Kaiser Papers New Letter July 2007

The Misdiagnosis of Lyme Disease

Lyme disease has been described as the “great imitator” and can mimic a number of illnesses. Most Kaiser victims of Lyme disease have likely been misdiagnosed with other conditions.

The medical community on the West Coast is incredibly ignorant about Lyme disease, mistakenly believing that Lyme disease does not exist or is extremely rare in California, Oregon and Washington. This despite the fact that California, Oregon and Washington have been defined as endemic areas by the Centers for Disease Control. The tragic result is that many have been misdiagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, MS, lupus, Lou Gehrig's, early-onset Alzheimer’s, psychiatric disorders and other conditions of unknown cause and cure which results in needless suffering.

We would urge that patients who have been diagnosed with these conditions explore the possibility that they are, in fact, infected with Lyme disease. A complete list of possible misdiagnoses of Lyme disease can be found on the Internet but the conditions listed above are the most common. It is also not uncommon that Lyme disease victims carry other tick-borne infections as well. To the best of my knowledge, Kaiser’s competence in other tick-borne infections is about zero.

Because of changed reporting requirements, California is just now starting to recognize an increased number of Lyme disease cases under strict reporting criteria. However, inadequate reporting procedures in Oregon and Washington along with physician ignorance continue to generate misleading statistics.

To give an example, veterinarians are somewhat more informed than medical doctors regarding Lyme disease. Even so, most also believe there is no Lyme in the Pacific Northwest. Nevertheless, the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association last year reported over 100 cases of Lyme disease in the Portland metro area alone. This figure is likely also vastly under reported, and using the same multiplier that is used to measure under reporting of human cases, there were probably well over 1,000 cases of animal Lyme disease in the Portland area last year.

Compare this to the pathetically low and grossly misleading figure of 3 human cases reported for all of Oregon last year.

Because of a demonstrated bias against the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease, Kaiser prefers that this disease not be recognized in their market areas, especially the West Coast where about 80% of their members reside.

Prompt and adequate treatment can prevent a lifetime of misery. It is a complex disease and most of us with late-stage and chronic Lyme disease must go to tick-borne disease specialists in California or the East Coast for treatment. Currently, there are none in Oregon and Washington. And there are certainly none within Kaiser, regardless of location.

Miguel Perez-Lizano

http://lyme.kaiserpapers.info

Miguel Perez-Lizano may be contacted at:

mikijean@pacifier.com

Kaiser's/military pathological need for "personality disorders".

To all Advocates and Media.

This past week on CNN and in the Sacramento Bee, is an article about soldiers who cannot get medical care because of "personality disorders" and their lawsuit against the Dept. of Veteran Affairs for denial of medical care. 600,000+.

Sound familiar?

What are personality disorders? The disorders are mental conditions of those who may have suffered severe abuse and neglect as children and usually manifests itself in the mid to late teens. It consists of three phases which include being compulsive-obsessive, neurotic, paranoid schizoid,narcissistic, passive/agressive, anti-social, hypochondria, and now possibly depression, demetia, alzheimers and many other mental maladjustments.

It's great for the pharmaceutical companies!

These are the same criteria that the Dept of Veteran Affairs is using to deny our soldiers who have been subjected to the worst of the worst in human conditions - the carnage of war!

My first knowledge of "personality disorder" came in 1988. This was due to many older and long term female employees filing worker comp claims (per management's requests) and per Kaiser worker comp policies which in actuality were really for repetetive stress related injuries that included carpel tunnel, herniated discs in the neck and lower back. Kaiser requested that these be filed under pysche stress claims.

This did not inlcude all the other injuries that were deliberately ignored that included gastro-
dermatology or chemical exposure. Many of these employees were abused mentally, physically and emotionally because they wanted better working conditions for themselves and better care for their patients. How dare they they expect the best?

