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kaiser patients, kaiser permanente, kaiser workers, kp lawyer watch

More Kaiser Abuse of Injured Workers - KP LAWYER WATCH
I just read a recent case of Kaiser legal harassment of an injured employee. The issues involved in Donna Yee-Sanchez vs. Permanente Medical Group are so crucial that it's listed under the significant panel decisions on the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board web site. Since anyone can read the background and the legal opinion regarding this case, I'm just going to cover some of the slimy Kaiser tactics revealed here.

* The worker didn't have a lawyer and could have been tricked by Kaiser into doing something that was only in their interest and might have deprived her of her rights at any time.

* Kaiser didn't accept the initial diagnosis of a qualified physician, and they demanded a "redo" in which they forced the injured worker to choose from three Kaiser-approved physicians.

* When the second physician confirmed disability, Kaiser went into legal-harassment mode.

* The injured worker refrained from submitting to a deposition because Kaiser hadn't filed the necessary application to initate procedures with the Worker's Comp board (i.e., Kaiser was trying to be legalistically intimidating without any judicial oversight in play).

* Kaiser managed to get a deposition out of the diagnosing physician even through they didn't have any right to it.

* Kaiser continued to try to squirm out of initiating formal procedures: i.e., they wanted to get away with legal-esque intimidation without adhering to any rules or procedural oversight.

* If I'm reading this correctly, the diagnosis of the second doctor may have entitled the worker to higher disability compensation - but Kaiser, after putting the worker through the hassle of the second diagnosis, was still paying the original rate.

* The only thing this Worker's Comp board decision does is offer the remedy to address Kaiser's sleazy tactics: the worker can apply to initiate the WCAB process herself - and then there would be some oversight with the power to sanction Kaiser's bad behavior. While the injured worker might be worried about engaging with this process without an attorney, the board notes that sanctions might cover attorney fees. Still, since it's an adversarial process, it's not a sure thing that attorney fees would be covered. I'm curious about what the worker decided to do.

The Workers Comp board provides an excellent summary of the whole tangle:

...it appears (without actually deciding the question) that PMG far overstepped the bounds of proper and non-compelled investigation and ventured far into the realm of unquestionably unlawful pre-application discovery....[I]t is only the jurisdiction and authority of the WCAB that permits depositions to be noticed and taken (and subpoenas to be issued) in workers’ compensation matters....Accordingly, once an application is filed (if one has not been filed already), the PWCJ (or any other WCJ ultimately assigned to the case) should consider exercising the post-application remedies discussed above, including but not limited to monetary and evidentiary sanctions, for PMG’s apparent pre-application abuses of discovery.

Gee, this sort of reminds me of Kaiser spending two months investigating me after the Office of Civil Rights gave them my name as a whistleblower, without ever checking the prominent telltale dates on the documents involved or attempting to contact me for clarification.

Basically, Kaiser can afford lots of lawyers, so they can afford to game the system and bully people with just the threat of a lawyer attack (implied by interrogations depositions).

A further issue in the San Francisco Bay Area (i.e. Kaiser Territory), just about every lawyer who even touches on health care in the course of their practice has accepted work from Kaiser - making it very difficult for any individual who is trying to defend themselves to obtain a lawyer even if they can afford $300-$500/hr. (because conflict of interest could get the lawyer disbarred). Even if your case has nothing to do with health care, the "health care angle" (and Kaiser's deep pockets) will scare off lawyers who pursue other specialties.

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Did anyone else notice that the Business Times is now speculating on Kaiser's potential financial insolvency?

And here's another article on Kaiser turning tail when the going gets rough for patients. This time the victim is a boy with brain cancer.

In other news, Kaiser embezzler, political bribe-taker, and apparent massage-addict Leland Wong failed to overturn his indictment. Dear Kaiser Honchos - this sort of malfeasance TRICKLES DOWN FROM THE TOP!!!