Category: Daily News

Dana Hohenshelt sued his employer, Golden State Foods Corporation, in Los Angeles County Superior Court in November 2020. Hohenshelt alleged discriminatory retaliation, failure to prevent harassment, and Labor Code violations stemming from his reports of workplace sexual harassment and subsequent termination in April 2020.

Hohenshelt had signed a pre-dispute arbitration agreement governed by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), requiring binding arbitration for employment claims. Golden State was responsible for paying arbitration fees and costs.

The trial court compelled arbitration in August 2021 via JAMS. Arbitration proceeded for about a year. In July and August 2022, the arbitrator issued invoices totaling over $44,000 to Golden State, due upon receipt. Golden State paid late (after 30 days), citing inadvertence due to the arbitrator’s unavailability notice and counsel’s paternity leave.

Hohenshelt moved to withdraw from arbitration and lift the court stay under California Code of Civil Procedure § 1281.98 (part of the California Arbitration Act, or CAA), claiming Golden State’s late payment constituted a material breach. The trial court denied the motion, interpreting the statute to allow payment within 30 days of a later deadline set by the arbitrator.

The Court of Appeal (Second District, Division Eight) reversed, holding the payment was untimely and § 1281.98 was not preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act. It directed the trial court to lift the stay..

The California Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeal decision in the published case of Hohenshelt v. Superior Court -S284498 (August 2025).

Under California law, employer must pay arbitration fees “within 30 days after the due date” (invoices are due upon receipt unless parties agree otherwise). Late payment constitutes a “material breach,” default, and waiver of the right to compel arbitration. The employee may withdraw or continue arbitration (if the provider agrees). The breaching party must pay the other’s reasonable expenses (mandatory); courts may impose additional sanctions unless justified.

The Legislature enacted section 1281.98 in 2019 (Senate Bill 707) to deter employers/companies from strategically delaying arbitrations by withholding fees, affirming federal cases like Brown v. Dillard’s, Inc. (9th Cir. 2005) and Sink v. Aden Enterprises, Inc. (9th Cir. 2003), which treated willful nonpayment as material breach.

The FAA requires arbitration agreements to be enforced like other contracts (no special rules disfavoring arbitration). Section 1281.98’s default 30-day rule (modifiable by parties) promotes arbitration’s goals of speed and efficiency without deviating from general contract law (e.g., time can be “of the essence” in urgent contexts; willful breaches discharge duties).

The Supreme Court rejected prior appellate interpretations treating section 1281.98 as a “bright-line” rule automatically forfeiting arbitration rights for any late payment (e.g., regardless of inadvertence). For example Gallo v. Wood Ranch USA, Inc. (2022) interpreting section 1281.98 rigidly.

Instead, it harmonized the statute with longstanding contract law principles (Civ. Code §§ 3275, 1511; Code Civ. Proc. § 473(b)), which allow relief from forfeiture for non-willful, non-fraudulent, or non-grossly negligent breaches if the breaching party compensates the other. The Legislature aimed to deter strategic nonpayment (per legislative history and cases like Brown and Sink), not penalize good-faith errors. This avoids preemption concerns by aligning with general contract defenses.

The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeal’s directive to lift the stay and remanded for the trial court to assess if Golden State’s delay was excusable (e.g., good faith mistake) and if Hohenshelt suffered compensable harm.

A Los Angeles County Fire Department captain has been charged with fraudulently claiming long-term disability insurance for a work injury that could not have occurred because he was not at work.

45 year old Thomas Merryman was charged in case 25CJCF04929 with one felony count of insurance fraud, one felony count of false personation and two felony counts of forgery.

Merryman is accused of fraudulently claiming long-term disability benefits from Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company by submitting forged paperwork from a physician and another Los Angeles County Fire Department captain. Merryman allegedly defrauded the insurance company of more than $25,000.

News sources report that Merryman retired on March 1.

The complaint was filed for a warrant on Aug. 8, and his arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 9 at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles. Authorities say Merryman currently resides in Georgetown, Texas. If convicted as charged, Merryman faces a maximum sentence of five years in state prison.

The case is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Arunas Sodonis of the Healthcare Fraud Division and was investigated by the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation.

The charges filed in this case are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

“Fake disability claims will not be tolerated under my watch, especially by first responders charged with keeping our county safe,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said. “False healthcare claims raise insurance premiums and make it more difficult for people with legitimate work injuries to claim benefits. My message to public servants who abuse the system is clear: We are watching you. Prosecutors and investigators in my office are working closely with the Los Angeles County Fire Department and other agencies to root out fraud.”

Kaiser Permanente has been experimenting with AI in its patient portal, increasing patient engagement and experience in the process.

