[kaiserthrive.org editor's note: Surprise, surprise! Kaiser Permanente spits in the face of its victims once again, with another empty expression of sympathy while refusing to take responsibility for killing yet another innocent Kaiser member. Do you suppose this is what they mean by "Thrive"? An even bigger surprise is that George Halvorson can't seem to grasp where all of the bad PR is coming from. Drop us a line, George, we might be able to enlighten you.]

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Kaiser Santa Clara to appeal $25,000 fine imposed after infant’s death

Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer

Kaiser Permanente’s Santa Clara hospital plans to appeal a $25,000 fine assessed by the California Department of Public Health for a medication error that led to the death of an infant earlier this year.

Although the hospital admits that an error occurred, Kaiser contends its corrective actions had passed federal review and met state standards. “Therefore, we are appealing the DPH’s action,” said hospital vice president Mary Ann Barnes.

The California health agency announced the administrative penalty against the Kaiser hospital on Thursday. At the same time, eight other hospitals throughout the state were assessed similar penalties for life-threatening infractions - the first medical centers to be cited under a new law that became effective on Jan. 1.

According to documents disclosed by the state, a baby boy born on Jan. 6 at the Kaiser facility was diagnosed with a rare congenital metabolic disorder. He was transferred to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford for a month of specialty care. Two weeks after he returned to Kaiser, he was rushed back to Stanford in liver failure. He died Feb. 24.

An investigation determined that, after he returned to Kaiser, he was tube-fed a mixture of nutritional supplements and drugs. But the powdered material had been repackaged with a mislabeling of the weights, a mistake overlooked by a pharmacy technician. The child, therefore, was fed an overdose of the mixture.

Kaiser attorney Mary Parks declined to say whether there has been litigation or a financial settlement with the child’s family.

Barnes said the hospital will not be fined or sanctioned by the federal government, which has approved of Kaiser’s “plan for correction.”

However, in its citation against Kaiser, the state health agency said that, five weeks after the error, hospital pharmacy technicians still had not received promised training on correct use of scales to prevent similar repackaging errors.

In her prepared statement announcing the appeal, Barnes apologized for the incident. “Unfortunately, individual human error does occur, as it did in the case DPH is referencing,” she said. “We are deeply sorry for the family that experienced this sad event, and have expressed our sympathy.”

The new state law allows the California Department of Public Health to assess penalties against hospitals for situations that create “immediate jeopardy” - violations of rules that have caused or are likely to cause death or serious injury. The sanctions are separate from federal rules that can lead to loss of Medicare and Medicaid funding and loss of licensure to operate.

Full Story

Previously:

• Medication error kills infant at Kaiser Santa Clara
• Kaiser May Face Fine Over Infant’s Death
• Numerous failures in Kaiser pharmacy lead to infant death, federal report finds

[The only thing more reprehensible than Kaiser's failure to protect its patients from this known repeat malpractice offender, is its PRBS release defending its despicable actions. Kaiser Thrive Exposed joins Justen Deal in his demand for the resignation of The Permanente Medical Group CEO, and lead obfuscater, Dr. Robert Pearl. In the meantime, Kaiser CEO George Halvorson wants you to "be well and be green" (as in keep giving Kaiser your money for its repeated failure to provide the basic standard of medical care.)]

From the L.A. times:

Kaiser doctor, accused of negligence, remains on the job

“I’ve been telling these guys for years that he was going to kill someone,” said Dr. Gilbert Moran, the former ob-gyn chief. “And no one would listen.”

By Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

Late one April night, the first of Sarah Valenzuela’s twins arrived with little trouble, but the second stayed put.

Though the baby was not in distress, Kaiser Permanente perinatologist Hamid Safari attached a vacuum extractor to the boy’s head to draw him out. Again and again he tugged, but still the baby would not come.

He vigorously shook the vacuum, up and down, side to side, according to government documents and hospital incident reports.

It took 90 minutes and six tries — the last with Safari on his knees, pulling. Horrified staffers — and the boy’s father — looked on as baby Devin finally emerged. His skin was a bloodless white, his neck elongated and floppy.

His spinal cord had been severed.

Safari lashed out at a nurse. “What did you do to that baby? I gave you a good baby,” he said, according to a complaint letter the nurse sent to her union representative.

Staffers at the Fresno birthing center were devastated and angry — and not just because of the twin lost that night in 2005.

Over the years, doctors and nurses repeatedly had complained to higher-ups — including Kaiser’s top medical officer in Northern and Central California — about problems they saw in Safari’s skills and behavior, according to interviews and documents.

This is a story not just of tragic medical outcomes, but of a health plan that did not prevent them.

A year before Devin’s death, the doctor had waited more than three hours to do a Caesarean section even though the baby girl was in distress and her family said they had been pleading for the procedure, according to interviews and government records. She was severely deprived of oxygen and died months later.

