BREAKING: Kaiser Permanente Ineligible to Participate in Obamacare Insurance Exchange in California Next Year
Kaiser disqualified from exchange due to violations of state statutory requirements for mental health patients and other plan participants
What: Press conference on Kaiser’s failure to qualify for participation in insurance exchange
Where: Kaiser Oakland, 3801 Howe St, Oakland, Emergency Services entrance
When: Wednesday, July 31 at 12 noon
Visuals: Healthcare workers at podium in front of hospital
Oakland — Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., the biggest HMO in California and one of the biggest in the country, cannot participate in the new insurance exchange being set up under Obamacare in California next year since it fails to meet the required standard of “good standing” spelled out in the exchange’s “Qualified Health Plan Contract.”
At tomorrow’s press conference, NUHW members who work at Kaiser will explain the exchange’s rules and Kaiser’s disqualification from participation in it due to numerous citations by the Department of Managed Health Care for statutory violations involving delays and denials of care to patients.
NUHW members have long urged Kaiser to adhere to the law and to its ethical responsibilities by hiring the staff necessary to provide patients with the care they deserve. Rather than listen to their employees, however, Kaiser managers have begun to punish clinicians for exercising responsible medical judgment. Earlier this month, Kaiser management disciplined Dr. Alex Wang, a psychologist at Kaiser Fremont, for writing in his clinical notes, “pt should be seen sooner,” calling it a “political statement.”