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Kaiser agrees to reforms in settlement with Los Angeles aimed at ending homeless 'dumping' The Associated Press Tuesday, May 15, 2007
LOS ANGELES: A leading U.S. health insurance company reached a settlement Tuesday with the city of Los Angeles to reforms aimed at ending hospitals' practice of abandoning homeless patients to the streets.
The settlement comes more than a year after an elderly hospital patient, insured by Kaiser Permanente, was found wandering crime-ridden streets in a hospital gown and slippers.
Kaiser will create new protocols for discharging homeless patients in its chain of hospitals, train staff and allow retired U.S. District Court Judge Lourdes G. Baird, a former U.S. attorney, to monitor its progress, officials said Tuesday.
Carol Ann Reyes, 64, was discharged from Kaiser's Bellflower hospital in March 2006 and dropped off by a taxi outside the Union Rescue Mission. She wandered around, apparently confused, for several minutes until mission staff took her in. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo filed criminal charges in November and said he wanted to send a message to hospitals nationwide engaged in "patient dumping". Los Angeles authorities are investigating allegations that a dozen area hospitals have dumped more than 50 homeless patients in downtown Los Angeles. Kaiser faced criminal false imprisonment charges and civil claims related to the mistreatment of Reyes. As part of the settlement, Kaiser will pay $5,000 (€3,693) in civil penalties, $50,000 (€36,933) in investigative costs to the city attorney's office and contribute $500,000 (€369,330) to a charitable foundation benefiting local homeless programs. Kaiser previously denied any wrongdoing. Kaiser spokeswoman Diana Bonta said in November that hospital staff had called a taxi to take Reyes to Skid Row, but called ahead to the mission to let staff know she was on her way. Dr. Benjamin Chu, president of Kaiser Permanente's Southern California region, said Tuesday the release of Reyes was a breakdown in existing hospital protocol and an aberration. "I don't think the policies and procedures were wrong," he said. "They just weren't as tight as we'd like them to be." The settlement, he said, was "an example of what can happen when people of good will sit down together." Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California, said the lawsuit and settlement called attention to a rarely addressed nationwide problem. "What happened to Ms. Reyes was disgraceful and this agreement will help bring dignity back to the treatment of homeless people in this city's hospitals," he said.