Letter to Dr. Benjamin Chu, President, Kaiser Permanente (South California Region) May 13, 2008, Victorville
Re: Your May 8, 2008 Posting on Kaiser Permanente’s Website
Dear Dr. Chu:
After reading your communication regarding bills sent by Prime Healthcare Services (“Prime”) which was posted on Kaiser Permanente’s (“Kaiser”) website on May 8, 2008, I came to the conclusion that you are either totally ignorant as to the actual facts surrounding the dispute between Prime and Kaiser or your letter is yet another example of Kaiser’s attempt to distort the truth so as to avoid facing the consequences of its own wrongful conduct. In this regard, I have the following observations and questions:
- Prime has not created the dispute or chosen to put patients in the middle of an ongoing business dispute that is more appropriately handled between Prime and Kaiser. Instead, it has been and continues to be Kaiser’s refusal to participate in binding arbitration which lead to Prime’s most recent actions. For example, do you know that on August 31, 2007, Prime offered to submit the disputes between Kaiser and Prime to binding arbitration which would have resulted in the disputes being resolved without the need to involve any patients but Kaiser refused to participate in binding arbitration? I have attached a copy of Prime’s August 31, 2007 proposal for your reference. This is especially ironic since your letter states that these types of disputes are best resolved through arbitration. Likewise, do you know that Prime has offered to submit its disputes to the Independent Dispute Resolution Program (“IDRP”) developed by the Department of Managed Health Care but Kaiser refused to participate in IDRP with Prime?