Kind of OT, but not: Why does everyone hate Kaiser?

[DWCAP]

My GF had to switch to kaiser from UCSD due to job change. Hasnt had a single problem with them, cept that her BC pills are not covered. That sucks, but the quality of care has been just fine.

[ocrenter]

Hasnt had a single problem with them, cept that her BC pills are not covered.

this and very similar issues is the main reason why a lot of people don’t like kaiser, but it is also the reason why medicine should march toward something like the kaiser model if we are to save ourselves from cost over runs that will eventually BK this country.

let’s take the birth control pill Seasonale. cost per year is $740/person. if you use generic pill like microgestin, cost per year is $100/person.

if you can just get 1500 women to use generics like microgestin instead of Seasonale (which essentially does the same thing), you’ve just SAVED $1 MILLION.

in the typical medical world, woman watches Seasonale TV commercial, goes to her doctor (who just got treated to lunch by the Seasonale rep), she asks for Seasonale and gets it. Great, she gets to have a period every 3 months now. Terrific. She pays a slightly higher brand name co-pay, but everybody carries the burden of her desire to have less frequent periods.

in the Kaiser world, woman goes to her doctor, who tells her SHE has to pay the $640 difference. She opts for the generics. she continues to get monthly periods. But 1500 women later, we save $1 million.

that is the Kaiser difference, it saves us from ourselves.

[ocrenter]

Hasnt had a single problem with them, cept that her BC pills are not covered.

this and very similar issues is the main reason why a lot of people don’t like kaiser, but it is also the reason why medicine should march toward something like the kaiser model if we are to save ourselves from cost over runs that will eventually BK this country.

let’s take the birth control pill Seasonale. cost per year is $740/person. if you use generic pill like microgestin, cost per year is $100/person.

if you can just get 1500 women to use generics like microgestin instead of Seasonale (which essentially does the same thing), you’ve just SAVED $1 MILLION.

in the typical medical world, woman watches Seasonale TV commercial, goes to her doctor (who just got treated to lunch by the Seasonale rep), she asks for Seasonale and gets it. Great, she gets to have a period every 3 months now. Terrific. She pays a slightly higher brand name co-pay, but everybody carries the burden of her desire to have less frequent periods.

in the Kaiser world, woman goes to her doctor, who tells her SHE has to pay the $640 difference. She opts for the generics. she continues to get monthly periods. But 1500 women later, we save $1 million.

that is the Kaiser difference, it saves us from ourselves.

[ocrenter]

Hasnt had a single problem with them, cept that her BC pills are not covered.

this and very similar issues is the main reason why a lot of people don’t like kaiser, but it is also the reason why medicine should march toward something like the kaiser model if we are to save ourselves from cost over runs that will eventually BK this country.

let’s take the birth control pill Seasonale. cost per year is $740/person. if you use generic pill like microgestin, cost per year is $100/person.

if you can just get 1500 women to use generics like microgestin instead of Seasonale (which essentially does the same thing), you’ve just SAVED $1 MILLION.

in the typical medical world, woman watches Seasonale TV commercial, goes to her doctor (who just got treated to lunch by the Seasonale rep), she asks for Seasonale and gets it. Great, she gets to have a period every 3 months now. Terrific. She pays a slightly higher brand name co-pay, but everybody carries the burden of her desire to have less frequent periods.

in the Kaiser world, woman goes to her doctor, who tells her SHE has to pay the $640 difference. She opts for the generics. she continues to get monthly periods. But 1500 women later, we save $1 million.

that is the Kaiser difference, it saves us from ourselves.

[ocrenter]

Hasnt had a single problem with them, cept that her BC pills are not covered.

this and very similar issues is the main reason why a lot of people don’t like kaiser, but it is also the reason why medicine should march toward something like the kaiser model if we are to save ourselves from cost over runs that will eventually BK this country.

let’s take the birth control pill Seasonale. cost per year is $740/person. if you use generic pill like microgestin, cost per year is $100/person.

if you can just get 1500 women to use generics like microgestin instead of Seasonale (which essentially does the same thing), you’ve just SAVED $1 MILLION.

in the typical medical world, woman watches Seasonale TV commercial, goes to her doctor (who just got treated to lunch by the Seasonale rep), she asks for Seasonale and gets it. Great, she gets to have a period every 3 months now. Terrific. She pays a slightly higher brand name co-pay, but everybody carries the burden of her desire to have less frequent periods.

in the Kaiser world, woman goes to her doctor, who tells her SHE has to pay the $640 difference. She opts for the generics. she continues to get monthly periods. But 1500 women later, we save $1 million.

that is the Kaiser difference, it saves us from ourselves.

