Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Kaiser-Permanente Death Edict for Senior Medicare Cancer Sufferer

Highlights of Kaiser Permanente's Senior Medicare
Program Preying Upon Vulnerable Seniors
This is a medical horror story that no one would believe, but is well documented.
This site  describes deadly problems by certain physicians at the Kaiser Health Plan, with particular attention to not only medical malpractice, but also willful withholding of diagnostic tests and then when an out-of-Kaiser physician ordered a CT scan that showed kidney cancer, Kaiser physician then repeatedly blocked the urgent and time-sensitive curative surgery with various pretenses. This led to the cancer mutating throughout the body. Kaiser physicians are partners and shareholders in the for-profit parent company, Kaiser Permanente, and thereby profit by withholding tests and treatment.
Tactics Used to Deny Curative Surgery to Vulnerable Senior Medicare
 Patient by Kaiser Doctors and For-Profit Parent Corporation
Denial of Diagnostic Tests: Too Old!
  • Denial of diagnostic tests for symptoms requiring such tests under universally accepted medical practices. For the better part of a year this was due to incompetence of two primary care physicians. The third primary care physician was competent but stated that these diagnostic tests were not given to people of his age. (Unlike other type of health plans, Kaiser physicians are stockholders in the parent for-profit Kaiser Permanente corporation and their profits increase if the costs are kept low.
Force to Seek Diagnostic Test From Physician Outside of Kaiser Permanente
  • Forced to obtain diagnostic tests from out-of-Kaiser physician. Senior member of Kaiser Permanente senior advantage Medicare program then goes to an out-of-plan physician, explaining his symptoms. That doctor orders a PT scan which shows cancer in the right kidney, with possible involvement of a kidney lymph node. Such a diagnosis calls for prompt surgical removal of the kidney and lymph node to prevent cancer escaping and spreading throughout the body.
Discovery of Kidney Cancer Spreading to Lymph Node
  • Kaiser physicians are given the 7-page CT report and scan CD on May 12, 2011.  Indifference, and not the slightest sign of urgency required of that discovery. Kaiser physicians respond:
    Kaiser Permanente Indifference
    • First, indifference, despite the imminent spread of the cancer from the suspected lymph node involvement.
    • Costly surgery avoidance on the following bogus claims:
      Stent Excuse
      • Patient had coronary stent installed four years earlier. Millions of people have coronary stents installed and not considered high risk for surgery.
      Patient Takes Daily Aspirin
      • Patient needs daily aspirin for blood thinning due to the stent placement. Same situation, millions of people take aspirin and continue to do so as they are set for surgery. Mayo Clinic, ,for instance, requires most of its patients undergoing surgery to take aspirin whether they used it or not, to minimize clot formation that is a standard risk in surgery.
      Patient Too Old for Surgery
      • Patient is too old for surgery. Patient was moderately active, did a daily modest treadmill workout, appeared years younger in appearance and actions, was considered satisfactory for surgery by his cardiologist, and the surgery performed would be a small incision laparoscopic removal of a kidney and lymph node. And further shown by numerous medical studies.
      • Do nothing and let the cancer spread. He would probably die of old age before the cancer killed him. Too bad about the suffering from the spreading cancer that could have been cured, or the premature death!!)
      Repeated Pleas for Timely Treatment Denied
       
