Regulators say only a handful of people needing transplants have been moved to two UC programs since the HMO announced the closure of its program last month.
By Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein, Times Staff Writers
June 16, 2006
More than a month after Kaiser Permanente announced it was closing its troubled kidney transplant program serving Northern California, only a handful of its 2,000 patients have been officially transferred to programs at two University of California medical centers.
After promising last month that patients would be transferred swiftly and efficiently, state HMO regulators acknowledged Thursday that even the most basic parts of the process have proved unexpectedly complicated.
Since the closure was announced May 12, only one Kaiser patient has received a transplant at one of the university hospitals ? UC Davis ? and that person had a live donor ready and willing to give.
“We have spent a considerable amount of time standardizing patient files between three independent healthcare systems,” said Kevin Donohue, deputy director of the California Department of Managed Health Care, which is overseeing the transition.