never again allow someone like John Price to be head of the board, clone Mike Sullivan and bring back the Golden Valley that breathed the mission of Golden Valley, the Golden Valley that wanted to be a standard above for its patients, the Golden Valley that had a CEO who could recite it’s core values and mission statement without choking!
Claims against employers are rising, with a majority alleging employees or former employees were subjected to a “hostile work environment” or “hostility in the workplace.” A 2010 poll conducted for Bellingham, Washington-based Workplace Bullying Institute said that 37% of U.S. workers – 54 million people – believe they have been subjected to a workplace “hostility.” Managers, supervisors or co-worker rarely blatantly admit treating someone adversely because of his actual or perceived inclusion in a protected class. Therefore, there is rarely a “smoking gun” to prove discrimination or harassment. Rather, they are usually proven by the whole and totality of the circumstances occurring. Given the incidents described in the open letter, each and every employee at GVHC should be documenting incidents of hostility (simply send an email to yourself or a co-worker as documentation). HR is documenting you; you all should document them back. Gather all the complaints and send to the labor department and state bar since Buda is an attorney. If they are slapping you around, slap them back – with the pen.
As a patient with a voice I worry for those patients that don’t have a voice. Dr. Diego is a stellar doctor loved by many. She met the medical needs of women & children, many who only speak Spanish. She was also the only physician there performing circumcisions. If Weber cared about patient access he wouldn’t be making these idiotic decisions.
I was recently terminated from golden valley as we’ll I wasn’t the best employee but I had my work done on time and with out mistake the doctor I worked for asked for a sponsorship so I could tag along with him to do a volunteer clinic in Mexico. After all I was granted the sponsorship and I requested the day off to go on the trip and it got denied. On day of the trip I called in to go on the trip I was sponsored to go to, when I got back I was terminated for failing to come to work. On something they paid for go figure.
Wow! Im soooo happy Gvhc is finally on blast..i got fired on 10/27/14 was discrimminated on n let go…karma dats all im gona say..thank u god!!!
I know the “real” 6th st… And we are overwhelmed with phone calls! patients walking in crying asking for their Dr! (Diego)… We “6th st” see a very high volume of patients and having to explain why the wait times are so long is not as easy as it sounds!!! Doctors have appt slots every 10 min! And if we have more new patients, how long will wait times be now!!? Mr. Weber is only thinking about himself and is self centered not willing to hear anybody out! How sad…. Wake up dude OUR patients are suffering!!!! We face these people. We hear them cry we see the stress and worry in their faces that such a great doctor is gone!!! It is really sad to see someone say that dr Diego “cuddles” her providers. And the way we treat our patients!!! Providers outside of “6th” st. Are with Diego! Reread the paper why won’t you. Patients are unhappy because of WAIT times, overwhelmed staff. We need improvement for our patients. Not someone’s pocket!!
The facts hurt!! these doctors were spoiled by Mike Sullivan and Christine Noguera!! physicians want to pick what patients they want to see and how many. You walk into some clinics and by 4:30pm there is no patients in the lobby. The physicians were not meeting the amount of patients they are required but Diego was giving them incentive after incentive. Weber is wanting to give more access to patients because their are many patients that can’t get in to see physicians for weeks. All he wants is to serve the community. These people like Diego, Abarca, Connie Diers and Elizabeth Morrison have manipulated the words to their advantage and gathered as many people as possible to support them. Why because they longer can run the organization they way they wanted. They ran all over Noguera, previous interim CEO. Ask Abarca as a behaviorlist, one who helps patients overcome challenges lost his respect and lashed out at another employee. How about Diego who demands more money for her physicians who only see about 14 patients a day and refuse to see new patients or under a certain age. Why aren’t these facts coming up. How about Connie Diers who threatened Noguera and left because she wanted more money, to come back again to the organization and now leave again because Weber is not Noguera to give her what she wants. This organization is full of lazy, twisted and spoiled brats. Someone needs to clean this up!! Get your facts straight about Price. He isn’t doing any construction for GVHC!! The grant manager left for a leadership position elsewhere, she was not fired. These people are unhappy and they have nothing better to do. They are the ones who are hurting patients by taking stress leave!! Now some clinics are short staffed because you have some on stress leave but don’t have an issue being out in the rain, picketing or having a nice time being off at the gym like Abarca. You people reading this article should know the media only publishes the nitty gritty. Get your facts straight before assuming……
A physician assistant promoted to Chief Medical Officer & an attorney as Chief of Human Resources… Wow! A High-definition digital corruption of the 21st century… What a very high-tech leadership qualities… Lol
@ “The Facts” If you got documents to support your “facts”, send them in to the TurlockCityNews. Otherwise, go home. Is that you Millan – the duck? or the Duck’s daughter doing the trash talking? Looks like GVHC ambassadors just violated HIPPA rules again. Keep disclosing health information of employees …
So, Tony Weber’s plan is to fire anyone that opposes him? I also like to live dangerously – Austin P.
