Kaiser agrees to $49M settlement with AG Bonta, district attorneys over illegal dumping claims

SACRAMENTO – Healthcare provider Kaiser has agreed to pay $49 million to settle claims of illegal dumping at its medical facilities, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several district attorneys announced Friday.

According to Bonta’s office, the company was accused of unlawfully disposing hazardous waste and medical waste, along with the protected health information of thousands of patients. The settlement was announced in partnership with district attorneys in Alameda, San Bernardino, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo and Yolo counties.

 “As a healthcare provider, Kaiser should know that it has specific legal obligations to properly dispose of medical waste and safeguard patients’ medical information,” Bonta said in a statement. “I am pleased that Kaiser has been cooperative with my office and the district attorneys’ offices, and that it took immediate action to address the alleged violations.”

The charges against Kaiser stemmed from undercover inspections of dumpsters at 16 of the company’s facilities.

Investigators said they found hundreds of items of hazardous items, including aerosols, cleaners, batteries, e-waste, syringes, medical tubing with body fluids and medications. The inspections also revealed 10,000 paper records containing the information of more than 7,700 patients.

Bonta said that Kaiser responded to the investigation by immediately hiring a third-party consultant that conducted more than 1,100 trash audits, along with modifying its operating procedures to improve handling, storage and disposal of waste.

“As a major corporation in Alameda County, Kaiser Permanente has a special obligation to treat its communities with the same bedside manner as its patients,” said Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. Kaiser is headquartered in Oakland.

“This action will hold them accountable in such a way that we hope means it doesn’t happen again,” Price went on to say.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said, “Hazardous waste, medical waste, and confidential patient information must be disposed of properly. When it is not, we will not hesitate to take action. Protecting patient privacy and the environment is just as important as protecting public safety.”

In the settlement, Kaiser has agreed to pay $47.25 million, which consists of $37.5 million in civil penalties, $4.832 million in attorneys’ fees and $4.905 million in supplemental environmental projects.

The healthcare provider is also required to retain an independent third party to perform waste audits over the next five years and to spend $3.5 million to implement “enhanced environmental compliance measures” at its California facilities, according to the Attorney General’s office.

Kaiser issued a statement to KPIX about the settlement, which read in part, “We take this matter extremely seriously and have taken full responsibility to acknowledge and, in cooperation with the California Attorney General and county district attorneys, correct our performance regarding landfill-bound trash where it may have fallen short of our standards. We dedicated many hours to identifying and closing gaps to strengthen our regulated waste disposal program and are confident in our ability not only to meet the monitoring and reporting requirements of this settlement, but to comply with the numerous requirements that apply to the different kinds of waste that result from caring for millions of Californians.”