Kaiser often denies care to paying patients, but then doles out a bit of free care to get publicity

See what Kaiser does to paying patients at Garfield Specialty Center.

The fourth paragraph of the following article is shockingly deceptive, not giving even a clue that 20 non-Kaiser Permanente hospitals are involved in Project Access.

30 Get Free Treatment on ‘Super Saturday Surgery Day’ at Kaiser
by Chris Jennewein (former San Diego Union-Tribune administrator)
Times of San Diego
April 12, 2014

Nearly 30 San Diegans with debilitating medical conditions are scheduled to receive free treatment Saturday at a “Super Saturday Surgery Day” conducted by the San Diego County Medical Society Foundation and Kaiser Permanente.

About 150 physicians and staff will volunteer time and expertise to provide medical care to the patients. Kaiser Permanente Garfield Specialty Center in San Diego.

For 13 of them, treatments will include hernia repairs, gallbladder removals, head and neck therapy, and vascular surgery. Another 16 patients will receive diagnostic gastrointestinal procedures to prevent colorectal cancer.

Barbara Mandel, Executive Director of the San Diego County Medical Society Foundation, said that since the Project Access San Diego program started in December of 2008, more than 2,400 patients have received free specialty care, including both inpatient and outpatient surgeries and procedures.

[Maura Larkins' comment: Journalist Chris Jennewein fails to mention that all this care DID NOT COME FROM KAISER PERMANENTE. Only some of it came from Kaiser. Here's a list of hospitals involved in the program:

Alvarado Hospital
Carlsbad Surgery Center
Coast Surgery Center
The Endoscopy Center
Endoscopy Center of Chula Vista
Escondido Surgery Center
Euclid Endoscopy Center
Kaiser Permanente
La Jolla Endoscopy Center
Northcoast Surgery Center
Orthopaedic Surgery Center of La Jolla
Otay Lakes Surgery Center
Palomar Pomerado Health
Paradise Valley Hospital
Parkway Endoscopy Center
Poway Surgery Center
San Diego Outpatient Ambulatory Surgical Center
Scripps Health
Surgical Center of San Diego
Tri-City Medical Center
University of California San Diego Medical Center]

Kaiser says it has held a dozen Super Saturdays, providing more than $2.4 million in services.

[Maura Larkins' comment: Who came up with that number? Perhaps Kaiser values its own services very highly? I expect Southern California Permanente Medical Group will use this as a tax write-off, so it would be expedient to exaggerate the value of the service.]

To qualify for Project Access San Diego’s Saturday Surgery Day an individual must live in San Diego County, be low-income, ineligible for public health programs, and be referred by their primary care physician.

— City News Service

Kaiser Permanente Senior Advantage forcibly enrolled retired federal employee who had enrolled in Nationwide

Yikes! I guess I should count my blessings that I was able to escape from Kaiser.

Kaiser Permanente Senior Advantage Ripoff Report
Reported By: Barbara
Monrovia, California
February 24, 2013

Kaiser Permanente
PO Box 232400 San Diego, California 92193
Phone: 1-800-443-0815

After canceling service 12/31/2012 and arranging replacement coverage through the Office of Personnel Management as a Retired Federal Employee, Kaiser without my knowledge, request or consent enrolled me in San Diego, California.

Due to change in living situations, I was forced to cancel my Kaiser Permanente coverage aften 46+ years. I am a Federal Retiree and during the Open Season with the help of my Congresswoman's office I chose a Nationwide company and did everything necessary including closing visits with my doctors. I used the new coverage in January while I was in New York without a problem. When I came home to Southern CA late in January I found mail from Kaiser telling me that I had been approved by Medicare to have their coverage as of 2/1/2013. I checked with OPM in DC and they said to ignore it that my proper coverage was in place. I destroyed the new Kaiser Cards (3 in separate mailings) and went on with my plans to establish myself with the Doctor of my choice.

Now, I have seen the new doctor and she prepared new prescriptions (as mine were running out) and ordered lab work. I am almost 70 years old and have several serious chronic conditions which require ongoing consistent medications.