As far back as 2002, a physician review committee at the hospital concluded that Safari provided “inappropriate” care and that his “conduct needed significant improvement,” according to a lawsuit later filed by two of his peers.

Still, the doctor continues to work at Kaiser Fresno, practicing under restrictions that staffers say have not been explained to patients.

Regulators acted only recently. This July, the state Department of Managed Health Care fined Kaiser a record $3 million for its haphazard handling of complaints and physician errors throughout the state. Officials said in an interview that the Safari matter played a significant role in their decision to investigate the HMO’s practices.

Late last month, the state medical board accused Safari of gross negligence, seeking to revoke or suspend his license.

The board also has faulted Kaiser, the nation’s largest HMO with 6.5 million members in California. The health plan made the board’s investigation of Safari “protracted and difficult” by providing incomplete medical records, a spokeswoman said.

Kaiser did not allow senior officials to be interviewed for this story — and warned staffers at Kaiser Fresno not to talk, several said. In a statement, hospital administrator Susan Ryan said the HMO has cooperated with the medical board and is “committed to ensuring the safety of our patients.”

In July 2005 — three months after Devin’s death — Kaiser imposed its restrictions on Safari, barring him from performing vaginal deliveries and requiring him to be monitored by another physician or an advanced-practice nurse, Ryan said. The restrictions became permanent in April 2007. Kaiser and other hospitals typically do not notify patients of such actions, officials said.

Safari, 49, declined to comment. His lawyer, Stephen D. Schear, said the accusations are “completely unwarranted” and that Safari intends to challenge the medical board’s action in a hearing. Safari, he said, has the support of many at the hospital and in his department.

“If you’re doing thousands of high-risk deliveries over the years, it’s almost inevitable that there’s going to be some unfortunate cases where children die, where things don’t go right,” Schear said.

“You’re talking about one minute maybe where he pulled too hard to try to extract this baby. . . . Just look at his whole record, 10 years.”

But doctors and other staffers allege that Devin’s death was the culmination of Safari’s troubles, not a fluke.

“We do not feel that our perinatologist is competent,” reads an August 2005 petition signed by eight of Safari’s peers, about half of the ob-gyn department. “Over and over again he put our patients at risks and most recently with the undeniably terrible outcome.”

Kaiser was “misleading our patients and the public” by advertising that it had a perinatalogist on staff even though his practice was restricted, said the petition, which was addressed to the hospital’s medical director.

The petition, complaint letters, depositions and other documents used in preparation of this story are part of the ongoing lawsuit by the two doctors and arbitration cases against Kaiser, or have been provided to state regulators investigating Kaiser and Safari.

Dr. Gilbert Moran, one of the doctors who sued Kaiser and its affiliated Permanente Medical Group, alleges that they punished him and others who complained, rather than address their legitimate concerns.

“I’ve been telling these guys for years that he was going to kill someone,” said Moran, the former ob-gyn chief. “And no one would listen.”
Continue Reading »

[kaiserthrive.org's editor's note: We love birthday parties -- especially our own -- but even so we were taught to be humble on these occasions, and that it would be less than polite to toot our own horn. Not so George Halvorson, who appears to revel in insulting Kaiser Permanente victims by refusing to address their complaints about Kaiser, while giving awards to himself and misrepresenting his non profit in name only organization as the preferred model for the future of American health care. George can be so convincing that even we might be tempted to believe the hype -- that is until we remind ourselves that his own market research found that 75% of health care consumers who weren't forced to wouldn't touch Kaiser Permanente "health care" with a ten foot pole.

Speaking of parties... Lehna Jordann Brewer would be around 18 months old today, and there isn't much her parents and sisters wouldn't give for the privilege of writing an announcement to the world, celebrating the milestones she should have achieved by this age. Instead, parties for Lehna and her family look a lot like memorial services, thanks to Mr. Health Care Reform and Kaiser; and Halvorson's lawyers don't even think the loss of her life is worthy of an accurate representation of her medical records. In short, George C. Halvorson is a liar.

A couple of people sent us Halvorson's self-congratulatory memo below, but we couldn't resist posting it along with the following commentary from a long-time anonymous reader, who reminds us what George really means when he designates himself as an "industry leader".]

It’s Halvorson’s fifth birthday! He decided to send a message to all Kaiser employees so they could share in his joy. Some of the “good news”…Halvorson says: ” I expect us to pass (the Mayo Clinic) in the total capabilities of (HealthConnect) by mid-2009″–which is PRBS? for: “HealthConnect’s roll-out has been delayed again”. And out of 40,000,000 patient encounters, Kaiser provided 250,000 “charity” encounters to poor people. So giving away 0.006% of your services is enough to make you non-profit! Some one should call Blue Cross…I bet they want to stop having to pay taxes, too…I bet the write-off rate for Wellpoint is considerably higher than 0.006%. If they can start “giving” those services away instead of writing them off, they can keep a good 25% of the profit they have to fork over to Uncle Sam as corporate income tax. Then they can “reinvest” it in “care delivery” (wink wink).

