HEALTH—Clinic Failures Put Physicians In Major Jam

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It’s been a strange two weeks for Dr. Reza Danesh. The former medical director at a Long Beach clinic owned by KPC Medical Management suddenly found himself out of a job Nov. 20 when KPC abruptly closed all of its 38 clinics.

Since then, the family practitioner has worked out of his Redondo Beach home, amid his energetic toddler, answering phone calls on his own time from hundreds of his patients as he tries to smooth their transition to new care.

At the same time, he’s been trying to figure out what he’s going to do with his own career, one that was abruptly cut short after two and a half years at the clinic.

“I think I am unemployed right now, but I don’t have a choice (in doing this). There are patients that have critical issues,” said Danesh, who forwarded an 800 number to his home for his patients.

“As a professional, I am looking at some other doctors that have practices. I have spoken to people in the Long Beach medical community. Maybe they can absorb me.”

Danesh is one of hundreds of physicians who, like their patients, have been thrown into turmoil after the closure of Anaheim-based KPC, which lost a struggle for survival that saw it bleeding millions monthly.

About 250,000 patients were suddenly cut off from their doctors and shunted into new practices by their managed care plans. Another 2,000 employees of the group, including about 500 doctors, lost their jobs. Some of those employees didn’t discover their predicament until they showed up for work the day the company closed.

They also were told that their last paychecks could not be covered by the insolvent medical group. However, several HMOs agreed last week at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to kick in $5 million to cover the checks.

“There is chaos out there,” said Peter Warren, spokesman for the California Medical Association, which is critical of the way the state has handled the failure. “What has happened has not been a smooth transition but a scramble. A doctor who is an employee should not have to set up an 800 number to take care of his patients.”

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