What do you think of Kaiser healthcare?

[cantdrv55]

I’m losing my excellent employer provided HC next year when I retire. My family and I have enjoyed a PPO plan for almost 30 years. Our primary care docs and specialists know us very well. We can always get in to see our docs same day with just a phone call.

Next year we’ll have to be on a Kaiser HMO plan due to cost. It’s going to be almost $20k per year for my family of three. The PPO option is $41k per year! No can do.

If you have or had Kaiser HC, what’s great about it and what’s not? Thanks for sharing your insight.

[Chocaholic]

We were in a Kaiser HMO a while ago, so our experience may not be so relevant. Despite the same concerns, we were quite pleased. Their facilities are nice, waits to get appointments were reasonable and care/pharmacy/lab resources were all on site.

Safe to assume you’re retiring early (no MediCare)?

[cantdrv55]

Yes I’m retiring at age 58. Thanks for the response!

[jhynesrockmtn]

I'm not sure if it makes a difference but where are you located? I had been a long term member of an HMO called Group Health that Kaiser bought out. My experience in the last 10 years or so was good in the PNW. They have been aggressively buying physician practices here in the last several years after buying Group Health so the provider pool is large, facilities are very good, on line tools are great.

[LWJ]

I have very strong opinions on this.

1) in about 1996, Kaiser almost killed my wife. It was a systematic and avoidedable error. Everything wrong happened in out situation.

2) Fast forward to the last 20 year. I have sold Kaiser and other plans in the PNW. Kaiser is still a four letter word to some. That is a misconception. Kaiser is better or equal to other carriers. In many ways, their data driven philosophy works better. I have hundreds of people that I comfortably work with ((small & large group only- not individual) in the Kaiser network.

I have zero reservations about using Kaiser. The biggest limit? You need to realize that you can ONLY use their network.

What if you wish to access a provider that is not a Kaiser doc?

My family is with Regence for the ridiculously large network.

Pm me if you want to talk some.

And. Congrats!!!

(I may need to talk to you regarding early retirement!)

[jcwade]

My family has been on Kaiser since the sixties and have have great experiences. Including major surgeries.
I was on Kaiser for the last 4 years at work and had several surgeries, including knee replacement and sinus surgery, for little out of pocket expense.
I lost it when I retired but rejoined when I reached the age of Medicare.
I get to see the same Kaiser doctor. He is very good and spends a good deal of time with me whenever I go in for anything.

I was hospitalized in Omaha once. An out of network facility obviously.
Kaiser picked up the bill. A year later, I started getting bills from the hospital.
I went back and forth with them until I finally got Kaiser involved.
They solved the issue by paying the 29k that Omaha wanted and sent me a letter stating that it wasn't fair that their patient was in the middle of this and they would fight it without me involved.

When I became eligible for the vaccine and I was wondering how to get it, they gave me a call asking if I wanted to get it. I was scheduled for the next day.

The wait times were very reasonable until Covid.
Hopefully things will return to normal.

The downside is that you have to go through the process.
It's generally, although not always, try the first recommended procedure and work your way up to surgery.

I highly recommend Kaiser based on these and many other experiences over many years.

[vash]

i like KP.org. but i am relatively healthy. they do the regular maintenance fine and my doctor can lecture me about life choices with the best of them.

i am also sad to report their ER department kicks ass.

KP is a giant machine and runs like it. i do feel like a tiny speck in their world sometimes since they are really quick to simply treat the symptom and send me on my happy way. but that is where i step in for myself. i find i do have to advocate for myself a little bit. you learn the catch phrases that gets things moving. "this is starting to affect my life and my sleep" usually gets them to look closer.

their online stuff is pretty well done. i have email my doctor hideous pictures of random body parts. and surprisingly, that was sometime enough to get some prescription ointment mailed to my house.

[Deschodt]

At my work we can choose a few plans... I don't use Kaiser but my colleague does. His words:

"they'll do the bare minimum to keep you alive.... eventually - no more"

it is substantially cheaper a plan than mine, so fair's fair.

[Evans, Marv]

I've been with Kaiser since forever. The primary care guy I had retired after he was my physician for 24 years. He was 35 when I started with him & now is 59. I had to choose another primary car person and am on my second, which I think I'll stay with. It's sort of a production situation as far as care is oncerned, but I'm only interested in getting in & out quickly & with minimum time & interaction. My wife complained her face was numb some years ago at night. I took her to the nearest hospital ER, which was out of the Kaiser network which had a facility about seven miles further down the road. She was there for four hours at a cost of $2K, which Kaiser paid for. I woke up last year with a swollen upper lip. My wife got very bothered sayiing my face was sagging & harranged me until I went to the main Kaiser hospital. I told them my wife thought I'd had a possible stroke. They took me in immediately, kept me over night, subjected me to a million scans, tests, & checks, said I was OK and let me go. Later on I got a statement for almost $15K of which I had to pay $90. I don't think I'd be interested in changing health care provider.

[craigster59]

We were filming at a brand new Kaiser facility in Baldwin Park years ago on a crappy Michael Cimino film "After The Sunset".

The emergency room was open and some clinical offices but all the patient floors hadn't opened yet.

We were installing some stuff up inside a "T Bar" drop ceiling and one of the guys sliced his hand open pretty bad. Went down to the emergency room to get it sutured up and they said "Not life threatening, you're not a member of Kaiser, nearest hospital is 5 miles down the road".

That's my only dealing with Kaiser.

[Joe Bob]

That's a lawsuit that should have been filed.

[Bugsinrugs]

Overall I’m very happy with Kaiser. My only grip was when I had a kick back on my table saw. Had a small piece of oak shot into my hand. Went to Kaiser emergency where after X-rays I was told they didn’t see anything in my hand. One week later the pain was so bad I went back and convinced them to do a ultra sound. Bingo…. Hand surgery the next day. I still have the four inch piece of wood in a jar on my mantel.

[Joe Bob]

I was raised on KP. There can be dingoes in any organization.

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by jcwade

I was hospitalized in Omaha once. An out of network facility obviously.
Kaiser picked up the bill. A year later, I started getting bills from the hospital.
I went back and forth with them until I finally got Kaiser involved.
They solved the issue by paying the 29k that Omaha wanted and sent me a letter stating that it wasn't fair that their patient was in the middle of this and they would fight it without me involved.

They probably never paid and refused to pay until threatened with legal action, based on my experience.

It depends on what services you need. They straight up refuse to provide services they are obligated to provide in some cases

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

That's a lawsuit that should have been filed.

They have lawyers write their policies and procedures. They could have been sued, and it would go nowhere

[brp914]

Have had kaiser for decades have only seen them for checkups every couple years. At 61 I'm sure the "fun" stuff is in the future. Well, I did have a bike crash and got xrays for broken ribs. They had what seemed to be a WWII era xray machine whereas my dentist has a modern digital rig.

Probably the most relevant thing I can say is that a recent report in Consumer Reports had kaisers across the country rated uniformly highly. That, and my dad emergency open heart surgery and he was very satisfied.

[cantdrv55]

Thanks everyone!