Many of these employees suffered sexual abuse, physical abuse, racial abuse and outright hostility from managers and supervisors per Kaiser's medical doctors and administration. Their unions like S.E.I.U. and CNA did nothing! These unions let employees go out the door with all these abuses and are guilty of crimes just like Kaiser. The doctor administrators, managers, supervisors and the unions were all part of a group think that resulted in the planning of getting rid of the highest paid workers.

They were very successful and still are!

Kaiser sent their employees only to military doctors that were orthopedic and pyschiatry for illegal exams which inlcuded an automatic MMPI-Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory test to determine what type of disorder they had. The MMPI- is no longer used, it was used during the McCarthy Era and Sam Ervin tried to enact a law against it because employers were using the MMPI-an Atheortical, not based on any particular theory for hiring employees. It was a phony test to get desired results to commit more abuse on employees so they would not get their compensation. This is premedidated and evil as it gets.

Many Kaiser employees came under the 3 phases of personality disorders which is impossible and incredulous on its face. These employees claims were mostly reduced to stress claims that included the "personality disorder" which discredited the employees for compensation, the complete denial of their claims. A mark for life! These employees were then forced into years of litigation, only for some of them to die or go to their social security and medicare funds that they payed for and not being compensated for any/all of their injuries. Some of these employees are doctors who like the unionized employees were retaliated against, if only because they were just higher paid and with the promise of big pensions in their names and or if they did not perform an imaginary wrong or a real wrong!

Now the Dept. of Veterans Affairs is doing the same thing to our soldiers who have fought over and over again in a war that is a flat out lie! With the same premeditation and evil! Were Kaiser workers the testing ground to destroy employees both mentally and physically in order to see how long it takes an employee to give up, to what is owed to them?

Is THAT why an ex-military Kaiser manager nurse told me in 1992 that 500,000 soldiers are expendable in the time of war. What did she know that we didn't? Were we Kaiser employes included in that number for the obvious and obscene profit?

This is what the Dept. of Veteran Affairs is doing and how long has this been going on? Did Dr. William Winkenwerder, former Kaiser physician, who has been in charge of the Walter Reed Military Hospital write the same health policies for U.S.Soldiers and Kaiser employees, that are
in reality worker compensation claims, just so that they don't have to pay for it by simply putting a "mentally ill" jacket on these so called "personality disorders"???

This illuminates the many years of abuse committed through the so called HMO/insurance and DoD health community concerning the sick, the elderly and the poor who cannot get health coverage.

Why do these personality disorders only come out after a person files a workers comp claim against Kaiser, or complain because they cannot get their needed medical care and or after fighting and getting hurt in a war?

If anything, the personality disorders belong to the administration of Kaiser and the DoD and their ilk.

But they have more than just personality disorders, it's also called being sociopaths, pyschopaths and homicidal maniacs, especially when it comes to deliberately destroying people's lives, stealing everything they worked for via their health, denying them the ability to recover and letting them die!

Is this what we want for universal heathcare for all? Because Kaiser has it's doctors in every health and employment related agency in this country..

If you don't believe me go to kaiserpapers.org and kaiserpapers.info for the most comprehensive updated Kaiser acts.

Dina Padilla is an ex-Kaiser worker, who witnessed and experienced Kaiser's many illegal, criminal and despicable acts on their employees and patients with the intention to avoid paying out what they owe the injured and their families. These people are still cry out for justice and compensation.

I can only hope that Congress and the Senate will finally "see" the light, ASAP, as to what has been happening to their consititutents every day for the last several decades, including ALL workers..

dinapadilla@comcast.net
http://workcomp.kaiserpapers.info/

1-916-725-2673

Message From Vickie

It is an understatement to write that the Department of Managed Health Care Report that was released to the public last week was a big disappointment. I like to include something positive so - Grammatically it was superior writing compared to other DMHC reports. However, it could have been more concise. Then the public would probably have a greater interest in reading all of it. Perhaps that was the intent. A lot of words that say very little.