When I heard from a provider that I could not get services because Medicare is not my primary coverage I inquired further and found that Kaiser had enrolled me without any request or permission and that I could not get anything without going through them.

Here's the catch, when I had called Kaiser to have them remove their name from my record I was told that I had to request it in writing with a signature and that since it is not open season they might not recognize or honor my cancellation. I told them that I had not authorized the coverage and I was not going to sign anything that could imply that I had.

After several long calls to Medicare and Kaiser (threatening them with an official Complaint) they acknowledged that they had enrolled me in their Individual Senior Advantage Program as of 1/18/2013 because they had checked and saw that I was eligible for Medicare (so what!). After putting me on hold for a long time for them to speak to a supervisor the lady came back and told me that they were attempting to assure that I would not have a break in coverage (bull ...).

I did as Medicare Operator instructor and called them back with the information and an Escallated Complaint has been sent "up the chain". Problem is that I am getting more ill and cannot get assistance unless I go to Kaiser and if I do, that will acknowledge that I accept what they have done and I will legally becomme financially obligated to them for the rest of the year. I live on two coasts and they are not available in NY and have limited Out of Area allowances.

So, here I sit having my drug coverage (for which I have paid) not being honored and scared to death that I cannot get this straightened out before I become critically ill. Do they think because I am old, I am stupid? God only knows how many retired federal (and others) employees find themselves in this same mess. After supposedly taking care of me for over 46 years they are ready to cause me illness and possible death if I do not come back to them...

Flashblind: patient exposes Dr. Paul Bernstein's policy of giving lots of X-rays, but concealing the results

Dr. Paul Bernstein, left, celebrates opening of the new Garfield center in San Diego. A large series of X-rays taken at this same building two weeks later, claims Bernstein, have not been released to the patient because they were "not saved digitally or on film." Apparently patients are radiated at Kaiser, and the results are used for no purpose at all, not even research.

Dr. Paul Bernstein has scruples. He often sets them aside to pull in the big bucks as Kaiser Permanente Medical Director in San Diego, but it seems to trouble him when he harms patients in pursuit of profits.

His latest book seems to be an effort to find doctors that are worse than he is. Ironically, he relied on the Freedom of Information Act to research the book, while he supports the falsification and concealment of Kaiser medical records.

San Diego Medical Director and Author Exposes Government Experiments in New Release
Hollywood Industry
August 01, 2012

Los Angeles, California (PRWEB)

Dr. Paul Bernstein will be introducing his newest, controversial release, Flashblind, in La Jolla, discussing the grim truth behind the work of fiction, as revealed in his extensive research via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Flashblind, a medical thriller, brings to light the actual history of government sponsored radiation experiments on American citizens throughout the atomic age. Funded by the US Department of Energy--the same agency responsible for testing nuclear bombs--carefully guarded genetic research experiments were done in secret for decades.

Award-winning author and medical director for Kaiser Permenente in San Diego, Dr. Paul Bernstein will discuss this new and highly acclaimed novel, "Flashblind," at a book signing on Sunday, August 5, from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Warwick's at 7812 Girard Avenue, La Jolla. Here's another story about how Kaiser handles X-rays and reports.

Witness tampering in Grotz v. Kaiser Permanente retaliation case?

It appears that there may have been witness tampering by Kaiser Permanente and/or SEIU in the Grotz v. Kaiser Permanente case.


Courthouse News reported on July 11, 2012:

Kristinna Grotz sued Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, the Permanente Medical Group, and SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, which allegedly failed to stick up for her.

Grotz claims she worked in Kaiser's admitting department from 2002 until she was fired in the summer of 2011.

She says that from early 2008 department manager (nonparty) D. T. used drugs - "in all likelihood methamphetamine" - at work, and that D. T. retaliated against her for reporting it.


This case sounds very familiar.

As a patient of Kaiser Permanente, I was amazed to learn that Kaiser forced its doctors to falsify medical records in my case, apparently to justify denial of care. I have published some of the obviously false documents HERE.