Last line’s the best: “Be well. And let me hear from you”.

September 18, 2007

To: All KP Employees and Physicians
From: George Halvorson, Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan
Re: Sharing Kaiser Permanente’s Good News

People in various settings often ask me, “What exactly is Kaiser Permanente?”

That’s not an unreasonable question. As you know, we don’t fit into any obvious box or category. There aren’t many organizations in the world that look exactly like us. There are very few in the U.S. and only a few in the rest of the world.

The county-based health systems in Sweden do look quite a lot like us. The Swedish county-based care systems provide health care “insurance” coverage for their local people and then also care for them in the context of organized, patient-focused hospital/physician caregiver teams. Much like us, the Swedes also have vertically integrated, tightly linked care delivery and financing systems. But very few people in the U.S. know about the care teams in Sweden, so I usually can’t answer that question here — about who and what we are — by pointing to the Swedes.

So how do I answer? I tell people that we are at our core a community of caregivers. We are inherently a care system. We are people who deliver care. We are, in total, a fairly complex set of organizations that are mutually organized and aligned around improving total health and the delivery of care.

That basic fact of being caregivers gives us a certain consistent and collective set of values at our very heart. More than 160,000 people work at Kaiser Permanente. Roughly 140,000 of our people work in care delivery — in our hospitals, medical centers, pharmacies, laboratories, and related care sites. So we truly are basically caregivers. That explains a lot. That’s why we all start with a consistent set of values. Caregivers go into the caregiving professions to deliver care . . . to care for people.

Helping people is what we do — and we are an organization of people who deliberately choose to spend our lives and careers helping people. It is very much a matter of free will, free choice, and self-selection. No one is forced into nursing or cardiac surgery. People individually choose to be pediatricians, internists, pharmacists, lab technicians, and therapists in order to be of personal service — to make a positive personal difference in other people’s lives. Think of all the job classifications you see in the want ads seeking people to join us. Overwhelmingly, those jobs are caregiver jobs.

So, we begin both our organizational processes and our personal job choices around the delivery of care, and we have built our entire organization around care delivery. Our IT people who are building our robust new array of care support computer systems are also, in our new electronically-supported world, engaged in caregiving — and our IT people aren’t even in the 140,000 count of caregivers.

“But, don’t you also provide health coverage?” people sometimes ask me. “Isn’t health coverage at some level really what you do?” The answer is, “Yes, we also do provide health coverage.” We are both a health plan and a health care delivery organization. We definitely do provide health coverage for people, and we are proud to do that. But, the basic point that people very often miss is that, for us, coverage is very much a tool of care.

Continue Reading »

[kaiserthrive.org's editor's note: Kaiser Hawaii is technically part of Kaiser California, so the statement that "Kaiser does not report numbers for California alone" is very telling. Since the Hawaii region had a net loss of $3.2 million so far this year, this means the California region made up for that deficit and still raked in more than double the combined total of Blue Cross, Health Net and PacifiCare in the first half of the year. Anyone still believe Kaiser Permanente is not for profit? If you answered yes, you might be interested in this really cool bridge we have for sale...]

From Sacramento Business Journal:

Kaiser reaps big profits for first half of year

Health giant out-earns for-profit HMOs

by Kathy Robertson
Staff writer

Kaiser Permanente earned more cash and had a higher profit margin in California than Blue Cross, Health Net and PacifiCare for the first half of the year, even though Kaiser is a nonprofit and the others are expected to earn money for their shareholders.

The Oakland-based HMO and healthcare system reported net income of $1.8 billion from operations in California and Hawaii, more than double the combined California proceeds at the three for-profit health plans, according to financial statements the companies filed with the state. Kaiser does not report numbers for California alone.

Image from connecting*the*dots

Update 9/9/07: A link to the full article has been posted in the comments.

[kaiserthrive.org editor's note: After six years of investigating and documenting the heinous medical crime committed against her by a Kaiser surgeon -- and related Medicare fraud -- Kaiser victim Jupirena Stein is challenging George Halvorson to put his money where his mouth is. For the last few months George has been squawking to anyone who will listen about fake health care reform, but the one question he pointedly refuses to answer is the one most relevant to Kaiser members and its victims, past and future: How dare you hold yourself up as an expert in health health care reform when you can't even reform your own murdering organization? Please George, tell us, we would really like to know.

