Other Medical Negligence

Hersh & Hersh handles medical malpractice cases where there has been a significant economic loss due to the injury. Examples include cases where the injury will prevent a wage earner from returning to work or where the injury will require future medical care, monitoring, or extensive physical or occupational therapy.’ Hersh & Hersh has been successfully resolving medical malpractice cases for over 30 years.

If you believe that you or a family member has been seriously injured due to medical negligence, please contact us.

Related News

Hersh & Hersh Represents Patients In Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California Kidney-Transplant Program

August 15, 2006

San Francisco, Calif. – Hersh & Hersh is representing patients who were in the Kaiser Permanente kidney transplant program whose kidney transplants were delayed by Kaiser’s mismanagement of the program.

Both federal and state regulators have criticized the HMO’s kidney-transplant program. In June 2006, federal regulators released a scathing 51-page report that cited inadequate staffing and administrative chaos for delays that prevented patients from receiving kidney transplants. In August of 2006, state regulators then concluded that Kaiser’s mismanagement of its Northern California kidney-transplant program endangered patients, and reached an agreement with the HMO under which Kaiser will pay a record $5 million in fines and charitable donations. Based on Kaiser’s failure to address patient concerns with this program, state regulators have also opened a separate investigation into how the HMO responds to patient grievances.

In the past, Kaiser had transferred patients needing kidney transplants to the large, established transplant programs at UCSF and UC Davis. But in 2004, the HMO decided to bring the transplants in-house, and told patients that it would no longer pay for transplants at other facilities. As a result, the federal report found that “at least 25 Kaiser patients were forced to decline ‘perfect match’ kidneys at UCSF in 2005 because the health maintenance organization refused to pay for the operations at the university hospitals after September 2004.” (San Francisco Chronicle, 6/24/06). According to the report, many other patients faced long delays due to Kaiser’s mismanagement of their kidney-transplant program.

To remedy the problem, Kaiser has agreed to transfer its kidney-transplant patients back to UC hospitals. However, the transfers are taking more time than initially expected. As of August, only 22 percent of the almost 2,300 patients have been fully transferred to the larger programs at either UCSF or UC Davis.

If you or a loved one were in the Kaiser kidney transplant program, please contact us online or email us at general@hershlaw.com.

Related Newspaper Articles:

• “A Long Illness at Kaiser” Editorial in The San Francisco Chronicle. August 15, 2006
• “Record Kaiser fine expected; State to levy penalty over kidney program” The San Francisco Chronicle. August 10, 2006
• “Kaiser transplant program plans OKd” The San Francisco Chronicle. July 29, 2006
• “Scathing report on Kaiser kidney program Transplant delays assailed — Medicare threatens to end coverage” The San Francisco Chronicle. June 24, 2006