A 2007 article cited in the Open Letter #3 (Panel Overload 7 Fraud) suggested that at the average of 3.1 visits per year, a doctor who sees 20 patients a day could have about 1,400 people under his care. Not sure where “The Facts” is getting his/her facts but GVHC providers are required to see 25 patients per day. The asserted fact that GVHC providers only see 14 per day is just False.
You can report GVHC HR “The Facts” for HIPPA violations here:
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/index.html
Please don’t bash Tony Weber. It was not fraud. It was just a Qui Tam action where a whistleblower from inside the company reported Weber for defrauding the government. As for his personal bankruptcy, it not an issue because running a large healthcare organization is different from running your personal finances. The GVHC budget is bigger so Tony Weber will be more careful with it and not as reckless like with his personal finances. As for Mark Millan, even without a college degree, he oversees 800 employees by mere use of the word “Viva.” Viva GVHC. Viva Christmas Party! And Michael Buda is an attorney and an expert on labor law, per his state bar profile, hence he knows what is he is doing when he is documenting the employees (it is not over-monitoring) and discriminating against them or when he is disclosing employee health information because I am sure he has good arguments to avoid HIPPA sanctions. All these guys know what they are doing. They hire white males to replace all the females. Did I say they know what they are doing?
Dear “The facts”,
sounds like you and the new gvhc leadership has no feelings of appreciation or good will towards the medical providers, behavioral health providers or nurses of GVHC.
I have an idea… Why don’t you just run the company without them? If they are all spoiled, etc, then who needs them? Why don’t YOU and all the other undereducated administrators provide all the medical care for Golden Valley’s 100,000 patients yourself?
Who needs those spoiled doctors, therapists & nurses when we have wonderful YOU to take care of all the patients.
Good Luck!
To The Facts!!
The people supporting this movement aren’t doing so to continue to be “spoiled” as you say, they are doing it because they believe in something that someone like you could not understand. You say Diego spoiled her providers and gave them incentive after incentive for not seeing a certain amount of patients or refusing to see new patients. You obviously have no idea what new patient visits entail and how long and exhaustive it can be to see new patients or else you would know what you are talking about when it comes to enrolling new patients; getting a full history on a new patient and then attending to each of their concerns, ignorance is always best! Maybe you can follow a new patient from start to finish and realize this arduous process? I agree with you that providers should see a realistic number and should be held accountable for not meeting their quota in an idealistic situation. The reality is that retention at Golden Valley is, how can I put this delicately, extremely low. No one really wants to stay there as a provider because of the pay, do some investigation and realize that the turnover rate is extremely high for your organization. Providers stay there a couple of years then go on and get paid a lot more than what your organization can offer. I applaud the fact that Diego wants to keep providers there happy, because she wants to keep them there. It is much easier to keep and retain an employee than to waste the resources it takes to hire new ones, but someone with a high school education might find that hard to believe. People on stress leave need to do what they must so that they can feel better. Brain chemistry sometimes is a little off when someone is stressed, depressed or anxious. Exercising, meeting with friends to support a cause they believe in might make those people feel better, and isn’t that the point of stress leave, to feel better? I doubt someone like you would be able to see things like this, it’s a real shame that someone like you is associated with Golden Valley. . . I’m glad I left
I’m a golden valley patient and my friend works at the clinic on 6 th St & it sounds like it’s really bad there– everybody is scared of being fired & it’s terrible working there now.
She told me that the new office manager Ordered them to LIE TO ALL THE PATIENTS and tell them that dr Diego was not fired, but that she left mutually. My friend feels terrible having to LIE to patients, but is so scared of losing her job that she does it.
I don’t know if I could lie to people all day, but I know I really need my job, so I guess I understand.
Hey, if I was a Grants Manager & the new CEO was convicted of grants FRAUD, I would leave too!
Who wants to get involved with fraud?
@ “The Facts”. The details you disclosed in your comments would lead a reasonable person to conclude that you are part of the GVHC leadership team. Also, the health information disclosure is a HIPPA violation. Good Luck clawing it back. And the rage in your posting is a poor reflection on the GVHC leadership team and basically confirms the facts and allegations outlined in Dr. Pham’s letters. When you start to insult your own employees and colleagues, you have already lost the battle young grasshopper. What a way to confirm a hostile work environment. Have you seen the recent movie Dumb and Dumber To (yes it is spelled that way)?
Wow! Administration can’t give a official statement but can’t give a bunch of bs anonymously! Viva administration I wonder what scrounge it is! It’s obviously someone with too much inside knowledge. Lmao!!! I wonder what site u went to get al ur “facts”.
To “The Facts.” What blatant Lies. I see from your writing that you are likely a female (probably from HR or Admin), with poor grammar. You have given the public more reasons to despise GVHC. Also, I am a provider at GVHC. I can confirm that within any given day, a full-time provider sees an average of 24-30 patients a day regardless of location. Your comments confirm the intimidation allegations. Based on your comments, there appears to be a conspiracy to bring down the 6th St clinic. Thank you. You have given the lawyers ammunition for discovery.
