CLAIMS AGAINST KAISER

and OTHER HMOS

            Kaiser Permanente provides health coverage for over 8 million Californians. The abuses of the Kaiser managed care system are well documented. Overworked doctors and nurses are often forced to elect the least expensive approach to treating patients, often contrary to the patient’s best interests.

            While Kaiser advertises that its physicians are responsible for making medical decisions , documents from Kaiser’s own physicians and administrators reveal that for years Kaiser has made it inconvenient for patients to be seen by physicians , including specialists.

            Dr. Robert Pearl, Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Kaiser Permanente for the Northern California region candidly admitted that:

“... making patients wait for a routine primary care appointment was less costly and would lower utilization.... [W]e believed that wait lists for specialty consultation were the best means to control demand.”

            According to published reports, Kaiser encouraged cost cutting through bonuses and other incentives. Additionally, this HMO withheld portions of doctors’ salaries if cost targets were not met. Until suit was filed against Kaiser, it had a practice of giving 10 percent salary bonuses to Northern California telephone service workers who spent the least amount of time on the phone with patients and limited the number of doctors’ appointments they scheduled!While these business practices may have saved costs, the end result is that patients have paid with their health and in some cases , they have paid with their lives .

            Hidden within the Kaiser policy is language which effectively requires most claims against Kaiser hospital and its’ health care providers to be subject to binding arbitration. This means that except for extremely rare circumstances, there is no right to a jury trial in a case against Kaiser. Unfortunately, California courts have upheld this binding arbitration provision.

            In choosing a law firm to represent you, it is important to select a firm with extensive experience against Kaiser and its’ lawyers .
The Law Offices of Mulligan & Banham has extensive experience in successfully representing clients against Kaiser.