[ocrenter]

Hasnt had a single problem with them, cept that her BC pills are not covered.

this and very similar issues is the main reason why a lot of people don’t like kaiser, but it is also the reason why medicine should march toward something like the kaiser model if we are to save ourselves from cost over runs that will eventually BK this country.

let’s take the birth control pill Seasonale. cost per year is $740/person. if you use generic pill like microgestin, cost per year is $100/person.

if you can just get 1500 women to use generics like microgestin instead of Seasonale (which essentially does the same thing), you’ve just SAVED $1 MILLION.

in the typical medical world, woman watches Seasonale TV commercial, goes to her doctor (who just got treated to lunch by the Seasonale rep), she asks for Seasonale and gets it. Great, she gets to have a period every 3 months now. Terrific. She pays a slightly higher brand name co-pay, but everybody carries the burden of her desire to have less frequent periods.

in the Kaiser world, woman goes to her doctor, who tells her SHE has to pay the $640 difference. She opts for the generics. she continues to get monthly periods. But 1500 women later, we save $1 million.

that is the Kaiser difference, it saves us from ourselves.

[nin_sis]

Had surgery at Kaiser Zion in 2000. It was considered elective although it was either surgery or antibiotics for life. I chose the surgery. Had a great experience the 4 years I had my insurance there. I was able to change my GP, because I didn’t like her, to another that was great. Then I was able to easily get a referral to a specialist and was under that physician’s care for 2 years post surgery. Didn’t have one bad experience…unlike my horrible experiences with Scripps Green hospital. They were truly the worst. Now I’m with Sharp (for 5 years) and they too are great.

Good luck!

[nin_sis]

Had surgery at Kaiser Zion in 2000. It was considered elective although it was either surgery or antibiotics for life. I chose the surgery. Had a great experience the 4 years I had my insurance there. I was able to change my GP, because I didn’t like her, to another that was great. Then I was able to easily get a referral to a specialist and was under that physician’s care for 2 years post surgery. Didn’t have one bad experience…unlike my horrible experiences with Scripps Green hospital. They were truly the worst. Now I’m with Sharp (for 5 years) and they too are great.

Good luck!

[nin_sis]

Had surgery at Kaiser Zion in 2000. It was considered elective although it was either surgery or antibiotics for life. I chose the surgery. Had a great experience the 4 years I had my insurance there. I was able to change my GP, because I didn’t like her, to another that was great. Then I was able to easily get a referral to a specialist and was under that physician’s care for 2 years post surgery. Didn’t have one bad experience…unlike my horrible experiences with Scripps Green hospital. They were truly the worst. Now I’m with Sharp (for 5 years) and they too are great.

Good luck!

[nin_sis]

Had surgery at Kaiser Zion in 2000. It was considered elective although it was either surgery or antibiotics for life. I chose the surgery. Had a great experience the 4 years I had my insurance there. I was able to change my GP, because I didn’t like her, to another that was great. Then I was able to easily get a referral to a specialist and was under that physician’s care for 2 years post surgery. Didn’t have one bad experience…unlike my horrible experiences with Scripps Green hospital. They were truly the worst. Now I’m with Sharp (for 5 years) and they too are great.

Good luck!

[nin_sis]

Had surgery at Kaiser Zion in 2000. It was considered elective although it was either surgery or antibiotics for life. I chose the surgery. Had a great experience the 4 years I had my insurance there. I was able to change my GP, because I didn’t like her, to another that was great. Then I was able to easily get a referral to a specialist and was under that physician’s care for 2 years post surgery. Didn’t have one bad experience…unlike my horrible experiences with Scripps Green hospital. They were truly the worst. Now I’m with Sharp (for 5 years) and they too are great.

Good luck!

[UCGal]

I have Kaiser. It is as good as any HMO I’ve had. All HMO’s (and a lot of PPO’s) require you use a network doctor to get full benefits… the difference is Kaiser is closed network – so the network doctor is an employee of Kaiser.

I saw them waste no expense on my mom’s multiple cancer surgeries and chemo. She had excellent care.

Same with my dad.

My younger son was born at Zion – I loved the midwife pre-natal care and midwife delivery.

If you don’t like your primary, it’s easy to change them. I happen to like my primary.

My kid’s pediatrician is great. I’ve grilled her about what it’s like to work for Kaiser, she likes it because she gets hands on clinical plus gets to work on her specialty – neo natal… they set up her schedule to allow both. And her hours are much more regular than elsewhere.