“Care is local, but at the same time it’s virtual and it’s become a global commodity,” Khang Nguyen, MD, assistant executive medical director for care transformation at Southern California Permanente Medical Group and chief medical officer of care navigation for the Permanente Federation, told Becker’s. “So patients are really expecting artificial intelligence to support healthcare in a way that is supporting other industries, in the sense that people are able to describe what they want versus being given choices.”

A new study, published in npj Digital Medicine in partnership with Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, focused on the deployment of the Kaiser Permanente Intelligent Integration (KPIN) system by the Southern California Permanente Medical Group (SCPMG), which serves 3.9 million patients. Implemented in October 2024, KPIN is an advanced patient portal system designed to enhance care navigation and patient experience.

KPIN replaced older systems (Microsoft’s LUIS and VSN Query Report) and integrated natural language processing (NLP) to generate clinical alerts for high-acuity cases and recommend appropriate care pathways. It supports multiple channels, including a web-based portal, mobile app, and self-service interactive voice response (IVR) system, ensuring consistent care navigation. The system verifies patient identity and guides them through booking processes, redirecting emergencies to 911 or hospitals.

October 1, 2024, to March 1, 2025, KPIN facilitated 2,960,945 digital visits, with 1,046,504 unique patients interacting with the system. Demographic data showed 36.6% of users were aged 30–49, 47.8% were female, and 38.9% were of Hispanic origin.

The study evaluated KPIN’s Clinical Alert System (CAS) and Virtual Safety Net (VSN) models for detecting high-acuity symptoms (e.g., chest pain, dyspnea) and guiding care navigation. Metrics included accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and area under the curve (AUC).

KPIN processed an average of 193,134 encounters daily, with a peak of 19,364. The adjusted successful booking rate was 53.8%, reflecting effective appointment scheduling. The abandonment rate was low at 0.94% (IQR: 2.7–3.1%), indicating high user engagement, attributed to a streamlined interface limiting interactions to nine per page.

Patient surveys showed an 8.6 percentage point increase in positive sentiment, suggesting improved user satisfaction. The system struggles with vague “Reason for Visit” entries, which can affect care pathway accuracy.

The authors of the study concluded that “KPIN’s integration into the patient portal significantly improved care navigation, clinical alert accuracy, and patient satisfaction within an integrated value-based care model, demonstrating the effectiveness of advanced digital tools in healthcare delivery.”

Dr. Nguyen called that the “biggest surprise” from the findings. “We all know with websites, if you want to bury anything on a website, just make it two clicks away, and then no one can ever find it,” he said. And when patients abandon the app because they can’t locate what they need, they typically contact the call center.

A Glendale woman was sentenced to 108 months in federal prison for participating in a scheme in which hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal kickbacks were paid and received for patient referrals that resulted in the submission of approximately $10.6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare for purported hospice care.

Nita Almuete Paddit Palma, 75, of Glendale, was sentenced by United States District Judge Dolly M. Gee, who also ordered her to pay $8,270,032 in restitution.

At a separate hearing, Judge Gee sentenced Percy Dean Abrams, 75, of Lakewood, to three years of probation, which will include two years of home confinement.

At the conclusion of a six-day trial, a federal jury in December 2024 found Palma guilty of 12 counts of health care fraud and 16 counts of paying illegal kickbacks for health care referrals. The jury also found Abrams guilty of six counts of receiving illegal kickbacks for health care referrals.

Palma was excluded from Medicare, a federal health insurance program for people aged 65 and older, because of prior federal convictions for receiving illegal kickbacks. While she was excluded from Medicare, Palma purchased Magnolia Gardens Hospice through her daughter and bought C@A Hospice through her husband in 2015 and concealed her ownership interest in both hospices from Medicare.

Palma then paid “marketers”, including Abrams, hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal kickbacks for patient referrals that Palma could bill to Medicare for purported hospice care.

Hospice is only for those who are terminally ill and have a life expectancy of six months or less. Hospice provides comfort care to a patient instead of trying to cure the patient’s illness, and a patient forfeits certain benefits under Medicare when electing hospice.

Consistent with instructions provided by Palma, Abrams falsely represented to prospective patients that they did not need to be dying to be on hospice. After collecting personal identifying information from prospective patients that were not dying, Abrams sent the information to Nita Palma so she could bill Medicare for purported hospice care.

Through Magnolia Gardens Hospice and C@A Hospice, Palma caused the submission of approximately $10.6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare beginning in 2015 for purported hospice care for patients that were not dying. Palma received approximately $6,000 each month a patient was billed to Medicare for hospice. In turn, Palma paid Abrams and other marketers up to $1,000 per month in illegal kickbacks for each patient referred to her that was billed to Medicare for hospice. Many of the patients that were billed to Medicare through Magnolia Gardens Hospice did not know they were signed up for hospice, and some patients only found out after they were denied medical coverage for services they needed.

