[November 15, 2012]

Prominent LA Law Firm and Latino Activist Community Network Join Forces to Save Lives

In an effort to identify additional victims of Los Angeles heavyweight medical group HealthCare Partners (HCP) and their policies that put profits over patients, the Cochran Law Firm and Our SALUD are co-sponsoring a series of advertisements throughout the Los Angeles basin.

HCP currently has 675,000 patients and contracts with most major HMOs and PPOs servicing the Greater Los Angeles area, including California Hospital Medical Center. An investigation has identified an illegal hospital network created by HealthCare Partners to allow the medical group to get paid a higher fee per patient while providing lower quality services.

"We hope to find others injured by HealthCare Partners cost cutting to ensure we can get them the care they need," said Randy McMurray, attorney at law Cochran Law LLP. "We also are hopeful that we have awakened the sleepy HMO watchdog that will now require HCP to get the license they require."

"Is the DMHC's position that an unlicensed HMO can continue to treat patients and assume global financial risk until DMHC finishes twiddling its thumbs How many patients have been hurt before DMHC does its job " said Elba Romo, Our SALUD Community Representative.

The ad specifically highlights Juan Carlos Jandres, the young man who is at the center of the law suit against HealthCare Partners (HCP). In that suit, the Cochran Law firm claims they have found a long standing disregard for managed care laws and a substantial failure in ovrsight and regulation by the California Department of Managed Health Care. Healthcare Partners Medical Group acts like an HMO by creating a contracted network of hospitals, but is not licensed by the DMHC to provide hospital services in California. Our SALUD hopes the ads can shed light on a long standing issue that will only continue to affect the thousands under HCP's care.

McMurray said California laws such as the Knox-Keene Act of 1975 and the ban on the corporate practice of medicine are intended to prevent unlicensed persons from interfering with or influencing a physician's professional judgment.

"The purpose of the licensing process is to make sure that the groups are subject to increased oversight by the California Department of Managed Healthcare," McMurray said. "These increased oversight requirements were put into place to protect the California consumer."

The full script of the ad is below and the ad can be viewed HERE.

***FULL SCRIPT***

What You Don't Know About HealthCare Partners Might Hurt You

Juan Carlos Jandres found out the hard way. The courageous young man at the center of a class action lawsuit against HealthCare Partners, Juan had to fight for his cancer treatment. His HealthCare Partners doctors told Juan he was fine. They were wrong. He found new doctors at a good hospital and got the surgery he needed. Now he's fighting for all of HealthCare Partners' patients.

HealthCare Partners created an unlicensed and substandard hospital network to save money. State regulators knew it, but did nothing. So Juan did something.

If you have been denied care or injured by doctors working for HealthCare Partners, call us:

Randy McMurray, Cochran Law Firm, at 323-931-6200

Nestor Valencia of Our SALUD at 424-272-5386

Our SALUD (Somos Aliados Latinos Unidos por la Dignidad - Latino Allies United for Dignity), a health care watchdog coalition is a grassroots coalition and healthcare watchdog representing civic, community, and business leaders from the Southern California Latino communities. We believe that our low-income, minority communities deserve quality health care access equal to other communities. We believe our communities are not unlike other communities in California which are yearning for best practices and quality health care. With the new Affordable Care Act, we believe the legislators shall bring transparency and good government practices in implementing new health care delivery models, which should include exceptional, free of conflict-of-interest, community-patient focused decision-makers at every level.

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