Catch Up Post — Part 3

So many scandals, so little time. Enjoy Part 3 of our belated Kaiser Permanente News Roundup.

• Kaiser involved in Pay-to-Play scheme intended to provide lobbyists with off-the-record access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the Washington Post’s reporters and editors. So what else is new?
• The Colorado Division of Insurance fined Kaiser $367,000 for numerous violations, including claims-handling issues and failure to adhere to Colorado insurance regulations. See, California — it’s not just you.
• A San Diego grand jury found it was acceptable for Kaiser to keep parts of a controversial bed “guarantee” agreement with Palomar Medical Center a secret because the health care industry is so competitive. Transparently untransparent, as always.
• Dr. Scott Takasugi, who was accused of sexually assaulting several of his patients at Kaiser, was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison after pleading no contest to the charges. For background, including how Kaiser ignored complaints about Dr. Takasugi for several years, see our prior posts about the case.
• A school teacher sued Kaiser for conspiracy, negligence, invasion of privacy and emotional distress, after a KP nurse pried into her medical file and reported the findings to her employer.
• Kaiser settled five malpractice claims related to its San Francisco kidney transplant program debacle, for a total of $1 million. Three of the cases were for wrongful-death, a fourth was repeatedly refused a donor, and the fifth was due to poor postop care that led to eventual organ rejection. One million for all five is not nearly enough in our opinion, but you can thank MICRA for that. Our coverage is here.
• Yet another lawsuit stemming from the refusal of KP and other health plans to provide adequate treatment to patients with autism.
• Parents of a 3-year-old boy who died after being operated on by Kaiser’s Dr. Death Jayant Patel, have agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit for $200,000. That’s probably less than Kaiser paid Patel in a year. Unless your name is Michael Jackson, human life has very little value in our joke of a medical/legal system.
• Another blogger and patient hates Kaiser Permanente.
• Fighting for his life is not enough. A California man with MS also has to fight Kaiser for necessary medical care.

That’s all I have time for today, but there is so much more to come.