Kaiser To Pay $2M In Transplant Mess

(AP)  Kaiser Permanente has agreed to pay a $2 million fine over allegations that the health maintenance organization mismanaged a kidney transplant program and endangered hundreds of patients.

The penalty is the largest fine levied in the five-year history of California's Department of Managed Health Care, said agency spokeswoman Lynne Randolph.

Oakland-based Kaiser held the previous record of $1 million, imposed in 2002 for the HMO's care of a Northern California woman who died.

A Kaiser spokesman didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

Kaiser suspended its Northern California kidney transplant program in May amid mounting regulatory pressure and patient lawsuits alleging that botched paperwork and administrative errors had imperiled patients' lives.

Problems arose when Kaiser ordered Northern California kidney patients to transfer from University of California hospitals to its new transplant center in 2004.

Kaiser failed to discuss with regulators the transfer of up to 1,500 patients to the new center, delaying some patients' procedures, the Los Angeles Times reported. Only 56 transplants were performed at the Kaiser's San Francisco center in 2005, while twice that number of people died waiting for a kidney, the Times reported. At other California transplant centers, more than twice as many people received kidneys than died.

Besides the $2 million fine, Kaiser's settlement with California regulators requires the HMO to donate $3 million to a nonprofit group dedicated to helping patients awaiting organ and tissue transplants.

[anon123-2009]

No more Bush! Shave him out!

[alphaa10-2009]

Remember this story when someone warns you about "inherent inefficiency" of Big Government medical care. This news about the Kaiser HMO shows inherent inefficiency of the private system when its principal concern is profit, not patients. Kaiser proved an HMO is not automatically better for the patient-- or even more efficient, for that matter.

Despite this warning about placing profits over patients, Bush bought into the argument delivered by drug companies-- big campaign contributors-- again putting patients in jeopardy. In 2003, Bush revised Medicare so Big Government could not bargain for favorable (if negotiated) prices for drugs from Big Pharmaceuticals. Bush's rationale for this strangely inefficient measure was negotiated prices might deprive drug companies of money to ensure quality care.

So, if paying top dollar to drug companies makes sense, what has happened to the quality of US medical care? From a cost standpoint, medical care has become unaffordable. Private companies no longer offer medical insurance. Families cannot afford it. One in six Americans lacks medical coverage, including 8.3 million kids. Our neonatal survival rate puts us 42nd in the world, behind even Cuba, that haven of socialized medicine. US medicine costs almost three times the average of comparable care in other industrialized countries, and climbing. And despite the "privatized" US medical system, taxpayers still end up with the bill.