California's largest HMO, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc., was fined $500,000 last week after Kaiser failed to provide a timely referral to a 19-year-old man who later died from complications associated with Duchennes muscular dystrophy. Doctors at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, turned Timothy Waters away in August of 2000 claiming the medical center needed a referral before performing an examination. Six days later, Waters was dead. The Kaiser HMO failed to give a referral to the ailing man.

The California Department of Managed Health Care issued the fine against the 6.2 million member HMO. The Department called the death a failure of the state HMO system.