By Evelyn Pringle
Although the $2 million fine levied against Kaiser Permanente was the largest ever imposed by the California Department of Managed Health Care, it seems like small potatoes considering the damage caused by the HMO’s failed kidney transplant program.
The second largest fine ever levied against an HMO was $1 million back in 2002, following [...]

[kaiserthrive.org editor: Finally, vindication for the 'disgruntled' ex-members and -employees who have had their mental health questioned for complaining that Kaiser always handles grievances this way. We hope the DMHC will also investigate itself for pretending it hasn't been ignoring the problem for years.]
From the L.A. Times:
By Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein, Times Staff Writers
August [...]

From the Los Angeles Times:
By Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber, Times Staff Writers
August 10, 2006
Kaiser Permanente has agreed to pay a $2-million fine after state HMO regulators found that its Northern California kidney transplant program imperiled hundreds of patients, in some cases delaying critical surgeries or losing track of patients altogether, four people familiar with [...]

From the Los Angeles Times:
Shifting them from the HMO transplant center to UC hospitals will take far longer than thought.
By Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein, Times Staff Writers
California HMO regulators said this week that it will take months longer than expected to transfer about 2,000 patients out of Kaiser Permanente’s troubled kidney transplant center in [...]

From San Francisco Business Times:
By Chris Rauber
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has accepted Kaiser Permanente’s correction plan to fix deficiencies in its troubled San Francisco-based kidney-transplant unit, regional officials at CMS said Friday.
Full details weren’t made public, and Jeff Flick, CMS’s San Francisco-based regional administrator, was not immediately available for comment on July [...]

From San Francisco Business Times:
by Chris Rauber
A whistleblower who helped instigate regulatory and media investigations of Kaiser Permanente’s troubled Northern California kidney-transplant unit has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit, alleging that senior Kaiser medical-group officials ignored several warnings about mounting problems in the program.
In early May, under pressure from federal and state authorities, Oakland-based Kaiser [...]

From San Francisco Business Times
by Chris Rauber
The former administrator of Kaiser Permanente’s troubled Northern California kidney transplant unit has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the health-care giant, seeking at least $5 million in damages.
The suit, filed Friday in San Francisco Superior Court by the former administrative head of the unit, David Merlin, alleges he [...]

From San Francisco Business Times:
by Chris Rauber
Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California region has tapped a replacement for Michael Alexander to head the giant health system’s San Francisco Medical Center and affiliated operations.
Christine Robisch, formerly a senior executive in Kaiser’s Walnut Creek-based Diablo service area, has been named senior vice president and area manager for San Francisco, [...]

From an outraged family member of a Kaiser Permanente kidney patient. Kaiser continues to deny that any patients were harmed by its bungling:
My sister, Kim, is currently under the Kaiser Program. Her kidneys failed 6 yrs ago, (March 2000) she went into a coma and was not expected to ever come out. She is [...]

From the Los Angeles Times:
U.S. Berates Kaiser Over Kidney Effort
A withering report says the transplant program was poorly planned, staffed and run. The HMO does not admit or rebut the accusations.
By Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber, Times Staff Writers
June 24, 2006
Virtually every part of Kaiser Permanente’s massive kidney transplant program in San Francisco failed patients, [...]