FHP Agrees to Pay Fine in Girl’s Case
FHP International Corp., ending a long-running dispute with California regulators, agreed Wednesday to pay a $500,000 fine for denial of care to a 9-year-old girl with a kidney tumor.
The Fountain Valley-based HMO’s decision came a day after it learned it had lost its initial appeal of the fine. FHP could have pursued the case in court, but spokeswoman Amy Fanning Marcus said the company will pay “in the interests of all parties involved.â€
She maintained FHP’s position that no wrong was committed in the highly publicized case of Carley Christie, now 13, of Woodside, Calif.
The dispute originated in 1993, when the former TakeCare Inc., a Concord, Calif.-based HMO, failed to refer the youngster to the best-qualified specialists to remove her cancerous tumor. The girl’s family obtained treatment elsewhere.
FHP, which acquired TakeCare shortly afterward, was fined in 1994 by the Department of Corporations, which regulates HMOs. On Tuesday, an administrative law judge upheld the fine, the first ever imposed on an HMO by the state for denial of care.
Fanning Marcus said TakeCare had relied on expert opinion of doctors at the prestigious Palo Alto Medical Foundation for determining how Christie should be treated and that they provided first-rate care.
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