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 KaiserGate: What You Can Do

 


 

Stop Kaiser's Attempt to Frame Me!
I filed a HIPAA complaint when I found Kaiser patient data posted on the Internet, and Kaiser tried to frame me for it! Read more about my situation here. Also, here's a list of important questions to ask.

The CA Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) determined in June that Kaiser Permanente had posted the Systems Diagrams on the Internet, and that patient information had been on the Internet as long as four years. However, Kaiser is still pursuing a lawsuit against me, just because they can: the lawyers have been lying to the judge without shame.

A generous benefactor has taken care of my technical access problems, greatly increasing my ability to preserve the evidence. Thank you!

I appreciate any help people give me in any form: just the notes of support mean a lot to me.

I also have a legal fund, if anyone wants to donate. While I have a pro bono attorney, it still costs money to take depositions or get any kind of Discovery from Kaiser. The Kaiser attorneys are counting on me to be too poor to get evidence. Please help prove them wrong:

 

 

Write to Any or All of These People (or free fax)

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

My congressional representatives referred me to the Governor's office. However, the Governor does didn't bother toi respond to me.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633

Email Contact Form: http://www.govmail.ca.gov

 

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer

Attorney General's Office
California Department of Justice
Attn: Public Inquiry Unit
P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, CA 94244-2550
VOICE 1-800-952-5225 (Toll-free in CA)
or (916) 322-3360
FAX (916) 323-5341

There's a convenient Contact form for the Attorney General's Office here.

 

California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC)

The DMHC initially corroborated Kaiser's attempt to frame me. The DMHC issued an Order against me when they have no jurisdiction over private citizens, and then they used me for their own granstanding by issuing a press release. This helped Kaiser smear me. The DMHC did not bother to investigate or even call me before attacking me, a defenseless average citizen. They even issued the Order a week after I was no longer linking to the Kaiser site on my blog! When I protested, the DMHC pressured me into signing a quiet settlement to secretly post a revised version of their Order: I only agreed to this because they made it clear that challenging their jurisdiction would be a big legal fight that I couldn't afford. Then, even after I agreed to this settlement, the DMHC slipped some extra language into the Revised Order: they said they could do this because it wasn't mentioned in the settlement. When I protested, the DMHC opted not to post a revised Order at all, even though there was a signed settlement. When I wrote the Judge about this, she did not reply.

The DMHC is not only claiming jurisdiction over private citizens, it is seizing the power to deem anybody's Internet activity as injurious after the fact: like a Committee of Public Safety that tells people what their rules after they send them to the guillotine. This is an outrageous tyranny of the State which has implications for all citizens, and the DMHC must be called to account for what they have done here.


Department of Managed Health Care
California HMO Help Center
980 Ninth Street, Suite 500
Sacramento, CA 95814-2725

Voice: (888) HMO-2219
FAX: (916) 229-0465

The DMHC has an online contact form here.

 

California Bureau of State Audits

The Bureau of State Audits has the power to investigate the DMHC's breach of jurisdiction. If I had known about them at the time, I would have gone straight to them instead of dealing with the DMHC at all.

555 Capitol Mall
Suite 300
Sacramento, California 95814

Phone: (916) 445-0255
Fax: (916) 322-7801

Whistleblower's Hotline
(800) 952-5665
(866) 293-8729 (TTY)
(916) 322-2603 (Fax)

You can find a convenient online form for filing a complaint here.

 

California State Senator Liz Figueroa

Senator Figueroa is chair of the California State Senate's Government Modernization, Efficiency and Accountability committee. She has previously used her influence to investigate the DMHC for acting outside it's jurisdiction and prefering to hush up their mistake at my expense instead of apologizing.


Capitol Office
State Capitol, Room 4061
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4010
Fax: (916) 327-2433


District Office
43801 Mission Blvd., No.103
Fremont, CA 94539
Phone: (510) 413-5960
Fax: (510) 413-5965

Email: Senator.Figueroa@sen.ca.gov
WWW homepage here.

 

Federal Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)

DHHS subsection Office of Civil Rights (OCR)

I initially reported Kaiser's web site to the OCR. The OCR denied me whistleblower protection after "talking to Kaiser" and reading the DMHC press release. In their letter, the OCR told me Kari Karsjens was my contact person, but she has not responded to me. By the way, Peter Grant, the boss of the Kaiser lawyers, is personal friends with Richard Campanelli, the current director of the OCR. Kari Karsjen's email is Kari.Karsjens@hhs.gov.

Here is the OCR contact info for my region:

Office for Civil Rights
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
50 United Nations Plaza - Room 322
San Francisco, CA 94102

Phone: (415) 437-8310
Fax: (415) 437-8329

Email (takes months for reply): OCRPrivacy@hhs.gov

 

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) oversees the OCR, and the Inspector General of the DHHS has the power to investigate the OCR for how they dropped the ball in my case:

Office of the Inspector General
HHS/OIG
P.O. Box 23489
Washington, DC 20026-3489.

