Kaiser Permanente

State regulators are investigating Kaiser Permanente's Southern California operation for allegedly deceptive marketing practices related to the upcoming transfer of about 18,000 Coachella Valley patients from outside doctors to the HMO's staff physicians. The California Department of Managed Health Care is looking into whether Kaiser misled members into believing that they could continue seeing their current primary care doctors when, in fact, that will no longer be the case after June 30.

A Los Angeles County jury found Friday that Kaiser Permanente retaliated against one of its emergency room physicians after he raised concerns about the quality of care at Kaiser's Bellflower Medical Center. Kaiser's affiliated medical group placed Dr. Mark L. Woods on administrative leave and reduced his pay in 2003 after he complained about filthy treatment rooms, delays in care and a shortage of supplies, jurors said. On a 9-3 vote, they awarded Woods $200,000 for past economic losses.

Two Kaiser Permanente patients filed suit Monday against the giant HMO following the suspension of its Northern California kidney transplant program. The suit was filed by Irvine lawyer Lawrence Eisenberg on behalf of patients Lurena Fiore and Debra Adams, but it is seeking class-action status. It claims negligence, fraud and misrepresentation, and conspiracy. A Kaiser spokesman said he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment on it.

Kaiser Permanente's kidney transplant program in Northern California, which is in the process of shutting down amid scandal, received notice this week that it may face financial sanctions from the federal government because of serious deficiencies. The U.S.

State HMO regulators said Tuesday that they had found no evidence to support allegations that Kaiser Permanente misled about 18,000 patients in the Coachella Valley about their upcoming transfer from outside doctors to the HMO's staff physicians. The California Department of Managed Health Care said it determined that Kaiser had sent adequate notice about the transition to members and employers in the Palm Springs, Palm Desert and Indio areas of Riverside County.

More than a month after Kaiser Permanente announced it was closing its troubled kidney transplant program serving Northern California, only a handful of its 2,000 patients have been officially transferred to programs at two University of California medical centers. After promising last month that patients would be transferred swiftly and efficiently, state HMO regulators acknowledged Thursday that even the most basic parts of the process have proved unexpectedly complicated.

A patient in Kaiser Permanente's soon-to-be-shuttered kidney transplant program in Northern California filed suit Monday, claiming the giant HMO breached its contract and did not deal in good faith with him. Bernard Burks, 56, was featured in articles in The Times last month, saying Kaiser repeatedly ignored his calls and failed to arrange a transplant using a kidney from his daughter, who is a willing and compatible donor.

Virtually every part of Kaiser Permanente's massive kidney transplant program in San Francisco failed patients, according to a scathing federal report released Friday. The program, which has about 2,000 Northern California patients on its waiting list, was poorly planned, poorly staffed, poorly run and poorly qualified to care for transplant patients, wrote inspectors for the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

California HMO regulators said this week that it will take months longer than expected to transfer about 2,000 patients out of Kaiser Permanente's troubled kidney transplant center in San Francisco, prolonging patients' dependence on a program that has been plagued by scandal.

Kaiser Permanente has agreed to pay a $2-million fine after state HMO regulators found that its Northern California kidney transplant program imperiled hundreds of patients, in some cases delaying critical surgeries or losing track of patients altogether, four people familiar with the deal said. The penalty, expected to be announced today in Sacramento, would be the largest ever levied by the California Department of Managed Health Care.