Kaiser Permanente is attempting to compel arbitration in the Arce vs. Kaiser autism lawsuit. Why? Because arbitration is a closed proceeding that is rigged in KP’s favor, of course! We don’t know what this would mean for the class action portion of the case, but hopefully someone with a more brilliant legal mind [...]

In April we posted a request from California attorney Scott Glovsky, who is seeking plaintiffs for a class action lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente for refusing to cover treatments for autism as required by law. The lawsuit — which was filed on behalf of Andrew Arce, a two-year-old child Kaiser has denied treatment — alleges breach [...]

SAN FRANCISCO, June 5 /PRNewswire/ — Jeffery Sterman, Public Affairs Director and voice of Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco for ten years is claiming AIDS discrimination and breach of contract. A person with AIDS, Sterman is one of those who helped create the hospital’s response to HIV and AIDS.
David J. St. Louis, Sterman’s attorney, filed [...]

Our apologies for the dearth of updates lately, but by no means does our temporary silence indicate that the Kaiser Krappola hasn’t continued to hit the fan. There’s too much to post individually, so please enjoy this Kaiser Permanente News Roundup:

Now that Kaiser has completed the nationwide roll out of the outpatient side of its [...]

Now this is funny. It’s rare that we post something that isn’t Kaiser related, but this extremely humorous political ad for Senator Ron Wyden’s Healthy Americans Act is about universal health care, which we strongly support.
While we would prefer a single-payer universal health care plan that cuts insurance company bureaucracy and greed out of [...]

On 04/08/2008 a lawsuit was filed against Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles Superior Court, on behalf of a two-year-old child that Kaiser has refused to treat for autism. The lawsuit accuses Kaiser of breach of contract, bad faith, unfair dealing, and is seeking class action status on the third complaint. As a result [...]

[Kaiser's PR statement about halfway through this article is interesting, as usual, because of what it doesn't say. They only stopped illegally rescinding policies in 2006 because they were caught and fined for it. The DMHC is now conducting a more in depth investigation that will reveal the illegal practice for what it is: [...]

[How do you like that? Only at Kaiser can you kill two babies and endanger countless others, only to be handed $2 million of member money to quietly resign. The pattern should be glaringly obvious by now. Kaiser always tries to lie and buy its way out of a scandal, and only does [...]

[Kaiser Permanente had no intention of suspending this murdering doctor, and did so only because CMS rejected Kaiser's initial plan of correction (pdf).]
From the LA Times:
Kaiser suspends accused doctor
Co-workers questioned the competency of Hamid Safari, who handled high-risk pregnancies at a Fresno hospital.
By Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
Kaiser Permanente has [...]

[This update to the Hamid Safari case came out a few days ago. We're happy to see a resignation come from this situation, and we're hearing rumors that there might be another one that hasn't been announced yet. This is a change for Kaiser. Usually what we hear are a lot of denials, [...]