Despite failing health (thanks to Kaiser), Ms. Stein has never given up, and she has chosen to help others by becoming a patient advocate. When asked if there was anything she would like readers of this open letter to know, Ms. Stein repeated her favorite saying: "Evil prevails when the good people are silent or take no action." We couldn't agree more, and we believe she deserves an answer to her questions.]

Friday, August 24th, 2007

Mr. George C. Halvorson
Chairman and Executive Officer
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc.
1 Kaiser Plz. Ste. 2600
Oakland, California 94612

RE: Medical Crime, Dr. Timothy W. Wild, DDS, MD, ENT — Surgeon, Kaiser Permanente Redwood City, Ca. (1999) and Medicare Fraud; Mr. George E. Clause Kaiser Permanente’s defense attorney (2001)

Dear Mr. George C. Halvorson:

My name is Jupirena Stein, and I am a former patient at Kaiser Permanente Redwood City, California. I am writing this open letter and demanding your response. Please tell me if you are aware of the crime and Medicare fraud mentioned above on this letter RE. Before you took office on March 2002, I took my suspicions about these facts to the attention of Mr. David Lawrence. He ignored its importance. It is now your turn.

Medical Crime:

On November 19th, 1999, Dr. Timothy Wilfred Wild (unbeknown to me at that time) performed a needless Parotidectomy surgery and an invasive, life threatening vascular surgery on several of my right cervical vessels for his own gain, without medical need, without my knowledge and without my permission. I became severely ill. I saw 8 medical specialists at KP Redwood City, California, but none of them “were able to figure out” what was wrong with my health. Why didn’t they just simply asked Dr. Wild, “What have you done to this patient?” But instead, these physicians simply chose to cover up his crime against my health. Even I, think they can’t be that incompetent! Subsequently, I filed a lawsuit; Stein vs. Kaiser.

Medicare Fraud:

KP was represented by Mr. George E. Clause, a partner at Ropers, Majeski, Kohn & Bentley, in San Jose, California. Mr. Clause claims in his Law Firm’s website that he is an experienced Health Care attorney, a member of many reputable legal institutions and that he have represented KP on medical malpractice cases. Because of this public information, one would think that Mr. Clause clearly, wouldn’t have to seek to the use of Medicare fraud when defending Kaiser Permanente in matters involving Medicare and medical malpractice health insurance legal liability. But in my case, he chose to. By doing so, he saved KP money by reversing future medical legal liability from Kaiser to our Federally Funded Health Care System, Medicare.

Of course, Mr. George E. Clause can not claim this illegal shifting of the burden of ALL my future medical care from Kaiser’s future liability to our tax payers, - an act of his own. Mr. Bruce Albion Bailey (my representing attorney cooperated with him by choosing not to correct Mr. Clause’s Legal Brief fraudulent information about my health insurance coverage legality to retired judge Rebecca Westerfield from JAMS San Francisco, Ca. (”…who is known for her ability to grasp legal and factual issues quickly,”) cooperated with Mr. George E. Clause by choosing to stay silent about the subject of future medical care, when signing her final award.

And finally the involvement of the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) through Mr. Lewis Chartrand’s Legal Department and his illegal destruction of my files, when I asked them for help in these matters. I often ask myself if Ms. Lucinda Ehnes, DMHC Director (she will receive a copy of this letter) is aware of KP’s involvement in medical crime and fraud, in my case or in any other. It seems to me that neither Kaiser nor the DMHC worry about whose credibility is in danger to be damaged.

Medicare as a secondary payer is protected by federal laws and must ALWAYS be properly observed in cases such as mine, and be considered as such. Section 1862(b) of the Social Security Act 42 USC Section 1395Y(b)(5) Applicable regulations found at 42 CFR part 411 (1990).

Retired judge Rebecca Westerfield, the attorneys Mr. Bailey and Mr. Clause chose not enforce federal laws, as well as neglect KP’s rules and regulations contents found in Kaiser’s Evidence of Coverage Book pertaining to Medicare health care coverage liability of patients such as myself.

In my opinion, Kaiser Permanente could never be successful in such matters, (fraud and crime) if they would handle things on their own. Kaiser had to have the complete cooperation and the blind loyalty of all these professionals mentioned in this letter. Without this kind of cooperation and loyalty, this HMO could be considered safe for ALL their patients.

Mr. Halverson, you may whish to clear these facts with me by using our legal system. I invite you to do that. After all, my claims of medical crime of this serious nature and of Medicare fraud, are NOT something Kaiser Permanente nor the DMHC should take lightly. I know, I don’t.

Dr. Wild has the mental and physical capability plus he has the medical knowledge to commit such a horrendous crime, and he is willing to take chances with his medical license and with his Board Certification. Dr. Wild, should NOT be permitted to perform surgery. Watch my words: chances are, - he will do it again (if I am indeed the first one).

