Kaiser Permanente to Pay $1 Million for Mishandling California Kidney Transplant Program

Kaiser Permanente will pay $1 million to settle claims filed on behalf of five patients who said the nation’s largest HMO botched its California-based kidney transplant program, causing patients deaths and injuries.

A Los Angeles Times investigation in 2006 uncovered serious problems with the Kaiser program, which was based in San Francisco and served thousands of patients. Due to mismanagement of the program, some patients were forced to enroll in a new program that was not prepared to accept the huge load of new transplant cases, the Times investigation revealed. The controversial program was shut down after the scandal was exposed.

People in need of kidney transplants were forced to sit on a long waiting list for procedures, which seriously jeopardized the health of hundreds of patients. Some people died while waiting for transplants caused by Kaiser’s mishandling of the kidney transplant program, attorneys said.

In a statement released announcing the settlement, Kaiser said it “deeply regret(s) the problems, difficulties and concern” caused by its handling of the program.

In 2004, as many as 1,500 kidney-transplant patients were moved from existing programs at other medical centers to a new program being launched by Kaiser. Within a year, twice as many people had died while on the waiting list as had received new kidneys.

Each plaintiff stands to receive between $100,000 and $300,000, depending on the nature of their claims. Many of the settlements are capped by a California law which limits malpractice awards for “pain and suffering” to no more than $250,000.

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