Received the following press release from attorney Charles T. Mathews‘ office today. This is going to be a big one, folks, and it has been a long time coming. Read the Summons and Complaint.
Kaiser hit with lawsuit for denying legally mandated health care to 57,000 of its most vulnerable patients, the chronically disabled and other “special needs patients” because it just didn’t want to spend the money!
When: October 7,2010
Where: LA County Court House (Front Steps)
111 N. Hill St., Los Angeles, California
Time: 9:30 a.m.
Contact: Charles T. Mathews, Esq., Counsel for Plaintiffs (626) 683-8291
Dr. Richard Della Penna M.D., a former Kaiser physician and one of America’s leading medical experts in Elder Care and the treatment of Special Needs Patients (“SNP’s) will file a lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente including The Permanente Federation, LLC, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and Kaiser Foundation hospitals as a result of Kaiser’s calculated plan to deny legally mandated proper treatment to approximately 57,000 seriously disabled and chronically ill patients in California, Colorado and Georgia because it just didn’t want to spend the money.
Dr. Della Penna’s lawsuit charges that despite receiving $13 BILLION dollars in Medicare money, Kaiser intentionally violated and continues to violate federal laws (the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 and the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008) by denying these vulnerable patients crucial annual physical, functional and psychosocial assessments and a proper plan for the care and treatment of these Kaiser members.
Dr. Della Penna charges that despite his efforts to have Kaiser comply with these laws, Kaiser made the conscious decision to provide these required services to only 5% of these vulnerable patents so that they could showcase them to regulators when and if they were questioned.
He further alleges that when he complained to Kaiser about its failure to take proper care of these Special Needs Patients and complained about Kaiser’s failure to provide properly trained and credentialed staff to provide palliative care to patients with advanced illnesses, those near death and their families, he was rebuffed, isolated, marginalized and ultimately forced to resign.
Dr. Della Penna’s lawsuit seeks to force Kaiser to deliver to these disabled patients and their families the kind and quality of care that it promises when it lures people to join and claims that it wants them to “Thrive.”
Dr. Della Penna’s attorney, Charles T. Mathews, Esq. will be available to discuss the case immediately after it is filed. He will also ask any Special Needs Patients and/or the families of patients requiring Palliative Care (those near death or afflicted with terminal disease) to contact his office so that efforts can be made to compel Kaiser to get them the required care.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CALL: Charles T. Mathews & Associates (626) 683-8291
Charles T. Mathews has a history of successfully representing Kaiser physicians and nurses who have been retaliated against for trying to correct problems with patient care. He won a mind-blowing judgment for a whistleblowing ex-KP Radiologist last year. The case is currently on appeal.
From American Medical News:
Full Story
What else is new in Kaiserland? Now, Kaiser will start looking in this Doctor’s closet for skeletons to discredit him further. Don’t quiver, if you are right, the truth will set you free! Good luck you are in for the fight of your life!
MAY JUSTICE PREVAIL!
It is about time! Damn.
“When you see people constantly disregarding good quality patient care, you get to a level where it’s just no longer acceptable,” Dr. Martinucci said. “I could have let the retribution go, but then you say to yourself, that’s not what I got into medicine for.”
I seriously hope that lawsuits like this will encourage more Kaiser Doctors who are ethical and want to take care of patients ethically, to step forward. We know there are plenty of them out there who want to do the right thing, because they have a conscience, unlike Kaiser.
My favorite quote, which I think applies very well here:
“The truth shall set you free… but first, it will piss you off.”
It’s heartbreaking to think of the thousands of families that suffered needlessly so that a few KP executives could take home millions in performance bonuses. There are many Permanente physicians and managers who recognize what’s going wrong — but they’ve seen what happens when you speak up about these problems, and so they stay quiet.
The real tragedy is that until KFHP’s board of directors wakes up, none of this will change. The current board of directors has been handpicked by the current CEO of Kaiser, so it seems unlikely they’re going to do anything about these systemic problems.