I also like that they don’t have blanket, one size fits none, policies about what surgeries are covered, etc… I was/am considering a surgery that is a bit more radical than guidelines, do to a familial cancer risk. I was told that as long as my doctor agreed, it would be covered. (They cover a similar surgery, for non-cancer related reasons, without problem – that was my basis for for discussion with the surgeon.)

But – You will not get private rooms, or high end treatment like you might at other hospitals. The recovery rooms for OB sucked and I was glad to go home in less than 24 hours after my son was born. The care was good -but having my roommate’s loved ones chatting and visiting 24/7 made recovery less than fun and I was happy to go home.

[UCGal]

I have Kaiser. It is as good as any HMO I’ve had. All HMO’s (and a lot of PPO’s) require you use a network doctor to get full benefits… the difference is Kaiser is closed network – so the network doctor is an employee of Kaiser.

I saw them waste no expense on my mom’s multiple cancer surgeries and chemo. She had excellent care.

Same with my dad.

My younger son was born at Zion – I loved the midwife pre-natal care and midwife delivery.

If you don’t like your primary, it’s easy to change them. I happen to like my primary.

My kid’s pediatrician is great. I’ve grilled her about what it’s like to work for Kaiser, she likes it because she gets hands on clinical plus gets to work on her specialty – neo natal… they set up her schedule to allow both. And her hours are much more regular than elsewhere.

I also like that they don’t have blanket, one size fits none, policies about what surgeries are covered, etc… I was/am considering a surgery that is a bit more radical than guidelines, do to a familial cancer risk. I was told that as long as my doctor agreed, it would be covered. (They cover a similar surgery, for non-cancer related reasons, without problem – that was my basis for for discussion with the surgeon.)

But – You will not get private rooms, or high end treatment like you might at other hospitals. The recovery rooms for OB sucked and I was glad to go home in less than 24 hours after my son was born. The care was good -but having my roommate’s loved ones chatting and visiting 24/7 made recovery less than fun and I was happy to go home.

[UCGal]

I have Kaiser. It is as good as any HMO I’ve had. All HMO’s (and a lot of PPO’s) require you use a network doctor to get full benefits… the difference is Kaiser is closed network – so the network doctor is an employee of Kaiser.

I saw them waste no expense on my mom’s multiple cancer surgeries and chemo. She had excellent care.

Same with my dad.

My younger son was born at Zion – I loved the midwife pre-natal care and midwife delivery.

If you don’t like your primary, it’s easy to change them. I happen to like my primary.

My kid’s pediatrician is great. I’ve grilled her about what it’s like to work for Kaiser, she likes it because she gets hands on clinical plus gets to work on her specialty – neo natal… they set up her schedule to allow both. And her hours are much more regular than elsewhere.

I also like that they don’t have blanket, one size fits none, policies about what surgeries are covered, etc… I was/am considering a surgery that is a bit more radical than guidelines, do to a familial cancer risk. I was told that as long as my doctor agreed, it would be covered. (They cover a similar surgery, for non-cancer related reasons, without problem – that was my basis for for discussion with the surgeon.)

But – You will not get private rooms, or high end treatment like you might at other hospitals. The recovery rooms for OB sucked and I was glad to go home in less than 24 hours after my son was born. The care was good -but having my roommate’s loved ones chatting and visiting 24/7 made recovery less than fun and I was happy to go home.

[UCGal]

I have Kaiser. It is as good as any HMO I’ve had. All HMO’s (and a lot of PPO’s) require you use a network doctor to get full benefits… the difference is Kaiser is closed network – so the network doctor is an employee of Kaiser.

I saw them waste no expense on my mom’s multiple cancer surgeries and chemo. She had excellent care.

Same with my dad.

My younger son was born at Zion – I loved the midwife pre-natal care and midwife delivery.

If you don’t like your primary, it’s easy to change them. I happen to like my primary.

My kid’s pediatrician is great. I’ve grilled her about what it’s like to work for Kaiser, she likes it because she gets hands on clinical plus gets to work on her specialty – neo natal… they set up her schedule to allow both. And her hours are much more regular than elsewhere.

I also like that they don’t have blanket, one size fits none, policies about what surgeries are covered, etc… I was/am considering a surgery that is a bit more radical than guidelines, do to a familial cancer risk. I was told that as long as my doctor agreed, it would be covered. (They cover a similar surgery, for non-cancer related reasons, without problem – that was my basis for for discussion with the surgeon.)

But – You will not get private rooms, or high end treatment like you might at other hospitals. The recovery rooms for OB sucked and I was glad to go home in less than 24 hours after my son was born. The care was good -but having my roommate’s loved ones chatting and visiting 24/7 made recovery less than fun and I was happy to go home.

[Author]

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