Mr. Weber has the right attitude if we were manufacturing cars in the sixties! This is Healthcare, a completely different service industry. We are here to serve the underserved community with the highest level of medical care. It is plain and simple. Based on my readings Mr. Weber and his team are all misinformed, misguided and unqualified to keep the legacy of GVHC.
Guest – Get the Facts, yes the facts do hurt! Which is why you coward behind your hateful message just as Tony cowards behind his desk unwilling to face the public and his staff. Stand behind your words and share your name. You seem to have some inside knowledge of what’s going on with GVHC so either you a family member of those who are responsible for GVHC falling apart, a current employee who has only been told one side of the story or friend of Tony, Mark or Michael who stands behind corrupt GVHC leadership. Or perhaps you are Tony, Mark Or Michael? A true leader understands that trust is earned not simply given. A true leader leads by example and does not use fear and intimidation to force people to follow. I won’t be irresponsible and assume as you have done so eloquently and will only speak on the FACTS. Unless you were present during all these incidents or conversations you mention you should not contribute to an already negative environment and spread more lies as Tony has done. The Fact is that Tony committed fraud, Mark (high school education) was given a high leadership position and Michael engaged in unethical, insensitive and highly questionable activity. I’m sure if you asked around GVHC staff would say things were way better before Tony and his friends arrived. If you weren’t full of misplaced hate and had some common sense you would realize that any medical provider, behavioralist, medical assistant, receptionist or any employee given leave by a medical professional is encouraged to take care of themselves and be active in reducing stress. Physical activity is one of the best ways to reduce stress. Seems to me Alex is taking the advice he gives his patients and is doing what what is considered by health professionals to be one of the best ways to reduce stress. What would you like him to do? Coward in the shadows like you and the exemplary leaders you follow.
I totally agree, let’s talk about “The Facts”. And the facts clearly are: Fraud, Cronyism & Racial Discrimination.
These 3 are Facts and can not be disputed.
Oh my! Sounds like I stirred the pot a little. Why would I be an employee? What if I was a previous employee ? What if?? Sounds like most of you are the ones behind all the drama! If you are so unhappy go look for another job. Let the CEO do his job. It’s about time someone put their foot down!
If Weber previously was charged with fraud in the healthcare industry, how was he able to become the CEO of Golden Valley Health Centers? Makes me shudder to think of it.
In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Nearly $80 billion in fraudulent claims are made annually in the U.S., the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud estimates. This figure includes all lines of insurance. It’s also a conservative figure because much insurance fraud goes undetected and unreported. Fraud contributes to higher insurance premiums because insurance companies generally must pass the costs of bogus claims — and of fighting fraud — onto policyholders. With health fraud, the safety of people is jeopardized when they unknowingly buy fake health insurance (or in this case, Weber making Capitation into a “fake” plan). In addition to the new policy holders of Medi-Cal, the victims are the elderly, poor and homeless. Given his foolishness in previous fraud scheme, Tony Weber may not be intelligent enough to understand what he is doing amounts to insurance fraud (again). As a CFO, his math may be right – that is, the result is computed correctly but the methodology is illegal and unethical.
Police cruisers don’t just suddenly show up. John Price probably called the cops. How lame. A Chairman of the board calling/filing what is essentially a false police report on his own doctors and nurses. Really? How violent can doctors and nurses be? Oh no, they may have hidden syringes. For the record, Price is at least twice the size of little Dr. Pham. Then he lied about it being a Christmas party? Who comes to a Christmas Party with a binder of financial info? And if it is a Christmas Party, Price better not have used GVHC resources for the caterer. Can anyone at GVHC confirm whether GVHC resources were used on the night of 12/11 at Price’s house? This would be considered personal use since Price said it was a Christmas party. Make Price reimburse GVHC or face misappropriation of funds charges!
I suspect there’s a mafia running within the board of directors that’s why CEO Tony Weber has got all the confidence to do whatever he wants… I guess they want to increase profits so they could divide it amongst themselves… You guys should investigate more behind the radical change they’re implementing which affects quality of care rendered to patients…
I’d like to congratulate these people for standing up for what they believe in and not rolling over and letting things happen! Injustice in the work place should never be accepted, racism, discrimination and nepotism should be abolished and it looks like you people are headed in the right direction! It’s great to see people motivated to stand in the rain and peacefully show support for their cause! Justice will always prevail, and this seems to be an open and close case! Hey high executives get your head out of the clouds, stop thinking of yourselves and do the right thing already!!!
It is sad what is happening. When administrators run over doctors
@ “Guest – The Facts! To those responders!!” Too late buddy. You can’t divert attention and avoid HIPPA sanctions with the what if I was a former employee diversion. These are recent events. GVHC (HR or leadership) must take responsibility.
I feel sorry for GVHC executives. They tried responding to the comments anonymously under “The Facts” and what did it get them? HIPPA violation notices. These jokers have no idea what they are doing. Too funny to see the GVHC mission-driven doctors zerg them. I bet they had no idea so many are mission-driven. Honestly, what were they expecting? These doctors and nurses have to be mission-driven to work for a community clinic. Their pens and sarcasms are as sharp as any.