KP should have an accountable board of directors. Instead it’s a bunch of failed executives collecting millions of dollars in pay to sit quietly by while the foxes run the henhouse.
Whoever said “healthcare isn’t an industry” obviously never met Kaiser Permanente.
Kaiser also practices convenient confusion in delaying treatment as an excuse. Our former pain management doctor was bumped to another department for proper treatment in which KP deemed too costly. My wife on non-hospice palliative care for spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease and vertebrae bone spurs was left flat cold empty out of medication after 5 years of treatment. She was admitted to ER for pain with muscle tearing spasms.
Then she was forced to travel to different locations and doctors for every refill several months after. Kaiser finally replaced their pain management specialist with one that knew less about many pain medications than I did. Myself not being a medical professional in any way, am left discomforted in the care she receives now.
See the denial of medical care to a Kaiser Senior Advantage Medicare patient at http://www.defraudingamerica.com/kaiser_permanente.html.
Its ironic that, according to the summons filed to the court in Della Penna v. KFHP, the Kaiser Executive or who took the lead in forcing Dr. Della Penna’s “retirement” would be the same person who soon thereafter became the Chief Quality Officer for Kaiser: Jed Weissberg, M.D. When you consider the potential consequences of this case; that Kaiser Permanente would withhold proper care for tens of thousands of Medicare patients, it could become a huge health care quality fraud, perpetrated primarily by the person who became the chief quality officer of the company. This will be an interesting case to follow.
What ever happened to this lawsuit?
please let me know how did you get the treatment for your son kaiser dine the treatment for my child whom is autism
The doctor my ailing mother had at Kaiser, was a wonderfully compassionate man with Christian values, proved by the fact, he told us everything Kaiser mandated to all the department heads, to deny patients medical care. Unaware he’d just come back from that conferance, I drove mother to his office to ask for an injection for her spinal stenosis, only to hear him say “They won’t give it to her…” and when I asked “Why?” he said “Frankly…” it’s elder abuse. Nevertheless thankful he shared something that would certainly get him immediately fired, I asked for a referral anyway. He gave us one saying “This is what’s going to happen.” this is how the department head is going to deny her care. “First she’ll put your mother on an examination table, then she’ll place a hand on her right shoulder and say “Swing your legs…” And when she does, she’ll lower her hand to your mother’s hip and declare “This isn’t a back problem. It’s a hip problem.”’ And when we went to that appointment, sure enough, everything was exactly like her doctor said! to the very word! I wrote a letter to the California Medical Board, without mentioning what her doctor said, saying there’s new information, and we’d like either an injection or at least another appointment to see the department head with this new information. The medical board mandated another appointment, and since the department head now knows she was caught, the second mother sat on the exam table, she approved a course of injections for mother’s spinal stenosis. A few months later, her doctor quit Kaiser, and is now offering free medical care to the poor. He was replaced a dime-a-dozen brown-nose front-office jerk.
Wherever you are. Thanks Doc. Your the best. Thanks for putting your career on the line, telling us the truth about Kaiser, which allowed us to get mother the medical teatment she needed. We salute your honesty and compassion.
The Kaiser Permanente primary doctor for my 27 year old special needs son and myself is the same man My son is written 2nd but is more important.
I have chronic constant pain with large and small joint arthritis, COPD and very well controlled diabetes II and required not working by disability. This doctor has had me T scan & blood test, another blood test, an Xray because CT scans don’t have high resolution with another blood test just about $1,000. Three months and not a word, that is lot of money for a senior on a fixed income.
My son, cerebral palsy, impaired vision, Multiple seizures per day, infirm, high blood pressure. This man told me that my son’d blood pressure was not going to be treated until his blood pressure was higher than 180/100. He then asked me “When he has his stroke do want us to use extraordinary means or should let him die?” I forced him to treat my son. Our conversation was recorded with his permission.
We are trying to find a medical clinic which values the well being and life of all. Not just the ones they think should should live.