  • Patient repeatedly asked for prompt surgery—as called for in numerous medical studies—to avoid extension of the cancer outside the kidney and kidney lymph node. Even when he made a expedited appeal to expedite the surgery, he was denied the request. The surgery was scheduled almost eight weeks after Kaiser Permanente physicians were given evidence of the cancer in the kidney and lymph node. Instead of the standard medical practice of scheduling the surgery for kidney removal within a week, eight weeks passed, during which the cancer may have spread throughout the body. This will be determined in time. He was now denied the curative surgery, but being set up for extension of them cancer throughout the body, with the known horrors of advancing cancer and early deaths.
  • For profit Kaiser Permanente executives complicit. Numerous letters and faxes were sent to the executives of for-profit parent organization, Kaiser Permanente were ignored. They stood to profit from bonuses by reducing the costs in the underlying not-for-profit Kaiser Health Plan and Kaiser Hospitals.
  • "Chances of surviving kidney cancer without having surgery are poor." Metro Health)
Compounded Grief
  • While this patient was being subjected to an extension of the kidney throughout them body, being denied a cancer cure, his other half, Glenda, had discovered that the Stage IV esophagus cancer had spread to her lungs. This would be followed with suffering and early death, while the Kaiser patient has to fight to get her non-Kaiser oncology group to respond with prompt treatment rather than as a number to get to the end of the line.
The following is a an example of not the serious medical problems at Kaiser Permanente health plan for  senior Medicare members, as it relates to a former war time Navy pilot:
Choices Given—To Be Provided When Convenient for Kaiser
 
