$5 Million Class Action Lawsuit Against Kaiser Permanente
An agreement by Kaiser Permanente to pay a $2 million fine and make a $3 million charitable donation has been reached after state regulators concluded the HMO’s mismanagement of its Northern California kidney-transplant unit endangered patients
The state Department of Managed Health Care determined Kaiser lacked the administrative capacity and failed to properly monitor its fledging kidney transplant program, leading to unacceptable delays in treatment. Regulators said they found no evidence patients died as a result of those problems.
Problems at Kaiser’s kidney center surfaced in May as a result of a series of news reports about patients experiencing long waits for new organs.
Filed under Class Action, General Law, Settlements
You may also like to read
- Steelworkers' Trusts Class Action Lawsuit Approved
- Google $90 Million Click-Fraud Settlement Will Be Revised
- Shell Prepare for $500 Million Class Action Settlement
- $13 Million Settlement in Kmart Disability Lawsuit
- $70 Million Class Action Settlement by TracFone Wireless Inc.
- $28 Million Three Class Action Lawsuit Settlement by FMF Capital Group Ltd.
- Hawaii Lawmakers Agreed to $10.7 Million Settlement
- Global Crossing Settlement Includes Investment Banks
- $330 Million Proposed Class Action Settlement Reached in Murphy Oil Lawsuit
- $5.2 Million Class Action Lawsuit Settlement by PayPal
July 14th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
I ‘ve been hearing rumors that Kaiser is going to settle its lawsuit in the kidney transplant mess for $10 million per plaintiff.Kaiser can be ruined by the publicity and the current Michael Moore movie “Sicko”
March 16th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I certainly hope so, but Kaiser is a multi-billion dollar conglomerate with years of experience blame shifting in order to dodge liability; and they get sued - often. Kaiser “beneficiaries” even have to sign a waiver promising “not to sue” Kaiser; even in instances of gross negligence and malpractice. What they agree to is “arbitration” with their corporate attorney’s to settle cases quietly or simply discredit Plaintiffs (blank check in order to do this) by any means necessary… and there are no limits on what Kaiser is willing to do to maintain it’s fascade of patient-focused care. The reality is it’s a business and the bottom line is maintaining their coffers instead of “wasting” money on expensive care. The bification of TPMG and KFH is one example of this effort to dodge liability. When a Plaintiff files a claim or tort action against Kaiser, they say KFH is not to blame, so you focus on TPMG. TPMG then claims it was not to blame either, so you’re struggling to demonstrate that Kaiser’s KFH and TPMG work together as a operational unit, but Kaiser holds it’s structure and policies close to it’s chest to further avoid clarity. Additionally, each Kaiser facility pretends to function as an independant, meaning Kaiser, as a massive organziation, “cannot” be liable for the errors of a single unit. This strategy seeks to minimize judgements against them. Kaiser is also quick to pull and protect it’s physicians; leaving lower-level managers as fair game for blame. Perhaps one of the biggest farces in medicine is the idea of unionized care. Employees can grossly misbehave, do incredibly stupid things, and function even in the absence of competency; protected by instantly hostile Shop Stewards and Field Representatives. Managers attempting to control these situations become targets of the union. Kaiser’s Administration is impotent in these situations and are quick to find excuses to terminate managers targeted by union goons in order to prevent strike action. It’s a sick organization from the inside out. I know these facts to be true, because I was an insider, myself, and witnessed horrendous things inside of Kaiser. Bringing these issues to the attention of Administration was professional suicide. If Congress, itself, doesn’t look deeply into such issues, they will continue to go on as they have for decades. In the case mentioned above, the manager send an e-mail complaining about waste and mismanagement. What he got in return was fired. Only by using the Department of Managed Health Care and spoon feeding with details on reimbursement losses and fraud documentation did they act to close the center and support the Plaintiff’s case. $10 million dollars is pocket change to Kaiser, but they’ll typically spend such amounts to discredit Plaintiffs and protect their image. In what amounts to an organized crime syndicate, Kaiser plays the dirtiest of games behind the scenes to coerce Plaintiffs into giving up. They manipulate the law and know the system better than most. Look on the web for yourself; there are law firms who specialize specifically in prosecuting Kaiser cases - and defending them.