Providence hospitals across California are suing Kaiser Permanente, alleging the organization’s health plan has underpaid for emergency and post-stabilization care provided to Kaiser members.
The complaint reviewed by Becker’s was filed April 11 in Los Angeles County Superior Court and was advanced by a judge on Aug. 8, who rejected Kaiser’s bid to split the case into separate lawsuits.
According to the Orange County Register, Kaiser argued that Providence’s claims involved 12,528 individual bills from 10 different hospitals that span different geographic regions, economic conditions and medical situations. The bills included trauma cases and more than 1,000 patient admissions, so Kaiser argued that combining them risked “jury confusion” and would create a logistical burden…