No wonder Kaiser and their attorney Mr. Clause, couldn’t find Dr. Wild for his deposition, even though he was still working at KP. As a resident, (physician in training) he would have never been allowed to operate without supervision (as per court documentation.) Much less, become board certified after committing a crime against my health and for that, he would not qualify to work for the Permanente.

These serious matters involving Dr. Wild showing his clear intentions other than helping me with my health, and Kaiser Permanente Mandatory Binding Arbitration System involvement (in my case, through their defense attorney) in Medicare fraud, is, as you receive this letter, being announced to the world.

If you chose to stay silent as KP’s executive officer, and chose NOT take a position of ethics and legality, I will take it as your public admission of guilt and as reckless disregard to protect Kaiser Permanente’s patients health and safety.

“Evil prevails when the good people are silent, or take no action.”

Regards,

Jupirena Stein

j_u_stein@yahoo.com
www.kaiserpapers.org

CC: Open letter

From SignOnSanDiego.com:

$903,000 awarded to councilman’s widow

By Cheryl Clark
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

SAN DIEGO — The late San Diego Councilman Charles Lewis was never told by his longtime Kaiser physician Willie Thigpen that he had a serious liver disease and that drinking alcohol would hasten his death, an arbitration judge has ruled.

The judge, Kevin Midlam, awarded $903,000 to Lewis’ widow.

Lewis’ “history of seeking medical attention over the years supports the conclusion that had he been better fully informed of his condition, in all probability he would have taken steps, …including undergoing a (liver) biopsy, and would have quit drinking,” Midlam wrote in his decision.

The widow, Carlette Lewis, and her attorneys discussed the ruling yesterday with The San Diego Union-Tribune.

“Charles did not know he was sick at all,” Carlette Lewis said. “I’m very happy to finally have my story told, and relieved the judge ruled in my favor. I feel very vindicated. Charles worked hard not only for his constituents in District 4, but for all of San Diego.”

Lewis was elected to the City Council in 2002 and died Aug. 8, 2004.

He was going through a rough period at the time. Along with fellow Councilmen Ralph Inzunza and Michael Zucchet, he was under federal indictment for allegedly accepting bribes to modify city ordinances dealing with “no touch” strip clubs.

Lewis died before the trial began. Zucchet and Inzunza eventually were convicted of fraud, conspiracy and extortion. Inzunza was sentenced to 21 months in prison and is free on bond pending appeal. A judge acquitted Zucchet, but the government is appealing.

Various documents show that Lewis died due to organ failure after bleeding from a condition in which a severely damaged liver can’t process blood, causing the blood to back up in the stomach and esophagus.

The day before his death, Lewis, 37, came home ill after attending a Morse High School reunion picnic at Mission Bay. He was rushed to Kaiser early the next morning after his wife reported he was vomiting blood.

Lewis also had vomited blood three weeks earlier, but told people it was cranberry juice.

Midlam agreed with physicians who testified during a 10-day hearing that Lewis unknowingly suffered from nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH.

The disease can lead to liver scarring, or cirrhosis, similar to that seen in alcoholics who drink much larger quantities of alcohol for much longer periods of time. Lewis was too young and didn’t drink enough to fit the behavior of an alcoholic, the physicians testified.

Health providers nationwide have said they’re increasingly finding NASH in overweight people.

Lewis was “a model for a person” for developing NASH, Midlam wrote. “He was African-American, borderline morbidly obese, with high cholesterol and borderline anemia,” Midlam added.

Lewis made more than 50 visits to Thigpen and other Kaiser doctors over several years, went to the emergency room six times, underwent one surgery and logged 28 trips to laboratories for tests, his wife’s attorneys said.

Thigpen never referred Lewis to a liver specialist even though his patient had numerous warning signs, such as rectal bleeding, nose bleeds, stomach cramps and elevated cholesterol levels.

Robert Coffin, one of Carlette Lewis’ attorneys, said he believes Thigpen never took the time to pull all of Charles Lewis’ test results, imaging studies and physical exams to correctly diagnose the patient.

“There were all these red flags that Mr. Lewis had something dramatically wrong with him,” Coffin said. “But he just fell through the cracks.”

Eight months before Lewis’ death, a sonogram showed his liver had become dangerously enlarged, yet he was never told about it, Midlam wrote. Thigpen never ordered a biopsy, which would have confirmed NASH, the judge added.

Instead, Thigpen referred Lewis to an endocrinologist for a potential thyroid problem two months before he died, Lewis’ medical records show.

While the judge ruled in favor of Carlette Lewis’ claim, he also faulted the councilman. Midlam said Lewis did not seek medical attention when he vomited blood several weeks before his death and that for a while, he was not candid with his medical providers about an increase in his alcohol consumption.