  • The two urologists, including the surgeon, gave the patient three options, to be done when Kaiser manages to get around to it:
    Do Nothing: Let the Cancer Spread, Suffer, and Die!
    • Do nothing, and let the cancer spread. This insures probable months of cancer horrors, depending on how fast the cancer spreads, and cost saving, plus great profit for Kaiser physicians that are shareholders in the parent for-profit Kaiser Permanente corporation.
    Through the Skin Freezing
    • Percutaneous cryoablation. (Kidney freezing.)  The standard practice of bringing in other specialists in cancer treatment,  that the patient repeatedly requested, was also denied. That failure belatedly revealed that the cryoablation was not possible because the cancer was at the top of the kidney, where freezing risked destroying part of the lungs and diaphragm. That resulted in more delays, although the patient had requested surgical removal of the kidney—which is curative IF the cancer had not spread.
    Freezing Through Small Skin Incisions
    • Laparoscopic cryoablation (small incisions to freeze the kidney) and kill the cancer. Because surgical risks were the same, patient repeatedly stated he wanted surgical removal.
    Standard Small Skin Incisions
    • Laparoscopic nephrectomy (removal of the cancerous tissue and suspected lymph node to which the cancer is believed to have spread).
  • The patient repeated requested the surgical removal of the cancerous kidney, which was the gold standard action promptly taken after CT test shows a kidney tumor. Week after week passed, with the patient dreading the extension of the cancer from the kidney lymph note to throughout the body. Some would call this worst than malpractice, but criminal neglect.
    Repeated Phony Excuses for Resisting Standard Surgical Removal
    • Patent had a coronary stent installed several years earlier. (As do millions of other people on whom nephrectomy is standard treatment, and these are often seniors.)
    • Patient had to take aspirin because of the stent, and that would cause massive bleeding. (Contrary to the majority of medical studies and reports.)
    • His age. (He is physically active, has no significant other problems, and numerous reports show no greater danger other than a modest amount of possible additional bleeding.)
Overwhelming Medical Studies Contradicted Kaiser Money-Saving Surgery Avoidance
Stent Excuse
  • Existence of a stent, Thousands of people yearly undergo major surgery with stents.
Aspirin Excuse
  • Aspirin usage. Mayo Clinic, prescribe aspirin for most of their surgery patients prior to surgery, whether they were already using aspirin, or not.
Too Old Excuse
  • Too old for surgery. Criteria used by some Mayo surgeons' use the time required to walk nine feet. If over 6 seconds, they are at risk. This patient does that in 2 seconds. And his cardiologist said he was not at high risk due to age. He has no other significant medical conditions.
Among the Many Articles Addressing Age as not Greatly Increasing the Surgical Risk
 Med Clin North Am. 1993 Mar;77(2):327-33.
Is age a risk factor for surgery?
Division of General Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.
Abstract:
"There are many factors that have an impact on mortality rates in surgical care of the elderly. The most important of these are the physiologic changes with aging, underlying disease states, the type of procedures performed, and whether the procedure is performed as an emergency. Although there are many risks in performing surgery in elderly patients, there are many patients who do well and benefit from undergoing surgical procedures. Age alone should never be used as the criterion to deny surgery indicated in an elderly patient."
www.About.com  Senior health.  Think you are too old to be either a kidney transplant recipient or to be a kidney transplant donor? It may be that age of either the donor or of the recipient is no longer a factor. Doctors at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center Transplant Center have found at one year after surgery, transplant patients who were over age 60 did as well as younger patients, despite the fact that they usually received kidneys from older donors. A study of 144 kidney transplants found that at least a year after surgery, success rates were comparable, regardless of the age of the donors or recipients. 
"Advanced age is not a prohibitive factor in laparoscopic nephrectomy for renal pathology. (www.PubMed.gov)
Abstract.
    Since the first procedure by Clayman and colleagues in 1990, laparoscopic nephrectomy has been performed at multiple institutions worldwide and is an accepted approach for benign and malignant renal pathology. We retrospectively compared the outcomes of laparoscopic nephrectomy for renal pathology in patients older than and less than 65 years of age. Data were collected for all patients undergoing elective nephrectomy (simple, radical, and nephroureterectomy) for renal pathology between November 2000 and June 2003. A total of 94 laparoscopic nephrectomies (62 hand-assisted, 32 totally laparoscopic) for renal disease were performed. Indications for surgery included renal cell carcinoma (63), transitional cell carcinoma (7), hypertension (9), chronic pyelonephritis (6), nonfunctioning kidney (4), complex cyst (3), and polycystic kidney disease (2). There were 33 elderly patients (> or = 65 years) and 61 adult patients (< 65 years).
    The elderly group had a mean operative time (238 min vs 234.3 min; P = 0.89) and blood loss (88.5 mL vs 149.8 mL; P = 0.68) similar to the adult group. Likewise, the incidence of perioperative complications was no different between the two groups (intra-op: 3.0% vs 0%; P = 0.35/post-op: 21.2% vs 16.4%; P = 0.56). The length of hospitalization was longer in the elderly population (5.7 days versus 5.0 days; P = 0.01) compared to the younger adult group. Laparoscopic nephrectomy is well tolerated in the elderly population. For all surgical indications, the use of a minimally invasive approach confers operative times, blood loss, and morbidity that are comparable to those of younger patients. Yet, length of stay remains longer for elderly patients undergoing nephrectomy. [5.7 days instead of 5.0!]
  • Thousands of hip-joint and knee joint replacement surgeries are done every year, and on obviously on senior people. And that type of surgery is far more difficult than the small-incision laparoscopic nephrectomy (kidney removal) surgery.
More Medical Studies Contradicting Kaiser Permanente
Attempts to Deny Curative Surgery for Kidney Cancer
More medical reports contradicting the arguments by Kaiser physicians for denying curative surgery—or warning the member of dire consequences when the surgery dangers were relatively minor.
Sampling of Prior Experiences with Kaiser
Primary Care Physicians
After many decades of relatively experience with Kaiser primary care physicians, this is what this writer experienced from 2009 to 2011, during visit with the following problems:
  • Both legs swollen like a Japanese wrestler. Primary care doctor, apparently foreign born, looked at them but did nothing. The problem was obviously water retention, and eventually the use of a diuretic resulted in a rapid 18-pound weight loss from the removal of the swollen legs.
     
  • Same primary care physician at another time: Complaints of constipation combined with diarrhea and lower abdominal pain indicated  need for colonoscopy or CT scan. His suggestion: Take frequent enemas!
     
  • Extreme fatigue and muscle weakness for a year, without any tests or treatment. (He later discovered on his own that the daily taking of a 80 mg Simvastatin (statin) drug was causing a dangerous breakdown of muscle tissue, a not uncommon side effect that calls for immediate stoppage of the cholesterol-reducing drug. Ignored, this leads to kidney failure, dialysis, and death.
     
  • Next primary care physician with foreign accent. Repeated the suggestion of the prior physician, and despite the prominent information available to physicians for the danger of the common cholesterol-lowering drug, no reaction.
     
