PRESS RELEASE September 5 , 2003

Contact: Robert Finney
CounterPoint Communications
Telephone/fax (760) 436-0183
E-mail: rdf@cpc-com.com

 

HMO HARDBALL

FROM THE EXAM ROOM
TO

THE COURTROOM

CORRUPT CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR
RECALLS HMO PATIENT RIGHTS

Question: What is Governor Gray Davis' Shocking Secret?

Answer: Governor Davis' "pay-to-play" administration has authorized the State's HMO watchdog agency (Department of Managed Health Care) to "gag" patients who try to talk with their doctors about the patient rights laws that Davis, himself, signed and fraudulently promotes to California consumers.

• Since 1999, Governor Davis has bragged that he enacted "…the most aggressive patient rights laws in the nation, directly benefiting more than 300,000 Californians."

• Although he faces a recall election in weeks, Governor Davis has not mentioned HMO patient rights in campaign appearances, most recently in his televised debate appearance on September 3, 2003. Why?

• On October 11, 2002, Jacquelyn Finney, a former federal fraud investigator acting as her own attorney, sued the State of California for approving her HMO's denial of medical care in retaliation for her insistence that she has the right to speak to doctors about the legal rights Davis enacted to protect patients.

• The State's attorneys told a San Diego Superior Court Judge:
"…the applicable statutes and regulations do not support Mrs. Finney's demand for a meeting [with a doctor] to discuss her legal rights…"

• On February 20, 2003, Judge Thomas P. Nugent ruled that this lawsuit may proceed to trial, exposing Governor Davis' fraudulent breach of his contract with patients. The theme of this trial is expressed in the movie Inherit The Wind … Does an HMO patient have the same right as a sponge to think and to speak what she thinks?

• Undeterred, Davis' fraud continues. On July 11, 2003, HMO patients were notified by e-mail that Davis' Cabinet Secretary will order HMO doctors and hospitals to post statements of patient rights in doctors' waiting rooms.

• The notification did not disclose that Davis approves doctors' refusal of medical care to patients who try to say what they think about their rights.


BOTTOM LINE: Governor Davis' message to HMO patients… DROP DEAD!

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