As an employee of a different institution, I experienced a similar problem to that of Grotz. I was a teacher at Chula Vista Elementary School District when my employer retaliated against me for asking for an investigation into abusive, illegal actions by teachers. One of my witnesses told me that Richard Werlin, the Assistant Superintendent for human resources, came to her school and interrogated her about her prospective testimony. It was pure intimidation. The district wasn't interested in the facts; they didn't even interview me! Later, teachers contradicted themselves and each other in their depositions. See Linda Watson deposition HERE.

My union behaved exactly like Grotz' union. California Teachers Association supported teachers who had committed crimes instead of supporting me. My local president,Gina Boyd, said 60 times during her deposition that she didn't know or didn't remember something. See deposition HERE.

Still, I was shocked when one of the witnesses in the Grotz v. Kaiser case contacted me and asked me to remove her name from my post about the case, saying she could lose her license. Apparently she has been threatened, and may be planning to change her story.

I removed the names of both witnesses who were mentioned, but I am concerned that Kaiser and SEIU may be tampering with witnesses in this case, a serious felony.

The Rawlings Group plunders its own employees as it plunders Kaiser Permanente Patients

Click on image to enlarge. Thanks to Jacqueline Finney for the image.

See video on Fix US Health website about the Rawlings Group's actions on behalf of Kaiser Permanente: "Kaiser Permanente Plunders Patients' Piece of the Pie."

Here's a quote from the site:

"Managed Care: Kaiser Permanente Plunders Patients’ Piece of the Pie. Kaiser Permanente has colluded with the Rawlings Company to illegally coerce patients to disclose confidential information in order to track down accident victims to shake them down. The technical term is subrogation. If you have received a letter from Kaiser or Rawlings, demanding accident information, you are at risk that their lawyers may steal money required to ease your suffering. Please e-mail us if you have you have received such a letter from Kaiser or Rawlings. Together we can petition public officials to stop this scam. Kaiser’s and Rawlings’ false statements violate California’s Unfair Competition Law and offend public policy. Our e-mail is feedback@hmohardball.com. We invite you to visit our patient protection website at www.hmohardball.com."

The same video is available on YouTube.

Also see post re HMO Hardball's story on Angela Farnum.

Rawlings/Kaiser actions in the Heriberto Sandoval case are documented in this lawsuit.

Rawlings Group sued over OT
The Rawlings Group has 550 employees in its 156,000-square-foot headquarters off New Moody Lane in La Grange.
Andrea Uhde
courier-journal.com
Sep 16, 2008

Oldham County's largest private employer, The Rawlings Group, is being sued by two current and two former employees who say they are owed money for overtime they worked in the last five years.

Diana Johnston, Denise Matthews, Tawnya Davis and Tracy Hobbs, all of Jefferson County, filed the lawsuit in Oldham Circuit Court Aug. 26.

In it, they claim they were regularly required to work more than 40 hours a week and weren't paid overtime because they were misclassified as exempt rather than non-exempt employees, in violation of Kentucky Wage and Hour Laws. Overtime is 1.5 times regular rate pay...



Rawlings Group seems to agree with Jacqueline Finney that respecting the law and patients' rights is not one of its goals:

WHY RAWLINGS--FOCUSING ON YOUR BOTTOM LINE

There are many criteria to consider when selecting a claims recovery vendor, but proven ability to deliver bottom line results is among the most important of all. At The Rawlings Group, that is exactly what we deliver.

The Rawlings Group has made significant investments in our internal systems, procedures, and staff. The infrastructure that we have built as a result of these investments has allowed us to consistently generate gross recoveries that are significantly higher—often by multiples—than what other vendors are routinely able to produce. And that means significantly higher bottom line results for our clients.

So what does this mean to you? Simple. When it comes time to select a vendor, do not be distracted by lowball fees, extravagant claims, etc. Rather, focus on bottom line results. When you do, the decision is clear—Rawlings delivers more net revenue to your bottom line than what any other company can deliver.