I have put online the DMHC report and various links at:
http://fines.kaiserpapers.info/punish.html#California_Fines_and_Santions_
I have the complete report also in text form minus the tables for those that have trouble opening pdf files at:
http://fines.kaiserpapers.info/dmhc72007
The above includes the Kaiser response as included in the original document.

You all really should take the time to read it. That way you also can share the "wonder" of California Government at work and play.

Kaiser also wants to take credit for all the health programs and health legislation in this country we say yippee! Because someone has to be to blame for it all and using the Kaiser material we have presented the factual information at:
http://universalhealth.kaiserpapers.info/
The above includes the Kaiser documents advising Hillarie Clinton the last time around to keep the Kaiser name out of the records when showing the public what the previous proposed national health plan really was.

I have also at:
http://businesspractices.kaiserpapers.info/kaiserconflictofinterest.html
a short list of government employees, including the OPA that are either former Kaiser employees or contractees to. There are many more people well placed by Kaiser within all levels of our government. I write "well placed" because they really make more money by staying inside Kaiser than they would with any government job.

Then there is that little contract that Kaiser has enforced against Permanente employees that the DMHC director does have a copy of showing that just maybe there is a Kaiser rigged deal in the system at:
http://selfincrimination.kaiserpapers.info/retiredoc.html

We all were led to believe at one point by DMHC that the investigation would involve quality of patient care. Obviously that was a topic that was formally avoided and probably because of the done deal with our governor and god knows who else stands to profit from, at least according to Kaiser literature again found at: http://universalhealth.kaiserpapers.info/

The fact is that DMHC, DHS, AG and Transportation and Housing here in California all do have more than enough documentation to have put an end to this sub par behavior but they chose not to. But we all had the opportunity to read a government report advising us all that Kaiser has really lousy business practices. I could have done that for free and saved the taxpayers a lot of money.

Sincerely,

Vickie Travis
Former Caregiver and Eldest Daughter of Adam Wesley Arnold
Vickie may be contacted at:
vickie@kaiserpapers.info

Kaiser Permanente Hospital Victims Map

Kaiser Patients that were harmed in Kaiser Permanente Hospitals at flagged locations with pop ups showing various patient horror and news story locations:

"Kaiser Permanente Hospital Patient Events"

http://maps.google.com/
http://tinyurl.com/27pvyg

The public is encouraged to participate in the creation of this map. You all might as well know which locations have the most reported injuries, reported malpractices, etc., so you can spot them as you are driving past them on the highway.

Archived Kaiser Papers Newsletters can be read online at:
http://www.kaiserpapers.info/mail/index.html

Commentary on DMHC non routine investigation

In regards to the July 26, 2007 LA Times article"State Fines Kaiser Again," I was made aware of this non routine investigation in July 2006 during my meeting with DMHC's Chief deputy Director Lew Chartrand and Business Transportation and Housing's Deputy Secretary Ed Hedig. They assured me the issues I presented, pertaining to my daughter, Robyn Libitsky's care which were, 1) Hospital Ombudsman unable to differentiate legitimate and false legal documents, 2) discriminating policies of placing cancer patients at a lower priority for blood transfusions, 3) requesting organ donation from ineligible cancer patients, 4) inappropriately promoting Hospice care, would be included in this investigation.

Although Kaiser was fined, DMHC failed to release information important to patients, such as which hospitals had serious problems and types of problems patients encountered. These issues will not go away overnight and patients need to be informed in order to make smart choices in regards to medical care.

The DMHC ideas and plans were vague and it is disturbing to learn that after one year, DMHC will no longer continue oversight of kaiser to ensure compliance. Since patients will be uninformed of the problems, they will be unaware if Kaiser remains in compliance.

Kaiser will, as always, utilize DMHC's ideas in an attempt to improve their overall financial profits.

The article should have read, "Kaiser fined $3 million, patients pay with their lives."