Because of those factors, the judge reduced the economic-damage portion of Carlette Lewis’ award from $1.3 million to $653,000. Midlam also gave her $250,000 for non-economic damages.

“Mr. Lewis should bear a 50 percent proportionate share of the responsibility for his unfortunate and untimely demise,” the judge wrote. “(Mr. Lewis) was very concerned about his position in the community and reticent to admit he may be abusing alcohol.”

The strip-clubs case caused a lot of stress for Lewis, his wife said.

While friends and colleagues testified that Lewis was highly functional and not an excessive drinker, Lewis told Kaiser caregivers shortly before his death that he had been drinking more than he previously acknowledged.

A member of Lewis’ staff was said to have bought cases of Long Island iced tea, a cocktail with high alcohol content, on “at least a bimonthly basis,” Midlam wrote.

In setting the award amount, the judge also considered the indictment against Lewis.

“The weight of the evidence is that Mr. Lewis would have been convicted of part or all of the criminal charges against him and that the conviction would have been upheld on appeal,” Midlam wrote.

Midlam exonerated Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. and Southern California Permanente Medical Group, which also were named as defendants.

Because Kaiser covers medical malpractice claims against its physicians, it will pay the $903,000 to Carlette Lewis, said Kaiser spokesman Rodger Dougherty.

Thigpen has retired from Kaiser and moved to Louisiana. He could not be reached for comment.

Kaiser attorney Barton Hegeler said he disagreed with Midlam’s conclusion, adding that Thigpen had many conversations with Lewis about his medical condition and his use of alcohol.

“Unfortunately, not all of the advice Dr. Thigpen gave Mr. Lewis was documented,” Hegeler said.

Under Kaiser’s rules, lawsuits against its health system are settled through arbitration and judges’ decisions cannot be appealed.

Cheryl Clark: (619) 542-4573; cheryl.clark@uniontrib.com

[kaiserthrive.org editor's note: Yeah, everyone is 'Thrive'-ing at Kaiser Permanente...unless you need a kidney transplant, or have pneumonia, or cancer, or a past due pregnancy, or a consumer complaint, or need a prescription, or, or, or...

Thrive has been so "successful" that nationally Kaiser membership has remained mostly flat since the campaign began, and the Hawaii region has lost 16,000 members. Note the correction at the bottom of the article, where thanks to muddy language the impression is created that Kaiser has only spent $40-$45 million on the entire multi-year campaign. Not so, according to this article from 2005, which reports the 2nd phase of the campaign's cost at an additional $40 million on top of the initial $40 million investment (that's $80 million for the mathematically challenged). Do they really want you to believe the 3rd and 4th years were free? Apparently so, since "an exact dollar figure" is conveniently unavailable.

According to Kaiser's PRBS release, the fourth season of Thrive ads will target your children, as well as the issue of personal empowerment in health care. Kaiser has never denied that the purpose of the Thrive campaign is to change negative public perception about Kaiser, which leads one to assume that despite three years of very expensive attempted brainwashing, people continue to perceive Kaiser members as powerless over their health care. We believe there is a reason for that: because it's true!]

From San Francisco Business Times:

Kaiser launches fourth season of Thrive ads

by Chris Rauber

Correction at bottom of article

Kaiser Permanente has launched the fourth season of its Thrive advertising campaign, a roughly $45 million, multi-year television, radio and print effort to boost Kaiser’s image and brand awareness.

The new TV ads, which will focus on child health and dealing with serious illness, will emphasize “personal power over health,” the giant Oakland-based health-care system said Aug. 23. New TV commercials will run this year in seven of Kaiser’s eight operating regions: Northern and Southern California, Oregon/Washington state, Colorado, Georgia, Ohio and Hawaii. Kaiser’s Mid-Atlantic region is not running the new TV commercials, but will run print and radio versions, said Oakland-based spokeswoman Sybil Kelly-Wartenberg.

The first ads rolled out in 2004. Kaiser created the successful campaign with help from Campbell-Ewald, a Warren, Mich.-based advertising agency.

Last year, when Kaiser was in the midst of PR fallout regarding its troubled Northern California kidney-transplant unit, since shuttered, it upped the campaign’s budget to $45 million.

“Obviously, the kidney thing hurts, but we believe the brand is very strong and that this investment is an investment in the future,” Debbie Cantu, Kaiser’s vice president of brand marketing and advertising, said at the time.

Further details about this year’s campaign, including publications and stations where it will run, were not immediately available.

Correction:
Officials at Kaiser Permanente specified that the Thrive campaign’s latest ads are part of a multi-year campaign, but did not say how long it will last. An exact dollar figure wasn’t immediately available. In September 2006, Kaiser officials said the multi-year total had jumped from $40 million to $45 million.