Hi, all I have read all the letters that are linked to this story It’s ridiculous!!! It’s funny Merced clinics don’t see Mr. Weber as a bad guy , I honestly think the ladies that were let go needed to be let go. But some just CHOSE to leave instead of stay and fight and Their better off now. All the clinics have been horrible for a Very long time lets get Real we who work their Know this. They hired supervisors front and back with No damn experience they were given these positions due to their personal relationships with the Supervisors where’s the Fair employment .. that alone killed any morale we had. Problems Serious problems in our clinics were swept under the rug never handled. And Now that someone sees the problems and is trying to fix it Now you all want to be heard ! But the people on the bottom didn’t matter before … I hope Tony Weber stays for along time he’s been here 6months and he’s moving things around and certain people don’t like it Well you know where the door is. See yah. You know there’s more things bigger things to be investigated and with Tony Weber on it he will flush them out Too . Good luck Mr. Weber take care of business you have supporters out there !!!
To the Facts!
You’re not an ex employee, everyone who works at GVHC knows who you are. . . An ex employee wouldn’t speak that way about coworkers everyone knows each other at GVHC and we also know that we respect one another and we do stick together and will always stand up to tyrannical people like this CEO! You’re stirring the pot alright, and it’s only making things look a lot more muggy for yourself. . . Like someone already told you no one that isn’t a part of the executive team knows some of the things you claim in your previous comment. . . Lace your boots up, they’re getting a little loose from all that shaking!
Weber seems to have great skills AS CFO, go back to doing that and leave CEO positions to REAL leaders. Buda seems to have great discriminatory remarks and thoughts, right idea WRONG PLACE, WRONG COUNTRY, WRONG PEOPLE, WRONG CENTURY, you were born waaaaaaay late, retire and leave this organization, I don’t know where people like this are accepted anymore. Millan is great at following orders, I bet the Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz was great at that too, not gonna say anything else it’s too easy. . . VIVA fun, no that’s not it, VIVA United Health Centers (nope that’s a different job darn it), VIVA Weber (makes people angry), VIVA Millan (no that’s just silly), VIVA Golden Valley!!! Anyone? Anyone? Please!!!!
The board of Golden Valley Health Centers has an important role to play here in correcting these offenses. The over-arching theme here is ethics. The board has to take responsibility for the ethical values of the organization and the breakdown of ethical values by the executive team. The business case for business ethics has been well demonstrated through costs and impacts of repeated high profile cases (e.g., Enron, banking crash) of corporate greed and misconduct. History seems to repeat itself and the integrity failures at GVHC is the direct result of the senior individuals crossing ethical boundaries as well as ignoring or circumventing the rules set out in law. GVHC is in need of both better board and corporate governance practices. The employees/donors/patients should consider a federal suit to clean house. I am not sure if they can all join as plaintiffs against the board and senior management but given the circumstances, a federal judge would listen for sure.
This mess is ripe for the State Attorney General Office or the US Department of Justice to intervene. State AG and USDOJ can bring criminal charges. Lobby them to get involved if you really want to get things done.
“Guest – Not your puppet” You said you read all the papers and that they were ridiculous. But yet you failed to cite what exactly you are contesting as ridiculous. Do you mean the fraud, misconduct, hostile environment, discrimination and insurance fraud as ridiculous? Or the lack of Ethics and Compliance? Where is your support ‘Not Your Puppet.’? Also, the letters have just as many Merced co-signees. In fact, there were co-signees from Turlock, Los Banos, Merced, Modesto, etc. You would know if you had actually read the letters and papers. The fact that you missed all this demonstrates that you have not actually read anything and merely proceeded to defend a fraudster – Tony Weber. Wait until the suits are filed and agencies investigate, let’s see how many are willing to come to Weber’s defense then. Even Millan, Buda and Price will all abandon Weber and each other. Their instinct for self-preservation and self-interest will accelerate their demise.
To Not your puppet
You’re obviously someone’s puppet, if all of the providers are in such harmonious terms with Weber can you answer the following question for me, how many attended the employee appreciation gala? (Not including Conklin and a few others) would you say that maybe 5-10% of all GVHC providers attended that Gala? Isn’t Weber mainly in Merced? Didn’t the letters have providers located in Merced on them? Hmm. . . And you’re no one’s puppet? The only ones that should head for the exit sign are those people who’s necks are being primed for legal execution. Golden Valley isn’t Tony Weber it isn’t anyone on that executive team, Golden Valley is the providers and support staff! According to the Buda letter Golden Valley had a need of 19 physicians at that time, can you imagine a need of 50 physicians? The managers that are in place are doing a much better job according to you are they? Doesn’t one of them have an assistant and that site is not making as much money as it used to? Does any other site manager have an assistant? (Does that person need another assistant) Now on to the site manager hired most recently, I’m sure she’s very knowledgeable being an LVN but couldn’t find her way around a computer program she should be an expert in. . . Is that too much information for you? Or did a certain string just get pulled that just completely calms your untrue claims. . . It’s not about fighting fire with fire, it’s about fighting fire with water, that’s the only way the douse the flames of ignorance. . .