During the health care fraud scheme, Medicare requested additional documentation from Magnolia Gardens Hospice to support the purported hospice claims. In response, Palma and her husband directed employees to create fake patient charts and had those fake patient charts submitted to Medicare. Court documents allege that while awaiting trial in this matter, Palma took control of three other hospices and caused the submission of approximately $4.8 million in claims for purported hospice care.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the FBI investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Roger A. Hsieh of the Major Frauds Section and Matt Coe-Odess of the Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section prosecuted this case.

U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia has finally approved a sweeping settlement requiring the San Diego Sheriff’s Office to make major changes to jail conditions for people with disabilities. The case is Darryl Dunsmore et al. v. San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, et al.; S.D. Cal. No. 3:20-cv-00406-AJB-DDL.

In June 2023, the Sheriff’s Office and plaintiffs reached a partial ADA settlement agreement that focused on incarcerated persons with mobility disabilities at San Diego Central Jail, as well as incarcerated persons with hearing disabilities who use sign language at all county jails.

Between August 25, 2023, and November 20, 2024, the parties participated in seventeen settlement conferences with Magistrate Judge David D. Leshner including several all-day, in-person conferences.Moreover, in coming to agreement on the ADA Settlement terms, the parties exchanged numerous draft written proposals over six months. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved the ADA Settlement as to Plaintiffs’ third claim on December 11, 2024. On December 12, 2024, the parties filed the ADA Settlement Agreement as a joint motion. The final approved settlement agreement resolves the remainder of the ADA claims.

The Sheriff’s Office said it has taken significant steps to increase access for persons with disabilities in county jails. This includes the creation of a dedicated Sheriff’s ADA Unit, updating policies, procedures and training, construction renovations and acquiring assistive technologies such as video phones with video relay services or closed captioning.

The Sheriff’s Office also created a process for identifying and providing necessary accommodations to incarcerated persons with disabilities, including housing accommodations and effective communication.

In addition to specific construction modifications at the Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility, George Bailey Detention Facility, Vista Detention Facility, Rock Mountain Detention Facility and South Bay Detention Facility, some of the other changes that will be or have already been made include:

– – Informing incarcerated persons with disabilities of their ADA rights and providing effective communication during the booking and orientation process.
– – Revising policies and training as necessary to ensure compliance with the ADA and the terms of the settlement agreement.
– – Providing initial and annual ADA training to county jail staff and contractors.
– – Identifying and tracking incarcerated persons with disabilities who report and/or have been identified as requiring disability accommodations while in custody.
– – Ensuring that incarcerated persons with disabilities are properly placed in housing that is safe and appropriate for their disability.
– – Providing reasonable accommodations to ensure that qualified incarcerated persons with disabilities are able to participate in all programs, services and activities while in custody.
– – Practicing effective communication with incarcerated persons with disabilities.
– – Making sure that incarcerated persons with disabilities who require assistive devices, health care appliances, or durable medical equipment have access to these accommodations, subject to removal for individualized safety or security reasons.
– – Developing policies, procedures and training to ensure that incarcerated persons with disabilities are accommodated during evacuations and other emergencies in the jails.
– – Ensuring that incarcerated persons with intellectual, learning, and developmental disabilities are identified and provided appropriate accommodations, including adequate support.
– – Making sure that incarcerated persons with disabilities receive reasonable accommodations during searches, counts, application of restraint equipment and transport.
– – Providing reasonable accommodations to persons with mental health disabilities, including during the discipline process.
– – Developing a quality assurance and auditing program to ensure ADA compliance.

As part of the settlement agreement, the County of San Diego will hire neutral experts to ensure compliance with the agreement. The ADA Settlement Agreement does not involve monetary damages and none will be awarded. The ADA Settlement Agreement allows Plaintiffs’ counsel to ask the Court to have Defendants pay for their attorneys’ fees and costs in obtaining the ADA Settlement Agreement.

The Sheriff’s Office operates a system of seven detention facilities throughout San Diego County with a combined average daily population of approximately 4,000 incarcerated persons. According to the ACLU the San Diego County jails have the highest death rate of any large county in California. Well over 200 people have died in Sheriff department custody since 2006.

In 2018, Disability Rights California released a report highlighting the factors that contribute to the high suicide rate in San Diego County jails. These factors include over-incarceration of people with mental health needs, failure to provide adequate mental health treatment, overuse of solitary confinement, and lack of meaningful, independent jail oversight.In 2021, county jail deaths were largely attributable to suicide, overdoses, homicide and medical neglect – deaths that are often preventable with adequate policies, practices, training and supervision in place.

After a comprehensive audit by California State Auditor, it reported in February 2022 that “Given the ongoing risk to the safety of incarcerated individuals, the Sheriff’s Department’s inadequate response to deaths, and the lack of effective independent oversight, we believe that the Legislature must take action to ensure that the Sheriff’s Department implements meaningful changes. Until the Sheriff’s Department makes such changes, the weaknesses in its policies and practices will continue to jeopardize the health and lives of the individuals in its custody.”