Hillarie Levy (Robyn Libitsky's mother)
Hillarie may be contacted at:
Hillarie@kaiserpapers.info

Legal Battles

by Sharon Rushford

Legal battles are something you can't fully appreciate until you experience one first hand. Americans who have never been through the battle still believe the "system" for the most part is not broken. They are similar to the beliefs of Kaiser members whose care has not yet caused them heartache. I can tell you though, from first hand experience, it is a far cry from the ideals that were set forth in our constitution.

Today's legal battlefield is nothing more than a game and the better player will win, especially when the battlefield is arbitration, which is required with Kaiser Permanente membership. And who are the best players? Attorneys who represent Kaiser Permanente. They know how to work the system better than anyone. Most first time victims go into a dispute with such naivety, they still believe everyone plays the game fairly. What they don't know is that they are being manipulated by Kaiser's attorneys from the very start of the game which begins with the victims request for medical records. This is tactic number one in the game. Don't give the evidence to your opponent. And who has all the evidence? Kaiser Permanente and their attorneys. So after many many months or longer when you finally get your medical records, they are not in any sensible order like the original set, and are copied so poorly it is impossible to read, and you realize you need a transcriber to decipher the handwritten parts, you think you have all your records. Kaiser however seems to fail miserably when it comes to providing the most incriminating parts of the records. But being the naive person you are you believe you have everything and it is a true copy of your medical records. By the time you realize, if you ever do, that there are parts missing, it's usually too late in the game.

Then the challenging part of the game begins. Its like the game "What's wrong with this picture". You can stare at the picture for hours and still not find everything wrong. With arbitration if you fail to find all the items you will probably lose. Kaiser attorneys are very good at this game. Since they are the ones who have drawn the picture they know how and where to divert your attention so you don't notice what you are suppose to see.

They also have the advantage during the arbitration. The attorneys are kept very busy with the numerous malpractice cases as are the retired judges on the list of approved arbitrators. It is no doubt that they "know" each other. It seems like a "good ole boys club" and you don't belong. They are the experienced players and you are the novice.

The game is won by the best player. It has nothing to do with justice. This is our legal system. It is broken like so many other parts of this country. We need to overhaul America or it will end up in the scrap heap.

Sharon Rushford
http://www.rushfordfiles.com/pages/1/index.htm

sharon@rushfordfiles.com

A Letter To Cassie

Dear Dr. Frist,

Hi! I'm Cassie. You don't know me, because I'm in Heaven. I'm one of the new angels trying to get acquainted. Trying to learn the ropes and robes.

When I died I was just 6 pounds or so - a 35 week old stillborn. But they let me animate my soul up here into a 20 year old exterior. So I'm able to kind of learn what my life would have been if ... Anyway, I'm pretty artistic.

Well, I understand that you're a doctor and senator. Congratulations! Your Mom must be proud.

And you have the ear of President Bush on HMOs and stuff like that. His main health adviser. So it would seem like you're the one I need to reach. But I'm not allowed to really reach directly, just to inspire someone through the Net. So I picked that loose cannon - Dr. Chuck Phillips - to type my letter. Needed someone not so shy with senators and all.

I'm worried about my Mom. She lost a Kaiser arbitration this week. Now she got the Big Zero and may even have to pay off Kaiser's high priced "experts." I guess she should have taken the $100,000 they offered (maybe really only
$50,000 to her after costs), but she just over valued me and said no. She had too many dreams of what I could have become. She trusted that the arbitration panel would get it right.

I don't think she understood from the Kaiser ads that everything is all speeded up in that system. And the Kaiser contract doesn't say that either. It just says that when you learn what the care really is all about, your complaint goes to arbitration.

Actually, Kaiser is even allowed under "the law" (Earth law) to have secret conversations with one of the three arbitration judges. Kaiser admitted it. Can you imagine that? Wouldn't that be like me flirting at the pearly gates?

