As part of its ambitious project to expand the John Muir Medical Centers in Concord and Walnut Creek, the John Muir Health Foundation announced this week that its Campaign Major Gifts committee has raised more than $1 million toward the committee’s $2.5 million goal. Overall, the Foundation is looking for support for the $800 million expansion and renovation of the Walnut Creek and Concord campuses.

In Concord, expansion plans include:

• a five-story patient care building;
• a new Cardiovascular Institute with 12 private cardiovascular ICU beds, 49 private telemetry beds, 4 cardiac catheterization labs, and 12 pre-operative/recovery beds; 
• an expanded Emergency Department with 32 private treatment stations;
• a dedicated Imaging Center in the Emergency Department; and
• 61 new private rooms.

In the Walnut Creek center, the expansion includes

• a five-story comprehensive critical care center; 
• 230 new private rooms; 
• 3 new inpatient surgical suites; 
• 16 additional Intensive Care Neonatal beds; 
• Larger, private critical care rooms to accommodate bedside technology; 
• An expanded Emergency Department with 46 private treatment stations with dedicated imaging technology within the department;
• 4 large trauma treatment rooms; and 
• a relocated rooftop helipad with a high-speed elevator directly to the Emergency Department.

At year-end, the Foundation’s Capital Campaign has netted almost $13 million in donations, including $10M from the The K.H. Hofmann Foundation.

Kaiser Permanente has agreed to pay $3.75 million in settlement of claims that it falsely billed Medicare and Medi-Cal.  The announcement was made in early December by U.S. Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello in San Francisco.

In a press release, Russoniello stated that Kaiser falsely billed for services provided by housestaff rather than the attending physicians. “The government alleges that, from 1996 through 2002, Kaiser falsely reported that services had been provided by teaching physicians when in fact the services were provided by resident physicians without the supervision of teaching physicians. Teaching physicians must be physically present during key portions of services rendered by residents in order to insure that patient care meets a certain level of quality.” The U.S. attorney went on to say that the medical record must document that the teaching physician was present “in order to bill for that type of service.”

In a December 3 press release, the U.S. Attorney’s office noted that Kaiser voluntarily disclosed the misconduct to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) in San Francisco, pursuant to the voluntary self-disclosure protocol of HHS-OIG. “The self-disclosure protocol is intended to resolve matters that, in the provider’s self-assessment, potentially violate federal criminal, civil or administrative laws. It is an effective government tool for combating healthcare waste and abuse without litigation. The disclosing entities are Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., The Permanente Medical Group and Southern California Permanente Medical Group.”

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, $3.4 million of the settlement will go to the federal government and $350,000 will go to the state of California.