Phone: 1-800-447-8477
Email: hhstips@oig.hhs.gov

Government Accountability Office (GAO)

The GAO might be able to encourage the OCR, or at least my ostensible contact Kari Karsjens, to respond.

GAO FraudNET
441 G Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20548

Email: fraudnet@gao.gov
Fax: FraudNet at 202-512-3086

 

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics

U.S. Office of Government Ethics
1201 New York Avenue, NW.
Suite 500
Washington, DC 20005

Phone: 202-482-9300
Email: ContactOGE@oge.gov

 

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

The FTC investigates when corporations expose consumer information.

File an online complaint with the Federal Trade Commission here.

 

Federal Department of Justice
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

If the GAO doesn't help with the OCR, maybe the Attorney General might? After all, it's a fraud on the American public when government agencies neglect their responsibilities.

U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

 

Senator Diane Feinstein

Senator Diane Feinstein initially referred me to the Governor's office, but when the Governor didn't get back to me, she pretended she didn't send the first letter. Moreover, she declared that most identity theft is committed by employees, implying that she believed Kaiser's attempt to frame me for stealing patient data!!!

DC Address: The Honorable Dianne Feinstein
United States Senate
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-0504

DC Phone: 202-224-3841
DC Fax: 202-228-3954

1 Post Street, Suite 2450
San Francisco, CA 94104

Voice: 415-393-0707
FAX: 415 249-4785


Email: http://feinstein.senate.gov/email.html
WWW Homepage: http://feinstein.senate.gov/

More Contact Info for Diane Feinstein here.

 

Senator Barbara Boxer

DC Address: The Honorable Barbara Boxer
United States Senate
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-0505

DC Phone: 202-224-3553
DC Fax: 415-956-6701

1700 Montgomery Street, Suite 240
San Francisco, CA 94111-1023

Voice: 415-403-0100
FAX: 415-956-6701


Email: http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm
WWW Homepage: http://boxer.senate.gov/

More Contact Info for Barbara Boxer here.

 

Representative Barbara Lee

DC Address: The Honorable Barbara Lee
United States House of Representatives
1724 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0509
DC Phone: 202-225-2661
DC Fax: 202-225-9817


Email: http://www.house.gov/lee/zipauth.htm
WWW Homepage: http://www.house.gov/lee/

District Office:
1301 Clay Street, Suite 1000 North
Oakland, CA 94612 Voice: 510-763-0370
FAX: 510-763-6538

 

Find more contact information for your Congressional representatives here.

Find your Contact Information for your Local Legislators here.

 

I'm also been trying to get an investigation of NBC 11 for splicing clips from an interview of me with new questions to tell a fictional story (they wanted a hacker and a data thief). The NBC clip was picked up by Fox news. These news clips initially influenced how the press treated me (especially the San Francisco Chronicle). Both the DMHC and the OCR referred to these news reports, and the decisions they made seriously affected me. Chiefly, they enabled Kaiser to sue me claiming the DMHC as an independent authority and counting on the OCR not to protect me as a whistleblower. If NBC 11 hadn't tried to make up the news, I wouldn't have had to go through almost a year of court hearings and searching for a lawyer.

NBC 11 has gotten the lowest local news rating from Stanford's Grade the News project. Apparently their notorious for just making stuff up.

Here are some of the public interest groups I've appealed to. I welcome support in contacting these or other suggestions:

FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting)
112 W. 27th Street
New York, NY 10001

Phone: 212-633-6700
Fax: 212-727-7668
Email: fair@fair.org

 

Society of Professional Journalists Northern California
2958 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

Email of Executive Director Eva Martinez: emartinez (AT) accionlatina.org

I've also sought help from PRWatch, The Committee to Protect Bloggers, The California Anti-SLAPP Project , the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the First Amendment Project, Chilling Effects, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

 

Don't like how Kaiser is able to force people to spend money defending themselves just because they have lawyers to spare for nuisance litigation? Try the State Bar of California.

I've filed a complaint with the bar association because Peter Grant, the boss of the Kaiser lawyers tried to block me from contacting presenters at the National HIPAA Conference. Peter Grant produced this conference, and it was used to spread Kaiser's "message" about me.

Office of the Chief Trial Counsel/Intake
State Bar of California
1149 South Hill Street
Los Angeles, California 90015-2299

1-800-843-9053 (toll free in California)

 

Another resource for the California Court System is the Commission on Judicial Performance.

State of California
Commission on Judicial Performance
455 Golden Gate Avenue, Suite 14400
San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel: (415) 557-1200
Fax: (415) 557-1266