This video contains language and subject matter that some may find inappropriate.
British television comic John Oliver took aim at Denver-based DaVita HealthCare Partners and its flamboyant chief executive officer during a segment about kidney dialysis Sunday night on his HBO show “Last Week Tonight.”
Oliver’s segment focused on DaVita and its CEO Kent Thiry as an example of what he called “significant issues” with U.S. dialysis care, poking fun at the company and its leader, comparing the company to Taco Bell.
Oliver called Thiry a “showboating musketeer” who “dresses like an idiot.” He also said Thiry was a key character in the story of how dialysis in the nation is a case study of good intentions being thwarted by profiteering, poor oversight and bad incentives.
News coverage of the company, headquartered in Lower Downtown, by The Denver Post and 9News, was featured in Oliver’s piece.
Two stories by the newspaper were highlighted on Oliver’s show during the 24-minute segment.
The first as one of Fortune Magazine’s Most Admired Companies in 2012. The latter was about how DaVita announced in April 2016 that accusing the company of defrauding the federal Medicare program of millions of dollars.
Oliver also showed a clip from a 2014 9News report on a in a lawsuit to settle a criminal and civil anti-kickback investigation into transactions with doctors spanning nearly a decade.
“While America spends more, by some accounts, than any other nation on dialysis care, we have one of the industrialized world’s highest mortality rates,” Oliver said. “So we’re spending the most to essentially get the least. We’re basically paying for a fully-loaded Lamborghini and receiving a drunk donkey on roller skates.”
A DaVita representative defended the company in a written statement to the Post on Monday morning.
“We are proud of our differentiated clinical outcomes, our teammates’ dedication to patient care and our strong culture,” the statement said. “Our teammates are passionate about delivering high-quality patient care and enabling our patients to live fulfilling lives. We will continue to advocate for our patients and invest in our teammates and our culture.”
