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… Read More »
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… Read More »
From the Seattle Times: Health plan fined for denying claims By Kyung M. Song Seattle Times staff reporter Kaiser Foundation Health Plan has been fined $65,000 for denying claims from 299 policyholders in Southwest Washington who received care in emergency rooms during 2003 and 2004. Insurance Commissioner Mike Kriedler announced Friday that Kaiser violated a… Read More »
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… Read More »
Two new member privacy breaches have been reported in the last week. Is anyone else finding Kaiser’s typical canned response that it takes “protecting the privacy and security of our members’ personal medical information seriously” a little difficult to believe, much like its empty advertising claims? From Wired News: Kaiser Joins Lost Laptop Crowd —… Read More »
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… Read More »
From the Portland Business Journal: by Robin J. Moody Kaiser Permanente Northwest’s regional president, Cynthia Finter, has resigned amid dramatic income declines at the health plan. The change is effective Aug. 15. Tricia Peters, vice president of human resources, will serve as acting regional president while a search is conducted to find a permanent replacement.… Read More »
Another case of retaliation for reporting illegal practices at Kaiser: I hope you can take interest in my horrible experience with Kaiser. UNLICENSED STUDENTS DID YOUR X-RAYS at SF KAISER HOSPITAL. I was a x-ray student at Kaiser Permanente School of Allied Health Program at Richmond CA. When I was interning at the SF Kaiser… Read More »
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… Read More »
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… Read More »