Tuesday, August 11, 2020

COVID19 CALIFORNIA--Kamala Harris & Quest Diagnostics-- TEST LAB VENDETTA

     "...this historic settlement affirms that Medi-Cal exists to help the state's neediest families rather than to illicitly line private pockets.." (Atty Gen Harris, 2011)
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     INCLINE VILLAGE (EOC)-- If life were a movie and gangsters were in charge of laboratories, then the recent episode coming out of Sacramento might hint at why the director of the State Health Department resigned, reported by KCRA News today,
      "...the problem began with a computer server outage July 25 and was compounded by the state’s failure to renew a 2-year-old certificate for an intermediary for one of the nation’s largest commercial labs, meaning the state did not receive updates for five days from Quest Diagnostics." (1)
That failure to upgrade the test lab subscription cost the state 300,000 cases that went unreported right in a critical time with school just around the corner and expiration of the CARES Act supplemental unemployment income for jobless workers at the end of the month.(2)


     As in baseball, when an umpire doesn't like the way a pitcher buzzes a batter, the result is "history" between the two. In the case of Quest, the pitcher, and Medi-Cal, the umpire, that history began ten years ago in a False Claims Act settlement that netted the California health agency more than $240 million in back pay. The attorney general at the time was none other than Kamala Harris, chosen today by Democratic candidate for the White House, Joe Biden, to be his running mate; 
     "In a time of shrinking budgets, this historic settlement affirms that Medi-Cal exists to help the state's neediest families rather than to illicitly line private pockets,' said Attorney General Harris. 'Medi-Cal providers and others who try to cheat the state through false claims and illegal kickbacks should know that my office is watching and will prosecute.' " (3)
     In the case of last week's computer glitch, the governor promised to "hold people to account" according to that KCRA report from above. Without further explanation, the first to be fitted with cement shoes for a short trip to Folsom Lake was Sonia Angell, M.D., the state health director. (4) In spite of the well wishes from the governor on her departure, the entire affair stinks from the top down! For Quest Diagnostics, The Sacramento Bee reported in 2011 regarding the settlement itself, in a column by Mark Glover;
     " 'Our laboratory testing services were priced appropriately, and we deny all allegations in the complaint.' said Michael Prevoznik, Quest senior vice president and and general counsel." (5)


     Not so according to AG Harris who, in a 2011 formal press release at the attorney general's office noted Quest charged  Medi-Cal $8.59 for one test and charged others just under $1.50 for the same test. As swiftly as  conspiracy theory speculation sweeps across social media, it may be no different with the current status quo surrounding pandemic testing. That may be the reason for Quest, a vital link in the chain of command necessary for the governor's office to make life saving decisions, not to send up a red flare to Governor Newsom alerting him to the upcoming expiring subscription. Blackmail, extortion, scandal, all the ingredients of a cheap gangster flick. And what about Kamala? Anything more there that can be sensationalized over the scandal? 
     At the time, Quest wasn't the only one scalping the state health agency, Labcorp was squeezed in 2011 by the AG's office in another settlement just under $50 million for similar medical malpractice.
     Fast forward to the current pandemic testing shortage, news reports are now surfacing of a different story entirely in the effort to stay current with positivity. Bulletins by Matt Voltz and Phil Galewitz originating at the KHN health news website indicate the inability of Quest to keep up with demand;
     "Montana said Wednesday that it is dropping Quest Diagnostics, one of the nation’s largest diagnostic testing companies...it (Quest) told state officials last week that it was at capacity and would be unable to accommodate more tests for two or three weeks." (7)  Naturally it would be far more convenient to take advantage of a computer glitch at the California state level and allow the electronic certificate to expire rather than have the syndicate admit it can't handle its territory. But according to the certificate expiration imbroglio in the Luna-Shalby-Mozingo article in the LA Times last week;
     " 'Simultaneously, we discovered that we were not receiving data from one of our largest commercial labs for a period of five days,' (Dr. Mark) Ghaly said. 'This was due to a certificate that the state neglected to renew timely. This resulted in data not being able to transmit to the state.' Ghaly identified the lab as Quest Diagnostics and said the company had been unable to send test results to the state from July 31 through Aug. 4." (8)
     For a company that just a few years prior was hit with a whopping Kamala Harris fine combined with the fact it was falling behind and needed the invoice to cover costs, Ghaly might be overlooking some suspect details as to how the document conveniently expired and went unnoticed for a week. The legislative analysts office has reported that the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) would release over $15 billion to the state for use other than state revenue loss. (9) With expiration of  the federal unemployment addon and the new White House directive for the state to cover 25 percent of the new package, the governor sees no solution to the deficit. (10) A great deal of that money is earmarked for testing and has become a proposed slush fund to cover other costs.


     Certainly no one could have foreseen something that Democratic VP nominee Kamala Harris did almost ten years ago might have a devastating affect on the dire straits the state finds itself in today. Back in 2011 the biggest concern was a blood count test and which doctors were getting a cut rate, petty thievery at best. Suddenly the testing monopoly by lab syndicates such as Quest and Labcorp are thrust into the spotlight and facing an old foe. No longer a nickel-dime numbers racket run by neighborhood dons, it involves billions of dollars of federal pandemic relief money.


Cited:
(5) Settlement, Sacramento Bee, 20 May 2011, Page B6.
(6) Labcorp, Visalia Times-Delta, 31 Aug 2011, Page 14

Atty Gen Harris image, The Sacramento Bee, 04 Jan 2011, Page A3

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