free4now
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2005
- Messages
- 1,228
I was with Kaiser for a few years, and I agree with CFB. They are good about doing basic stuff efficiently... You get appointments fairly quick and there's hardly any paperwork.
But if you need to see a specialist it becomes really difficult. I'm used to PPO insurance where I can just make an appointment with a specialist myself, but with Kaiser it always required a visit to the primary care doctor before he would refer you to a specialist. Then they try to funnel you back to the primary care doctor for followup. So you almost have to plan on spending twice as much time going to the doctors, because you have to see your primary care doctor almost every time you need a specialist. Sometimes you can get to the specialist right away but other times you need to see your primary doctor a few times before they will give you to a specialist. And you have to be loud about demanding the specialist. I never had to deal with any particularly time-sensitive conditions while I was with Kaiser, but I've heard horror stories (kidneys anyone).
The quality of their primary care doctors is poor. Turnover is high; I went through three I believe while I was there. Two were truly bad, flat out rude and uncaring. After every appointment you get a survey in the mail and at least it's satisfying to know there's a computer somewhere tabulating my poor experiences.
On the plus side they do offer good value, and the specialists I saw were good. They have great scheduling automation so you don't wait very long after your appointment to see the doctor.
The downside to all the automation is that there's nobody to tell you what's going on. For instance I had a regular prescription filled at the kaiser pharmacy (you can't go anywhere else), and the amount I would pay for the prescription varied almost each time. Nobody could tell me why the price was different each time, just "that's what the computer tells us your price is". At walgreens or other independent pharmacies they will tell me things like "If you refill before such and such a date you will have to pay more because you need to wait X days, starting on Y date". At kaiser they somehow couldn't tell me that kind of stuff, just "your price is Z this time because that's what the price is".
But if you need to see a specialist it becomes really difficult. I'm used to PPO insurance where I can just make an appointment with a specialist myself, but with Kaiser it always required a visit to the primary care doctor before he would refer you to a specialist. Then they try to funnel you back to the primary care doctor for followup. So you almost have to plan on spending twice as much time going to the doctors, because you have to see your primary care doctor almost every time you need a specialist. Sometimes you can get to the specialist right away but other times you need to see your primary doctor a few times before they will give you to a specialist. And you have to be loud about demanding the specialist. I never had to deal with any particularly time-sensitive conditions while I was with Kaiser, but I've heard horror stories (kidneys anyone).
The quality of their primary care doctors is poor. Turnover is high; I went through three I believe while I was there. Two were truly bad, flat out rude and uncaring. After every appointment you get a survey in the mail and at least it's satisfying to know there's a computer somewhere tabulating my poor experiences.
On the plus side they do offer good value, and the specialists I saw were good. They have great scheduling automation so you don't wait very long after your appointment to see the doctor.
The downside to all the automation is that there's nobody to tell you what's going on. For instance I had a regular prescription filled at the kaiser pharmacy (you can't go anywhere else), and the amount I would pay for the prescription varied almost each time. Nobody could tell me why the price was different each time, just "that's what the computer tells us your price is". At walgreens or other independent pharmacies they will tell me things like "If you refill before such and such a date you will have to pay more because you need to wait X days, starting on Y date". At kaiser they somehow couldn't tell me that kind of stuff, just "your price is Z this time because that's what the price is".
