Activist attacking catholic hospitals' bills to uninsured.

The activist who convinced Tenet Healthcare Corp. to discount its charges for uninsured patients has taken on Catholic Healthcare West.

K.B. Forbes, who runs East L.A.-based Consejo de Latinos Unidos, took out full page ads in the Washington Times last month, accusing the San Francisco-based hospital chain of abusing its Catholic mission and nonprofit status by failing to adequately lower charges for the uninsured. (Non-profit hospitals receive a tax exemption based on their promise to provide more charity care.)

That was the opening salvo in what Forbes says will be a media campaign including radio ads in Los Angeles County--where Catholic Healthcare West has four hospitals--and other California markets, aimed at stripping it of its non-profit status unless the system complies.

"They talk about being a charity organization, but they don't do enough to help people and then they have this aggressive pricing structure," he said.

Forbes was accused by Tenet officials in 2002 of having ties to the insurance industry when he took on the hospital company, prior to its financial scandal.

A political conservative who served as an aide on Patrick Buchanan's presidential campaign, Forbes has acknowledged receiving a $100,000 pledge for his group from J. Patrick Rooney, chairman and chief executive of Medical Savings Insurance Co., a large underwriter of medical savings accounts, that has criticized hospital charges. Forbes calls the charge a red herring, saying the pledge has not been converted into cash or spent and that he does not do the bidding of the insurance industry.

Forbes' activism helped uncover a common practice in the hospital industry: charging uninsured, cash-paying patients often multiple times more than what insurers pay for their enrollees. After meeting with Forbes, Tenet last summer announced a new "Compact With Uninsured Patients" that included pricing discounts.

Catholic Healthcare spokesman Mark Klein defended the system's policy toward the uninsured, saying the company spent $422 million in charity and other care in 2003.

Forbes wants Catholic Healthcare West to discount charges to all uninsured patients, set up reasonable payment plans and agree not to place liens on patients' houses.

Stock Surge

Shares of American Pharmaceutical Partners Inc. are up more than a third this year, with the market apparently shaking off lingering doubts about the company's Abraxane drug prospect. The stock was trading above $46 a share last week after closing below $34 on Dec. 31.

American Pharmaceutical, which is majority owned by American BioSeience Inc., a private Santa Monica firm controlled by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, is seeking Food and Drug Administration approval for Abraxane, a new form of paclitaxel, a widely selling cancer drug.

The stock dipped below $35 a share after the Dec. 5 release of clinical trial data that short sellers criticized for numerous shortcomings.

Staff reporter Laurence Darmiento can be reached at [phone] ext. 237 or at [e-mail].