Oh, yes, the misery of Kaiser Permanente? (The “Permanente” is Spanish for a system of “permanent” denial of care.)
I have so many stories for you. Where to begin?
Back in 2003, without asking friends their opinion, we chose Kaiser from our employer’s plans.
You see, I didn’t know. I was naive.
The next day at lunch, sitting with a dozen fellow employees, I was asked, “So which health care provider did you select?”
I replied, “Kaiser”
I saw stunned faces looking back at me, then laughing faces. Then pity.
Then one of them asked, “You don’t know about Kaiser, do you? You must not be from California?”
I’m thinking, “Uh oh”
Now, years later I understand. I have a hundred stories of our desperate attempts trying to squeeze a few drops of health care from the hard lifeless rock that is Kaiser. Our friends have a thousand more. I’ll just bore you with just one typical true story. You’ll get the idea.
I had a strange tumor coming out my back. It was the size of a squashed tomato. It was big. It was scary. After two months of waiting for an appointment with a Kaiser “doctor,” here’s what happens during my appointment.
The doctor looks at my tumor and then he gets out the 3-ring Kaiser “book” which is a book of rules about denying patient care. It was clearly written by the bean counters at Kaiser, to save Kaiser millions by denying patient care, through use of various rules that disguise the process of denying care.
The “doctor” holds the book and then gets out his little tape measure. He says, “Well, it is only 3.7 inches long”
“Here at Kaiser, any tumor needs to be at least four inches long or Kaiser won’t operate, or even do a biopsy.”
“I can’t give you a referral to a Kaiser surgeon”
“Your five minutes are up. I have more patients to see today.”
I’m thinking to myself, “Kaiser does NOT have doctors. Kaiser has robots with medical degrees, heartless, mindless robots which are programmed to systematically deny patients care.”
After several more appointments and phone calls, and three weeks more of waiting, finally, my doctor says, “Well, we have a program where a nurse can remove small tumors like this?”
I’m thinking to myself, “A friggin’ NURSE is going to cut a four inch hole in my back and remove this tumor? NO WAY!”
I was pissed. I was DETERMINED to squeeze a few drops of damn health care from the dry lifeless rock that is Kaiser.
I needed a respected advocate. I scheduled an appointment with a professor of surgery at UCSD Medical Center La Jolla. He looked at this bulge on my back and said, “This has got to be surgically removed!”
I told him what Kaiser said. He looked at me with understanding eyes that have heard this story before from a hundred patients who had come to him after denial of care by Kaiser.
He says, “Here is what we’ll do. I know the head of surgery at Kaiser. I’ll call him up and embarrass him by telling him another story about how a patient at Kaiser isn’t getting care. He’ll do something about it. I will also write him a letter on your case.”
I’m thinking, “Now THIS is a doctor, one who understands the meaning of being a true ADVOCATE for patient care.”
That appointment at UCSD was not covered by my Kaiser insurance. Of course not. It cost me $300. It was worth it.
Two days later a Kaiser nurse calls me up and explains she schedules appointments for a Kaiser surgeon. A month later my tumor was removed from my back…and the Kaiser surgeon was excellent, very talented, because she was selected by the UCSD doctor from La Jolla!
This is a classic story about Kaiser. It is typical because it reveals that Kaiser is a machine that exists to deny health care, because Kaiser is a corporation focused upon making money by denying care. Only the few patients like me are able to squeeze some health care from that cold lifeless machine, because we are RELENTLESS in fighting the Kaiser machine, in finding the twisted path to getting at some mediocre level of health care from Kaiser. And we have the financial resources, and the smarts to know how to work the Kaiser system.
But, it is exhausting. We could only take a year of it.
Now let me talk about Sharp, and UCSD. The smart money, or at least the smart, in San Diego understand you get great health care in San Diego from either Sharp Memorial or from UCSD Medical.
We spent three years getting our care from Sharp. The first time I visited Sharp, I found myself thinking, “I must be dreaming. I don’t believe this kind of conscientious, quality medical care even exists any more.”
At Sharp I had doctors actually invite me into their OFFICE and sit me down to discuss my condition for 30 minutes! Impossible you say? Sharp is a world apart from Kaiser. Sharp hires doctors who are top 20% in their class. Who do you think Kaiser hires?