[kaiserthrive.org editor's note: Our apologies for not posting this sooner, but due to recent personal obligations it has been difficult to update as often as we would like to. Unfortunately I also don't have much time tonight for commentary, although this article and Kaiser's news release certainly scream out for more than a little of it. Regular readers of this blog can probably guess what we might say, so please share your own ideas in the comments and we'll get back to regular posting as soon as we can. For more on Kaiser's sudden surge of 'not-for-profits' see Justen Deal's blog, where he gives his take on the situation in Kaiser Permanente and the art of funny money. Funny screwy, not funny ha-ha, but you probably guessed that since it's Kaiser he's talking about.]

From Inside Bay Area:

Kaiser reports income boost

By Janis Mara, BUSINESS WRITER
08/04/2007

Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente appears to be in good financial health, reporting that operating income rose sharply in the second quarter and predicting more moderate 2008 premium increases as a likely result.

“We believe the results of this quarter will allow us to moderate future rate increases,” said Tom Meier, corporate treasurer for the nonprofit health maintenance organization made up of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and their subsidiaries.

Of the $877 million in second-quarter operating income, $356 million was “a positive anomaly” because of cuts in reserves for professional liability and workers’ compensation. “If you exclude this adjustment, operating income would have been $521 million,” Meier said.

This still compares favorably with the second quarter of 2006, when Kaiser reported operating income of $198 million.

Revenue rose around 10 percent to $9.4 billion.

In 2007, Kaiser premiums went up on average “mid-to-high single digits in percentages,” Meier said, though the amount varied widely between different groups such as Medicare, individual and commercial. The 2008 rate increases are still being determined, but will likely be smaller because of the good second-quarter results, he said.

Kaiser membership remained at 8.7 million members in the quarter.

A consumer advocate said the financial results show that Kaiser premiums are too high.

“They’re bringing in that money, and it’s not from new members, so the current members are overpaying,” said Jamie Court, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. “This is an example of how overpriced Kaiser policies are in an unregulated market and why we need health insurance regulation.”

Full Story

From KTVU.com:

LOS ANGELES — A surgeon with close ties to the Bay Area was charged Monday with prescribing excessive drugs to a comatose, disabled patient to hasten his death and harvest his organs for transplantation.

It’s the first such criminal case against a transplant doctor in the United States, the San Luis Obispo County district attorney’s office said.

Prosecutors said Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, 33, of San Francisco, gave a harmful drug and prescribed excessive doses of morphine and a sedative to 26-year-old Ruben Navarro, who died in 2006.

He was taken in a coma to Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles, in 2006 after suffering respiratory and cardiac arrest. Although Navarro was found to have irreversible brain damage and was kept on a respirator, he was not considered brain dead because he still had limited brain function.

The day before Navarro died, his family gave approval for a surgical team to recover his organs for donation, though the procedure never occurred because Navarro did not die within 30 minutes of being removed from life support. He died the next day.

Roozrokh, a surgeon at Kaiser Permanente’s now-closed kidney transplant program, was working at the time on behalf of a group that procures and distributes organs. The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the drugs were prescribed “to accelerate Mr. Navarro’s death in order to recover his organs.”

State law prohibits transplant surgeons to be involved in the treatment of potential organ donors before they are declared dead.

Roozrokh’s lawyer, M. Gerald Schwartzbach, called the charges “unfounded and ill-advised,” saying his client “has unfairly been the subject of an 18-month witch hunt.”

“Nothing that Dr. Roozrokh did or said at the hospital that night adversely affected the quality of Mr. Navarro’s life or contributed to Mr. Navarro’s eventual death,” Schwartzbach said in a statement.

Prosecutors did not pursue murder charges because witnesses said they did not believe the drugs caused Navarro’s death.

“The central issue of this case is the mistreatment of a developmentally disabled, dependent adult in an attempt to hasten the person’s death for organ transplantation,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Stephen Brown said in an interview.

The coroner’s office this year determined that Navarro died of natural causes. Last month, his mother, Rosa, filed a wrongful-death and medical malpractice lawsuit against Roozrokh and others, claiming her son was removed from life support without her permission and given lethal doses of drugs.

Navarro, who weighed about 80 pounds, was born with a neurological disorder known as adrenoleukodystrophy. He also had celebral palsy and seizures. Navarro lived in a home for mentally and physically challenged adults in the year before his death.

A report from federal regulators said Roozrokh ordered Navarro to receive 200 milligrams of morphine and 80 milligrams of the sedative Ativan — far in excess of the usual doses.

Roozrokh was also accused of prescribing excessive morphine and administering the topical antiseptic Betadine into Navarro’s stomach.

