Kaiser settles patient-dumping charges

Kaiser Permanente has agreed to settle a group of civil and criminal patient-dumping charges filed by the Los Angeles city attorney's office. Under the terms of the agreement, Kaiser will establish new discharge rules, improve employee training and submit to ongoing monitoring. It will also pay $5,000 in civil penalties, $50,000 in investigative costs to the city attorney's office and $500,000 to a charitable foundation. Officials had charged that Kaiser's Bellflower hospital had packed a disoriented 63-year-old patient into a taxi and dumped her in the street in her hospital gown and slippers. The settlement came as the city attorneys issued subpoenas to obtain Kaiser's records on discharge of homeless patients, as well as taxi and transportation companies' records. The Kaiser suits and charges are just one of more than 50 cases the city attorney's office has filed alleging patient dumping by the city's hospitals.

To get more background on the settlement:
- read this Los Angeles Times piece

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