Investigation Finds LA Hospital Patient's Treatments Determined By Wealth Status

Via America’s Lawyer: Reports show that wait times at L.A. county hospitals can exceed months, putting the lives of poor patients in jeopardy. RT Correspondent Brigida Santos joins Mike Papantonio to explain more.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

A new investigation reveals that Los Angeles county's poorest patients wait for months to see a medical specialist under the county's public hospital system. It causes illnesses and it worsens into death. These patients have died before even getting an appointment on the books. I Got Brigida Santos with me to talk about it. Brigida you're right out there. You're seeing it firsthand. How, how long are patients waiting on the average to see a specialist under LAs public health system as dysfunctional as it is?

Patients in Los Angeles who rely on the county's public hospital system, wait on average 89 days to see a specialist. Now this is according to a brand new investigation by the LA Times, which analyzed data of more than 860,000 requests for specialty care in one of the country's largest public health systems. The investigation also finds that LA County patients wait significantly longer than elsewhere in the United States, including at the veterans health administration, which has faced scrutiny for its own problems with delays, Mike.

You know, when I saw this story, what struck me is that the, the anecdotal information was just as important as the, as, as the systemic evaluation of what happened, the numbers. How long have, how long of a wait has it been for some of these people who've, who've been injured and ended up dying because they can't get in to see a doctor, give me some anecdotal information to talk about how serious this problem is in LA.

Sure. Times reporters interviewed dozens of former and current County healthcare providers, patients, and experts, and they also combed through those 860,000 specialists referrals. In addition, they obtained the complete medical records of half a dozen County patients. Now it's incredibly hard to get that information due to HIPAA laws, which keep confidential records. Now all faced waits of at least three months to see a specialist and all died of the illnesses they were waiting to have treated. Now, one of these patients was a 30 year old mother of three, who had been diagnosed with a benign brain tumor, the size of a golf ball. She'd been approved for surgery, but nearly one year later, the hospital still had not scheduled the operation. Her tumor grew, and she went into a coma where her five-year-old daughter found her unconscious less than a week later, the woman died. Another woman age 60, who suffered from chronic urinary tract infections waited over eight months to get a referral to a urologist. She was then told she should see a kidney specialist, but the appointment couldn't be scheduled for another three to six months. Her son found her dead on the floor before she ever got to see that specialist. Look, the list goes on. These stories are incredibly sad. Their deaths could have been prevented had they seen a specialist sooner.

You know, I'm wondering as I listen, as I listened to you and I look at these stories, and the numbers are staggering. Is it, is it just bureaucratic typical, bureaucratic stupidity? Is it that, or is it lack of funding by Gavin Newsom to, to pump these programs up? What's happening? What's the heart of this and, and are there any regulations that limit this wait time in California?

State regulators have now launched an investigation into whether the county's long wait times violate California regulations that require patients to be treated by HMO specialists within 15 business days from the date of request, but that law applies to insurers, not to doctors and hospitals directly. So the LA County health services director says the agency really doesn't see the state's regulation as a goal or target. Now it's unclear how this is going to play out.

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