  • Next primary care physician was more competent. He ordered tests that showed the breakdown in the muscle tissue. The danger of this breakdown is that it can overwhelm the kidneys and leads to permanent failure of the kidneys, which then results in either death or dialysis for the remainder of the person's life. Despite this common danger that should have been staring the physicians in the face, neither of the two first primary care physicians appeared knowledgeable about this common problem with death consequences.
Horrible Suffering and Death Sentence By
Delaying Tactics and Surgery-Discovering Horror Stories

Cancer often inflicts horrible suffering upon the person, and premature death. For any physician to use false threats of surgical outcomes, or delays treatment, or denies treatment, should be considered for criminal prosecution. By their conduct, they were insuring that the patient would die, and suffer the horrors of advancing cancer.
Awesome pain is associated with cancer, not only from the cancer tumor itself, but also from diagnostic procedures, radiation and chemo therapy. For some cancer victims, the pain s so great they want to kill themselves.
This is the future for this particular member of Kaiser-Permanente senior Medicare member.
Thousands of Deaths Yearly Due to Medical Errors

Some studies state that over 200,000 people die a year in the United States due to medical malpractice. It is reportedly the third leading cause of death in the United States. One study broke down the deaths as follows:
  • 20,000 people die each year due to other types of errors in hospitals.
  • 7,000 people die each year due to medication errors in hospitals
  • 80,000 people die each year from nosocomial infections in hospitals
  • 106,000 people die each year from adverse reactions to medications
Another site stated that accidental deaths caused by physicians average about 120,000 a year.
One Internet site stated: Doctors Are the Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S. and cause 250,000 Deaths Every Year. Those statistics were obtained from an article in the  Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by Dr. Starfield. Idt is unknown if these figures include the deaths caused by denial of treatment, as in this example.
Horror stories about medical personnel misconduct are detailed in the book, Congress and Other Cesspools. This matter will be added.
Phony Quality Performance Ratings
Given to Kaiser Permanente—
Like Those Given to Worthless Financial Products
Health care evaluators/raters cover up for Kaiser Permanente serious problems by issuing high performance ratings, similar to the ratings given by the nation's credit rating agencies (Standard and Poor's, Moody's, Fitch;) to the obvious financial papers and financial corporations responsible for the housing and financial crisis that continues to inflict such great harm upon the people of the United States and the nation.
Relative Freedom From Being Sued Encourages
These Deadly Tactics at Kaiser Permanente
Because of the law in California, medical misconduct lawsuits are relatively rare because of the restrictions and limits placed on medical malpractice lawsuits..
Medical malpractice involves professional negligence or misconduct.  That could be by a health care provider when it deviates from accepted standards of practice in the medical community, as in the this matter, and causes injury or death to the patient. Standards and regulations for medical malpractice vary by country and jurisdiction within countries. Here are a few examples of medical malpractice:
  • Improper treatment.
     
  • A delay in treatment which results in harm to a patient.
     
  • Wrong diagnosis.
     
  • Failure to treat.
     
  • Failure by the health-care provider to perform appropriate follow-up treatment.
A plaintiff must establish four elements of the tort of negligence for a successful medical malpractice claim.
  1. A duty was owed: a legal duty exists whenever a hospital or health care provider undertakes care or treatment of a patient.
     