I noticed from the letters that those forced to resign or were terminated were all FEMALES. Coincident? No Way. So in addition to racial and national origin discrimination, add gender discrimination to the list of causes of action that GVHC will likely be hit with.
It is sad that people/Tony Weber can just settle and get away with crimes. In California, grand theft is committed when the value of stolen property exceeds $950. Weber stole millions and paid back $500,000 but got no time. Where is the justice in this? The Penal Code specifies punishment for grand theft as a term of imprisonment in county jail lasting up to one year or felony sentencing permitted by Section 1170(h) of the code. Felony sentencing may range from six months to three years. Just because Tony Weber stole the grant money as a CFO should not excuse him. A person stealing $1000 from a convenient store will get one year in jail. Tony stole millions and paid back $500,000 and got a get out of jail free card. We need harsher punishments for white collar crimes and fraud (even fraud claims under the False Claims Act). This will surely send a message that you can’t steal from taxpayers!
Oh man, Dr. Pham is so perceptive. She included the location of co-signees. “Not Your Puppet” got OWNED! Sweet!
One of my closest friends is a Doctor with GVHC. She has dedicated her life to providing medical care to those who wouldn’t normally receive it. Her patients are the very ill, low income and sometimes homeless. She can work anywhere yet she chooses Modesto. She is doing God’s work. A newly appointed Director is about to destroy all that has been created. He forcing unimaginable requirements that will leave the current patients out in the cold, not such a figure of speach. Please read and share with your friends so we can spread the word and not allow Greed to destroy what the Angels have put together. Thank you for reading!
My wife is also a medical doctor at GVHC. We moved here so she can follow her heart to serve the poor and the underserved. Our original plan was to stay for 3 years but we are way beyond that and two of our kids were born here in Modesto. The doctors that are mission-driven, like my wife, will leave GVHC if the Board does not move to correct these mistakes. Sadly, it appears that the Board is entrenched, which by definition is NOT acting on good faith and in the best interest of GVHC. Admit your mistakes. Remove Tony Weber the fraudster and his cronies. I can see that this will spin further out of control and some people will be doing prison time soon or their personal assets will be taxed. I hope the Board makes the right decisions (and act quickly).
I take my mother to the location in Turlock – it’s horrible. She has to wait months for any appointment, her counseling appointments are cancelled frequently, and her prescriptions rarely get filled on time (and some of these meds should not have doses missed).
fire weber, pick a new board and fill my pain meds plz
I
It’s so sad that all the reports lately are so one sided. No one talks about the positive things going on. I am not disgruntled! Change is never easy, but it is our responsibility to make sure the patients don’t get lost in the mix! In all these reports, no one is talking about the patient. It is all about me, me, me! For a long time, those at the top have been able to make decisions from afar that have negatively impacted many GVHC centers. At the center level, we have been forced to deal with the repercussions of these decisions and basically left to just “figure it out”. Those of us who have tried to voice our opinions of this in the past have been shot down by Dr. Diego and her cohorts and have been in fear of losing our jobs because we had the audacity to disagree with her. In my opinion, those who have been in “power” are finally being held accountable for their behavior, productivity, etc. just like the rest of us lower level staff have always been. It’s about time we are all held to the same standard.
Leaders do not command excellence, they build excellence. Excellence is “being all you can be” within the bounds of doing what is right for your organization. To reach excellence you must first be a leader of good character. You must do everything you are supposed to do. Organizations will not achieve excellence by figuring out where it wants to go, having leaders do whatever they have to in order to get the job done, and then hope their leaders act with good character. Excellence starts with leaders of good and strong character who engage in the entire process of leadership. Tony Weber’s checkered past, including FRAUD and BANKRUPTCY, is far from an example of a leader with good character. Hence, Tony Weber is not and cannot be the leader to lead GVHC to excellence.
To be an effective leader, your followers must have trust in you and they need to be sold on your vision. In a survey on what organizations want from their leaders, the respondents said they wanted people who were both ethical and who convey a strong vision of the future. In any organization, a leader’s actions set the pace. This behavior wins trust, loyalty, and ensures the organization’s continued vitality. One of the ways to build trust is to display a good sense of character composed of beliefs, values, skills, and traits (U.S. Army Handbook, 1973). Tony’s Weber’s background and current actions are not a model for an effective leader. In fact, as business management professor, I will use this as a case study for my students. Good Luck GVHC.
One of the points that lost in all of this is malpractice. If a doctor takes on more patients that he/she can reasonable care for, then patients of all kind, regardless of the severity of the injury (mental or physical), may have a cause of action for malpractice. Hopefully Mr. Weber paid his insurance dues because an avalanche of malpractice claims may be coming.