So, okay, I'll get to the point. My heart lung machine - the placenta - was a mixture of Mom and Dad surfaces. And it set off, like it does so often, an illness called pre-eclampsia. It's an immune war which makes blood vessels go into spasm and can kill either the Mom or the Baby or both.

In fact, pre-eclampsia accounts for 25% of baby deaths in the US. So we've got to really watch out for it. Well, I mean those of you still on Earth.

One day my Mom got this terrible blinding light in one eye. Couldn't hardly see well enough to dial the Kaiser number. She came to the Kaiser ER somewhere - in a kinda fancy city - at explained her problem while looking all pregnant with me. In fact, we were both in trouble, but the triage nurse only talked to her. Don't you think that we belonged in OB to be checked? There is always an OB doctor in the same hospital.

The doctor who saw us in the ER ... Well, I can't tell you what he did, cause I had my eyes closed and all. In fact, his report had the words "amended report" typed twice before the text even started. Now doesn't that sound like he redid it twice after he later heard I stopped kicking? He says no, but I'm going to check with the Chief up here someday.

Anyway, I've come to learn that a flashing light can be the spasm of blood vessels of this pre-eclampsia illness as it moves into a serious stage. This should have been the clue that we were both in trouble. But my Mom was told it was migraine and sinus infection. I thought ER doctors have to work backward from the most threatening condition.

And why throw away the urine sample and do no blood tests? What is the rush? Isn't the Kaiser ER volume kinda predictable? Just need to staff to do things right. Somewhere in the $15 billion, there must be a budget for staff. I did hear that the ER doctor just got promoted, so someone is getting paid.

Now, Kaiser would not allow the evidence that their own Clinical Practice Guideline (CPC) for care of the mother states that my Mom's blood pressure alone should have triggered a mandatory OB referral right then. They said the CPC was from a Kaiser division of "the federation" that was different from my Mom's home city.

I ask you - How can "Best Evidence" vary in each Kaiser location. I thought this was the best evidence on Earth. And I think were talking about a health chain with similar fries everywhere.

Well, I got to watch the arbitration process from up here. Fascinating but frustrating. I sure wanted to question Kaiser's OB expert. I would have asked - like How much did you get for agreeing that my Mom and I should go home without seeing an OB doctor? Would you have sent your pregnant daughter home with my Mom's symptoms and blood pressure? I think you would have had your daughter's child delivered while there was still a chance of surviving this illness.

Anyway, I'm not asking you to help my Mom directly. I want you to help all the other Mom's out there to get the right care in pregnancy so we don't fill up in Heaven with stillborns like me. (And help the Grandmas to stay alive, too. And let's catch those men before their lethal heart attacks - TUMS doesn't help.)

First of all, I think with your family so connected to managed care, you need to go on a new and BIG listening tour. Just visit Kaiser ERs at 10 p.m. in any city and you will get an ear full. I mean talk to the patients - exit interviews or lobby interviews; try to mix it up. Don't bother with the notebooks - that's just accreditation prom stuff.

Next, go through Kaiser's arbitration files with a tour guide who knows what Hippocrates had in mind. Then make sure the patterns of medical damage by omission become very public.

Then, help stop this pre-agreement to arbitrate when only the health plans know what is in store for the patient; get the country back to the constitution where juries get to decide things;

Then, restore patient rights which were taken away in 1973 by the HMO Bill; oh, and withdraw your version since it actually weakens California patient protection;

When all that is done, come visit my Mom and tell her that you heard from an angel and made it all better for the rest of the nation. She'll understand. And maybe, just maybe - you'll get to come up here at meet me someday. I'd like that.

Yours truly,

Cassie

[written by Dr. Chuck Phillips of Fresno, California during a reflective and receptive moment]

	Kaiser Papers News Articles in this Newsletter - The Misdiagnosis of Lyme Disease \| Kaiser's/military pathological need for "personality disorders" \| Commentary on DMHC non routine investigation \| Legal Battles \| Message From Vickie \| A Letter From Cassie \| Kaiser Permanente Hospital Victims Map