  2. A duty was breached: the provider failed to conform to the relevant standard care.
     
  3. The breach caused an injury: The breach of duty was a proximate cause of the injury.
     
  4. Damages: Without damages (losses which may be pecuniary or emotional), there is no basis for a claim, regardless of whether the medical provider was negligent. Likewise, damages can occur without negligence, for example, when someone dies from a fatal disease.
However, deliberate misconduct, as in the above case, does not require arbitration, and can proceed in court.
Sampling of Letters by Desperate Senior Victim  Seeking Help to Force  Kaiser to Perform Needed Surgery
The patient sent dozens of letters and faxes to different organizations where the personnel were paid to react to such outrageous medical misconduct. None responded, reflecting what the patient had discovered for years that most people in those positions are most interested in the pay and not in meeting responsibilities. This list includes faxes sent to several of Kaiser Permanente's executives at the Oakland, California parent for-profit corporation (none ever responded), to county prosecutors responsible for preventing senior abuse; and others who are paid to provide assistance:
  • George Halverson, Chairman and CEO Kaiser Permanente. (no response)
  • Berman Tyson, President, Kaiser Permanente. (no response)
Kaiser Permanente Oakland Divisional Offices:
1 Kaiser Plaza, Oakland, CA 94612-3600. FAX 510-267-7524 (no response)
Moor will be posted soon
Kaiser Physicians Profit from
Denial of Costly Medical Treatment
Medical treatment at the Kaiser Permanente group involves three separate corporate entities
  • Kaiser Foundation Health Plan.  Non-profit corporation.
  • Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Inc. Non-profit corporation.
  • The Permanente Medical Group
In Northern California and  Southern California, the for-profit parent corporation—Kaiser Permanente—have Kaiser physicians as employees and partners that share in any profit that is the difference between the fees collected from enrollees, including such government payments as from senior Medicare, and the cost of the services.
The denial of diagnostic tests to the patient referred to in this report helped in a small way to boost the profits and benefit the physicians. The repeated attempts to deny expensive surgery would be a major cost saving and profit generation.
While it probably won't save a senior from cancer sufferings and early death from the death-decree some experienced at Kaiser, there are law firms that can at least cause minor financial inconvenience for Kaiser physicians and the for-profit corporation. One such firm advertises at  Kaiser Medical Malpractice website and resource page.
And if the offense is worse then medical malpractice--the repeated denial of care, knowing that the cancer will spread, the offense possibly enters the criminal area.
Kaiser Protecting Themselves from Consequences
Of Their Deliberate Medical Malpractice--
But Vulnerable to Deliberate Withholding Or
Delay of Life Saving Treatment
To enroll in a Kaiser health plan, Kaiser protects itself against medical malpractice and negligence, unlike private doctors and hospitals, that requires that the enrollee sign a waiver preventing the enrollee from suing Kaiser and submitting any malpractice or deliberate withholding of medical care to arbitration.
Kaiser abused this system, protecting themselves from liability for their wrongful acts, while denying their victims their day in court. Their abuse of enrollees' rights were partly reduced by the formation of a semi-independent administrator. That administrator provides the attorney for Kaiser, and the attorney for the plaintiff with a list of 12 names. The decision arbitrator's decision is binding and not subject to any appeal process.
While the patient that has been subjected to intentional withholding of treatment that they know will result in cancer spreading, or death, is not helped, heirs can file lawsuits outside of the arbitration limitations, and include punitive damages.
Google Search for Medical Horror Stories
Kaiser Permanente Health Plan
The following are a small sampling of the many reports found by a Google search under the search words, "Kaiser Health Plan malpractice" or Kaiser Permanente malpractice.
The following are sampling of Internet sites for lawyers that have filed malpractice lawsuits against Kaiser doctors or the Kaiser allegedly not-for-profit health plan or hospital groups, and the for-profit Kaiser Permanente parent corporation.
Read the chapter on medical horror stories in the book, Congress and Other Cesspools, in print and e-book format from amazon.com and other Internet sources.
Could There Be a Sinister Reason for Wanting To
Bring About the Patient's Early Death?
That senior citizen is nationally known for his 40 years of exposing grave misconduct involving key people in the government of the United States and the great harm, sometimes deaths, and sometimes catastrophic events, caused or enabled by the documented misconduct that he and his coalition of concerned former government agents had discovered during their professional duties.
One of his Internet sites is www.defraudingamerica.com. A list of his books are at www.defraudingamerica.com/list_of_books.
This example is far worse then medical malpractice. The intentional withholding of tests and curative treatment by Kaiser physicians and the executives of the for-profit Kaiser Permanente Corporation are crude and cruel acts against a mostly vulnerable senior members that are defenseless.
Comparisons could be made of the contempt by people in the Wall Street firms preying upon the nation's people.
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