The California Department of Health Care Services has issued an additional $2.2 million fine to Kaiser Permanente for not providing required Medicaid data on patient care, reports California Healthline.
State officials sent a letter to Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser May 25 notifying the healthcare giant of the fine. Jennifer Kent, director with the state healthcare services department, said in the letter Kaiser failed to submit required data by the deadlines set, but acknowledged Kaiser is making resolution efforts.
Ms. Kent went on to say her department will continue to evaluate Kaiser's efforts and "reserves the right to claim liquidated damages to the extent that Kaiser's encounter data reporting deficiencies causes DHCS to repay" money to CMS related to the state's Medicaid program, Medi-Cal.
Kaiser said it does not plan to appeal the $2.2 million fine and anticipates submitting required Medicaid data by next month, according to the report.
The healthcare giant in an emailed statement to Becker's Hospital Review noted the sanction "is in no way related to quality, patient care or patient access and does not affect care or quality in any way." Kaiser also noted improvement efforts being made.
"Kaiser Permanente is an integrated delivery system, therefore our systems and technology — such as our electronic health record and online capabilities on kp.org — are focused on quality, access and integration of care. While our administrative systems and processes had not been originally designed or fully updated to collect and report certain data in the format specified by DHCS, we are taking steps to change this. We are making investments in technology that will facilitate compliance with the state’s data reporting requirements," the statement reads.
The healthcare giant added, "We have been working with the DHCS for many months to communicate our progress on providing the required patient encounter data. We are working toward compliance with the data requirements of DHCS."
The $2.2 million fine is not the first such fine for Kaiser. California officials also fined the healthcare giant $2.5 million earlier this year for failing to submit required Medicaid data. The state's department of healthcare services said, besides Kaiser, it has not issued any other fines against Medicaid managed care plans since at least 2000, according to the report.