Roozrokh, a U.S. citizen, was born in Iran and emigrated with his family at age 2. He was charged with felony counts of dependent adult abuse, administering a harmful substance and unlawful controlled substance prescription. If convicted of all three counts, he faces up to eight years in state prison or up to one year in jail and a $20,000 fine as a condition of probation.

Sierra Vista hospital officials began investigating when nurses alerted their bosses after Navarro’s death. A spokesman has said the hospital has since strengthened its organ donation procedures.

Previously:

Police probe death in organ donation case.

[kaiserthrive.org's editor's note: Is this vindication for Kaiser critics, who have been making these claims for years, only to be erroneously discredited, abused and marginalized by Kaiser management and its less than ethical PR and legal departments? Feels a little like vindication, but in our experience these people seem to regret their horrendous actions quite a bit less than they do being caught.

We received an email from a Kaiser employee a few days ago, asking us if we would be willing to post some tangible steps that Kaiser could take to improve itself, as well as a score card listing some of these steps and how Kaiser is doing with implementing them. Kaiser makes a point of pretending it doesn't respond to anything we do, which we know for a fact isn't true, but in the spirit of supporting what is best for Kaiser members we are more than willing to report on positive steps in the right direction. We're still hoping to find even one Kaiser member or employee who has been treated fairly in a dispute, and as soon as that happens it will be our pleasure to report it here.]

From the L.A. Times:

State fines Kaiser again

The HMO’s second such penalty in a year targets its handling of patient complaints at nine hospitals.

By Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein, Times Staff Writers

Kaiser Permanente will be assessed a record fine today for its haphazard investigations of questionable care, physician performance and patient complaints at its California hospitals, according to state HMO regulators.

The California Department of Managed Health Care said it will levy a $3-million fine against Kaiser, the largest HMO in the state, with 29 medical centers and more than 6 million members. If Kaiser makes necessary improvements, agency director Cindy Ehnes said, she will forgive $1 million of that.

The penalty marks the second time in a year that Kaiser has been publicly rebuked and fined for glaring breakdowns in oversight.

The state’s latest inquiry grew out of its investigation into problems that forced the closure last year of Kaiser’s kidney transplant program in San Francisco. Hundreds of patients were endangered when Kaiser forced them to transfer to its own fledgling program from established transplant centers at outside hospitals.

Last August, the state fined Kaiser $2 million for the transplant debacle, and the HMO agreed to pay an additional $3 million to promote organ donation.

Even then, Ehnes said, the question remained: “How could it happen?”

To answer that question, the state focused on whether Kaiser was properly handling — or even knew about — allegations of subpar care at its hospitals statewide. Inspectors examined 246 files involving complaints, quality-of-care concerns and other issues from four hospitals in Kaiser’s Northern California region, and four in its Southern California region.

The investigation did not examine whether individual patients had been harmed, only on how well Kaiser monitored the quality of patient care.

“A patient has to be sure that if they have a problem — the health plan has their ears open to hear those complaints and their arms available to tackle any of the problems that have arisen,” Ehnes said in an interview. “That’s what our concern was, that those ears in particular seemed to be sometimes deaf.”

A top Kaiser official on Wednesday called the state’s 51-page inspection report “thorough and actually very constructive.”

The managed-care agency found that under the HMO’s massive umbrella, individual hospitals had their own rules: Some rigorously pursued potential medical mishaps; others did not.

The vast majority of the report focused on a system called “peer review,” a standard quality-assurance mechanism at hospitals in which doctors’ committees examine patient cases to determine if the care was appropriate.

Inspectors found large differences among hospitals in how often questionable cases were being referred for peer review. In Northern California, one hospital might refer as much as 20 times as many cases as another.

Even when peer review was performed appropriately, it did not always result in sufficient efforts to improve care, the report says. In a quarter of the 57 cases examined by the state in which peer review committees found a quality problem, follow-up was incomplete.

In one case, a peer review panel examining pediatric care determined that a doctor provided an “unacceptable standard of care,” but it doesn’t appear anyone alerted the hospital’s top doctors to the findings so they could act.

Regulators also found several instances in which doctors were in charge of investigating cases in which the treatment they provided was called into question.

Investigators said they stopped short of determining whether those reviews were handled appropriately.

“You can’t really move on from the taint of looking at your own case,” said Marcy Gallagher, the chief state surveyor on the Kaiser inquiry and the head of health-plan surveys at the managed-care agency.

Gallagher said inspectors identified at least three occasions on which committees at Kaiser hospitals inexplicably stopped their review of troubling cases before they were complete. Kaiser was asked to finish those reviews, she said.

Overall, the report found that the HMO “lacked the ability to verify consistent handling of complaints throughout its medical centers or to determine whether serious or chronic problems were being addressed.”
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