If you have nothing to hide Tony Weber give a statement! You are the big boss at GVHC we are all waiting to hear your side of the story. We promise not to ask you to recite the mission statement. It’s okey you probably were feeling stressed out and forgot it! (I suggest that u at least have a copy of it at all time in case it’s needed) But aside from that, show your face say what you have to say. The board of directors should speak up too! Invite us to your “Xmas parties” and talk to us. We have been asking for you guys to listen to our concerns desperately!!!! But the executive team and the board have denied us that right! WHY?!!!! I’m sure this is the reason that all this has become public so we can have a VOICE!!! It’s not a matter of us defending Dr.Diego it’s about what’s RIGHT!!! I have know her for many years and have so much respect and admiration for her and nothing that you have done will affect the way we feel towards her. On the other hand I have nothing to say that’s positive about you Tony Weber. Your obviously have no respect towards your employees for putting GVHC at risk and most importantly all the patients we serve!!!
If you have nothing to hide Tony Weber give a statement! You are the big boss at GVHC we are all waiting to hear your side of the story. We promise not to ask you to recite the mission statement. It’s okey you probably were feeling stressed out and forgot it! (I suggest that u at least have a copy of it at all time in case it’s needed) But aside from that, show your face say what you have to say. The board of directors should speak up too! Invite us to your “Xmas parties” and talk to us. We have been asking for you guys to listen to our concerns desperately!!!! But the executive team and the board have denied us that right! WHY?!!!! I’m sure this is the reason that all this has become public so we can have a VOICE!!! It’s not a matter of us defending Dr.Diego it’s about what’s RIGHT!!! I have know her for many years and have so much respect and admiration for her and nothing that you have done will affect the way we feel towards her. On the other hand I have nothing to say that’s positive about you Tony Weber. Your obviously have no respect towards your employees for putting GVHC at risk and most importantly all the patients we serve!!!
All I have to say is if you don’t like the direction GVHC is headed leave with your head held high and stop getting personal. It’s not about character it’s about what kind of a supervisor Dr. Diego was. Under her supervision Providers did what they wanted and were not held accountable for their action. Now that leadership is demanding accountability everyone is going crazy. Many companies go through changes so either like it or leave it no one is being held hostage. All those who stated it’s all about the patients are the same ones that have left their patients to fiend for themselves. I agree with the person that said this whole thing is selfish. What happens when we lose patients because you all have dragged GVHC through the mud? There are those who actually like their jobs and would like to keep them.
Guys, give John Price and Tony Weber a break. They are both running scared. That’s why the only thing Price can say is that “it’s a personnel issue” when the letters highlight more than just personnel issues. Weber is probably thinking “I should have not listened to the bigot, Michael Buda” and “hire my incompetent friend, Mark Millan”. Price is probably I should have hired someone smarter. “Darn, he was such a good water boy,” said Price. Apples don’t fall far from the tree. Birds of the feather flock together. Now, I am insulting the birds by comparing them to birds. I should stop here.
For those using this forum to comment on their bad experiences at GVHC: I’m sorry you have had long waiting times, poor interactions with staff and other concerns. We have very complicated patients, medically and socially. When a patient arrives late, it may be because they don’t have transportation to the clinic or some other barrier to health care. We don’t turn patients away and often have to juggle many aspects to patient care. This takes more than the ten-minutes allotted on the schedule. It is never the intention to make patients wait. It is the reality of having a heavy patient load with complicated patients and a mission to do what needs to be done for these patients.
To “The Facts!!” – you should get your facts straight. As a provider at GVHC, on most days I see more than 14 patients in a half day, I work through lunch, and I stay after hours to get charting done. I have never felt “lazy, twisted, or spoiled” and if the administration doesn’t change the current state of the organization, they will lose many good providers.
To all those commenting about change. No one is arguing about or is resistant to change, change is inevitable. All companies go through change and most employees will adjust to it. The problem isn’t change, it’s the way the change came about and the manner in which it was handled. Change that comes with corruption, lies, fraud, manipulation, intimidation and no explanation is hard to adjust to and would be hard for anyone to accept that change. Ask yourself why has there only been one side of the story told? Reading all the articles it looks like staff have attempted to reach out to Tony, leadership and the board but have been turned away repeatedly. They have had multiple opportunities to speak not only to the media but most importantly to their staff. As the CEO of a highly respected health organization has Tony addressed his staff? It is not only his responsibility to do so but an obligation he has to his staff, stakeholders, community partners and most importantly the patients. But what has he done? He’s turned his back to everyone and attempts to have private meetings with the board when those meetings should be public. Reviewing everything that has been presented thus far the fact remains that Tony committed fraud! The board should step in immediately and fire Tony and rescue GVHC from this nightmare and return GVHC to the community. As hard as it is for some to grasp, this is all about the patients. From the minute a community member thinks about going to GVHC to the minute they walk out of the clinic thinking if they should return. Some are so caught up thinking that this is only a doctor issue. Every staff has something to lose if GVHC doesn’t get their act together. Talking about dragging GVHC through the mud, who hired a corrupt CEO? Who came to GVHC thinking he was a CEO that could lie, intimidate, manipulate and abuse staff and think no one would stand up to him? For those suggesting that staff leave if they don’t like the direction GVHC is going, you really need to contemplate your attitudes and perceptions and where that is coming from. What if Mike Sullivan and the other pioneers that started GVHC didn’t like the direction things were headed and decided to leave? Where would GVHC be? If you don’t understand what not only doctors are trying to do but also coworkers who may be sitting next to you are doing to save GVHC, ask. Do your research, get the facts. Or if you happen to bump into Mike Sullivan ask him what he did when they didn’t like the direction things were going. I guarantee you, they didn’t leave.
