Kaiser calls claim ‘deeply puzzling’
November 15, 2011 5:11 PM
Tomoya Shimura
Staff Writer
ONTARIO • Prime Healthcare Services, which owns Desert Valley Hospital, filed an antitrust lawsuit Tuesday alleging that a labor union and Kaiser Permanente have conspired to drive Prime hospitals out of Southern California.
“By this action, Prime seeks to stop the anticompetitive actions of defendants to eliminate the choice Prime offers to consumers and other purchasers of vital health care services in the market,” according to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
The complaint alleges that the Service Employees International Union and Kaiser share a common goal and conspired — through their labor-management partnership — to protect their business models from the competition presented by Prime.
“We have only just received the lawsuit by Prime Healthcare, and find it deeply puzzling,” Kaiser said in a statement released Tuesday. “At first glance, Prime’s allegations appear to be that Kaiser Permanente’s 66-year-old model of integrating the delivery and financing of care, coupled with our nationally well-regarded Labor Management Partnership, are somehow conspiracies designed to illegally compete with Prime Healthcare.”
Prime’s complaint alleges that the SEIU sees the company as a threat to the union’s campaign to expand representation and raise wages, and so is trying to damage Prime by producing inaccurate reports and studies, working with the media to publicize baseless allegations.
The labor union has accused Prime hospitals of having unusually high number of patients diagnosed with conditions that result in higher reimbursements for hospitals. It’s also been actively trying to prevent Prime from buying Victor Valley Community Hospital, claiming that Prime’s management puts profits over patients.
SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West spokesman David Tokaji said in an email that the lawsuit is Prime’s tactic to hide the allegations and investigations against the group.
“Rather than file suit against health care workers who are blowing the whistle on Prime, the company ought to come clean, repay the public and patients, and fundamentally change its business model,” Tokaji said.
As for Kaiser, Prime is claiming that the rival medical group has withheld more than $100 million in reimbursements for care provided to Kaiser members at Prime hospitals.
Kaiser is already suing Prime, alleging that Prime and its hospitals “trap patients” and “submit false and inflated bills,” according to a court document.
“Prime is the subject of multiple allegations of wrongfully driving up costs in the hospitals it takes over, and providing inappropriate care,” the statement from Kaiser reads. “Kaiser Permanente’s case against Prime’s wrongful and fraudulent practices is already pending in Los Angeles Superior Court. It may be that Prime’s baseless lawsuit is an attempt to deflect some of those legal allegations.”
Tomoya Shimura may be reached at (760) 955-5368 or TShimura@VVDailyPress.com. Follow Tomoya on Facebook at facebook.com/ShimuraTomoya.
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If the US Department of Labor and Our California legislators were doing their jobs, Prime Healthcare would not have to sue Kaiser. But if anyone expects the Us Department of Labor, and California Senators Dianne Feinstein or Barbara Boxer to help reign in these fraudulent employer practices (stealing pension benefits, eliminating defined benefit pension plans, overpaying top executives and wasting money on luxury trips) because they’re tied in with all of the wrongdoing. Witness all of the class action suits against the nation’s mortgage lenders, against Kaiser CEO George Halvorson, and even our regulatory agencies for looking the other way, or instead, buying shares in the mortgage foreclosure scam.
They cannot afford to prosecute, because they’d have to look in the mirror, not the other way. Until they are prosecuted, and all those who acquiesce to this fraud, it will not cease. Fraud, deceit, waste and greed are decimating this nation, mortgage by mortgage, health care plan by health care plan. We are asking all taxpayers and homeowners to file “failure to report” forms 3949 to the IRS. You also are invited to earn money by filing IRS Tax form 211, the “whistleblower informant reward” application. This move in itself will help to protect you against foreclosure, and put you in line for reimbursement when the die is cast and the guillty have their assets seized by the government. I won’t stop lobbying and reporting fraud until they do.