To “Guest – Guest”, which said “What happens when we lose patients because you all have dragged GVHC through the mud?” So the logic is people should not expose fraud, cronyism, misconduct, racism, discrimination, mismanagement, and other violations of law because it may affect the organization? This looks like a Tony Weber logic. Someone earlier posted a poem on this. Go back and load it and read it. If we don’t speak up, we are complicit in the scheme and wrongdoings.
Whistle-blowing is when an employee at a company, knows that the company, or individual people who work for the company, are committing serious crimes and tells the press or public about it. It is important, because the people have a right to know if a company, or people who work for the company, are committing serious crimes against the average person (in this case, patients). A recent example of whistle-blowing occurred when it was revealed that Toyota knew that some of their cars had defective brakes and did nothing to correct the problem, or when it was revealed that BP knew some of their oil rigs were not safe and could have a serious accident and BP did nothing to prevent an accident. Whistle-blowing gets its name from referees that sees something wrong during a game and blow a whistle to stop the game. Hope this was helpful to you “Guest – Guest”. Let me know if you need anything else explained to you.
@ “Guest – Guest.” Leaving is the easy thing to do. Fighting and fighting for patient rights and being retaliated against is the harder route and that takes courage. I applaud the actions of employees who are speaking out. Guest-Guest, read the letters. The issues are supported by facts and very well-written. And if you like your job now, you will like it even better after the management change. So stick in there Guest-Guest, things will get better soon.
This is old news all ready. You all have been heard.
To Guest
Put aside the stuff with Dr Diego and realize that this is about something bigger than just her getting fired! This is about everything else that is going on within Golden Valley and mainly the executive team! Dr Diego’s firing was the last straw. Do you know why she was fired? According to inside sources she was against adding 6 new patients a day to Providers schedule, Weber didn’t like that so he fired her! Pretty much bullying her out of the organization, the manager that was fired went along with Diego and she was also terminated. Is that just? Once again stop being ignorant, there is always a couple of bad apples in a barrel but that doesn’t spoil the rest! If you don’t like what the majority is doing then why don’t you leave? What these people are asking for is transparency and some reasonable accountability. Weber seems to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing! He can’t even recite the mission of Golden Valley and has no idea what the core values are! You’re saying you want to work for someone who cares so little about your organization, who should at the very least know those things by heart! How much more do they have to stack up against Weber so he just quits? What you’re asking for is for anyone that doesn’t wanna go along with whatever Mr Business wants should leave (Making obvious who you are, or who you might be related too). You’re making comments like you work at GVHC I find that very reasonable but what I’m sure of is that you’re on the executive team or someone hired by them, maybe a relative even (who just like the high school graduate doesn’t know what they are talking about VIVA). Let the Providers there work without fear, without overwhelming pressure, give them fair quotas and try and keep them working there because the pickings for providers in family practice are slim, especially in this area (19 needed provider openings according to Baker in her letter, maybe even more now). . . One more thing, fire Weber and get a competent board in place. . . And if you don’t like what your coworkers are doing you go stand in the rain and write letters as well and as convincing as the ones linked to this article, let me just warn you they’re written by a foreign medical school graduate (High School degree vs Foreign Medical School Graduate); my money is on the latter!
To Guest – Guest
You say the new regime is demanding accountability and that’s excellent, a good boss always demands accountability! Locking someone in a room, verbally abusing them and making them feel unsafe is definitely the way to do that right? Is this how you would like to be treated? Is this how people should be treated? Dr Diego is a great woman whether you believe that or not doesn’t matter, your opinion of her will be drowned out like a rain droplet in the ocean due to how well received and we’ll appreciated she is by her peers and her patients. No one worked as hard as she did, delivered new borns, saw a lot of patients, and was an effective voice for her providers. Weber claims to be on the providers side but from what I hear, he tried to have an open discussion with them and started that off with his foot in his mouth followed by an ultimatum. . . When has an ultimatum ever worked? He does not seem to me to be a reasonable person, his actions exclaim that about his character. He won’t say a word to the press because if he does he’ll showcase all of his inglorious composure and character to the community and this will not bode well for his neck (in the figurative sense of getting fired). Weber will try to con his way out of this one but we all know what happens when he tries to do the wrong thing don’t we? If you didn’t like the way things were when Diego was there why did you stay? Why didn’t you leave? If you don’t like the fact that these people want answers to many reasonable questions then why don’t you leave? The only person dragging Golden Valley through the mud is the person who waltzed into this organization with the mud clinged to his past. . .
I don’t usually respond to ignorance but here goes to all who responded to Guest. First off I don’t work for Tony Weber or Dr. Diego I work for GVHC and patients in our community. With that said I don’t get involved in hearsay battles. Every document I’ve read is someone’s personal opinion about what they’ve heard or read. I have not seen ANYTHING in writing of these so called outrageous request from upper Management. A persons past is just that their past and I’m pretty sure many of you have your own skeletons. What’s ignorant is to voice what you’ve heard or what you’ve read as factual. Again for those of you that want to make it personal and about ones education is low. Start producing for me documentation with the CEO’s signature if things he’s done illegal at GVHC, then maybe I’ll listen. I wasn’t saying let criminal actions go. If someone does something illegal you take it to court. That’s what we have a legal system for. And this isn’t about whistle blowing. For you highly educated ones look at the dates on the letters submitted to the board. From the ones that I have read they were all dated after Dr. Diego was let go. So is it really about patient’s safety, fraud, or criminal acts? What is really sad about all this is that some of these same providers that are worried about patient care use to see between 30-40 patients a day and this was before Tony Weber. There were providers at some clinics making their receptionist put in more patients when they were paid extra per patient over qouta. However, now that they get paid the same amount no matter how many patients they see, some provides see 12-20 a day and that’s on a good day. Again highly educated ones you tell me is it about patient safety or is it personal. So for all of you that don’t know the whole story or the facts you shouldn’t be fighting other peoples battles. I don’t know Tony or Dr. Diego on a level that I can say whose right or wrong. So I am not on anyone’s side. And for you to judge my character is ridiculous. I side with GVHC patients that truly need our services can the rest of you TRULY state the same. And by the way a few rotten apples does spoil the whole barrel if left in the barrel too long Mr or Mrs twisted logic.
Guest – Guest. Be patience, my friend. I am sure more documents and more letters will be revealed soon enough, as well as recordings, transcripts, and emails and all that other good stuff. In fact, more have been provided to the Board than what was published here. As for smoking gun documents, both you and I will not have access to them. They will come out through litigation and most likely under protective order (which means attorneys eyes only). This is only the beginning. Now, to remove your foot from your mouth, slowly take your left hand (if it’s your right foot), and apply pressure to left and right and try to dislodge it.
Guest – Guest “I have not seen ANYTHING in writing of these so called outrageous request from upper Management.” 1. From your posting, it appears you know the providers, ask them. 2. Word around town is GVHC just put a hold on all new patients for 30 days. If you really do work for GVHC and have talked to providers, then you would not have posted the content that you did. Your content looks and feel like a professional PR firm blogging on behalf of Tony and his cronies. Hmm. I wonder.
Guest – Guest requested documentation? How about this from the Nov 21 meeting.
Weber: “there’s going to be a time where we are not going to be paid on the number of visits we do, but we are gonna be paid based on the number of members we have in our network.”
I am sure you know how to connect the dots, especially if you have read Letter #3
“Exercise releases endorphins, endorphins make people happy, and happy people don’t kill people.” Guest what? People are no longer happy! So fire Tony Weber and reinstate what was working before this whole organization burns to smithereens from the inferno!
“Exercise release endorphins. Endorphins make people happy. And happy people don’t kill people.” Guest what? People are no longer happy! So FIRE TONY WEBER and reinstate what was working before he entire organization burns to smithereens from the inferno!
“A persons past is a persons past” and it is because of their past that they are who they are in the present and who they will become in the future. GVHC has become disconnected from its honest past while it’s leader tries to hide his dishonest and shameful one. This is why pedophiles for instance aren’t ever allowed to work in schools or around children. Because of their “past.” Sure you can argue about how people change till you’re blue in the face but at the end of the day there’s really nothing anyone can say that would make most people feel ok about leaving their children in the care of former pedophiles. Would you trust a former pedophile with your children? How about if they had only molested one child before and it was years ago? I usually don’t respond to ignorance but when I do I try to do with with clever analogies.
I have only recently been introduced to Turlock City News.com and I must say this truly is a news source after my own heart. Very well written article McCorkell. I tip my hat to you good sir. I absolutely love the fact that you have provided links to the letters submitted to the board of directors.
It is this Assange-ian approach of reporting that sets you apart from the Bee and the Star and has earned you a place in my heart. A genuine peoples’ paper. This is the sort of reporting that makes spectators turn participators. Keep up the good work.
Smoking Gun. Why didn’t you post earlier? @Guest-Guest and “The Facts”. Guilty as charged Weber.
@Tom Joad. Great Analogy. I would add that both the Fraud charges against Tony Weber (2010) and his bankruptcy are recent events. While Guest-Guest can argue that it’s in the past, to me it was just yesterday. I guess the real question is would the board allow Tony to run their personal finances? If the answer is no, then why allow him to run GVHC? This is breach of fiduciary duty or just plain negligence.
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