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

[edna_mode]

Hear hear DWCAP.

Judge not, lest ye be judged.

I resemble ocrenter’s remark. I am one of those Seasonale “freeloaders”. Mostly because I prefer to be totally incapacitated 1/3 of the time, as opposed to losing a few days a month to debilitating pain. I tried all kinds of other BC. Allergic to latex. Progesterone only is bad for the bones. Generic pills? You ever see the QC of them? Pray that you never have a reaction to the ever-changing fillers that accompany the active ingredient — and remember, the generics will change frequently as various companies low-ball each other, and you can only refill your prescription in 3-month blocks.

And remember, any BC is waaay cheaper than pregnancy or abortion, from the insurance provider’s point of view.

I do understand the need to control health care costs. However, I hardly believe that the choice of BC is a major cost factor. And most technological advances drop in cost the more widely deployed they are, so what is going on here?

My not so humble proposal:

What about reducing costs by standardizing billing codes across the industry, so people could really comparison shop, or even understand what the hell they are being billed for? I suspect 25-50% of the cost of medical care is sucked up TRACKING the billing! I spent months one time trying to convince my insurer that “no, really, it’s impossible for the hospital that YOU cover to have a radiology department that is OUT OF NETWORK!” It turned out that the insurer had the wrong tax ID number! Off by one digit! All that time spent with the billing reps, wasted.

[TuVu]

DWCAP–

Your post about BC pills just strengthened our resolve against choosing Kaiser. I’m trying not to get political here, but Kaiser no doubt pays for brand-name Viagra. Our daughter started to get severe acne at age 15-16. I was right there in the examining room when a Sharp dermalogist told us that the first line of defense for acne these days in women is a particular brand name of BC pills. These stopped the breakouts or she would be well on the way to being like my older sister, who has acne scars because, when we were teens, the advice was to avoid chocolate (wrong), wash your face every half-hour (wrong), and sit under a sunlamp at the derms’s office (also wrong).

Thanks for the warning.

[TuVu]

DWCAP–

Your post about BC pills just strengthened our resolve against choosing Kaiser. I’m trying not to get political here, but Kaiser no doubt pays for brand-name Viagra. Our daughter started to get severe acne at age 15-16. I was right there in the examining room when a Sharp dermalogist told us that the first line of defense for acne these days in women is a particular brand name of BC pills. These stopped the breakouts or she would be well on the way to being like my older sister, who has acne scars because, when we were teens, the advice was to avoid chocolate (wrong), wash your face every half-hour (wrong), and sit under a sunlamp at the derms’s office (also wrong).

Thanks for the warning.

[TuVu]

DWCAP–

Your post about BC pills just strengthened our resolve against choosing Kaiser. I’m trying not to get political here, but Kaiser no doubt pays for brand-name Viagra. Our daughter started to get severe acne at age 15-16. I was right there in the examining room when a Sharp dermalogist told us that the first line of defense for acne these days in women is a particular brand name of BC pills. These stopped the breakouts or she would be well on the way to being like my older sister, who has acne scars because, when we were teens, the advice was to avoid chocolate (wrong), wash your face every half-hour (wrong), and sit under a sunlamp at the derms’s office (also wrong).

Thanks for the warning.

[TuVu]

DWCAP–

Your post about BC pills just strengthened our resolve against choosing Kaiser. I’m trying not to get political here, but Kaiser no doubt pays for brand-name Viagra. Our daughter started to get severe acne at age 15-16. I was right there in the examining room when a Sharp dermalogist told us that the first line of defense for acne these days in women is a particular brand name of BC pills. These stopped the breakouts or she would be well on the way to being like my older sister, who has acne scars because, when we were teens, the advice was to avoid chocolate (wrong), wash your face every half-hour (wrong), and sit under a sunlamp at the derms’s office (also wrong).

Thanks for the warning.

[TuVu]

DWCAP–

Your post about BC pills just strengthened our resolve against choosing Kaiser. I’m trying not to get political here, but Kaiser no doubt pays for brand-name Viagra. Our daughter started to get severe acne at age 15-16. I was right there in the examining room when a Sharp dermalogist told us that the first line of defense for acne these days in women is a particular brand name of BC pills. These stopped the breakouts or she would be well on the way to being like my older sister, who has acne scars because, when we were teens, the advice was to avoid chocolate (wrong), wash your face every half-hour (wrong), and sit under a sunlamp at the derms’s office (also wrong).

Thanks for the warning.

[ocrenter]

dwcap, there’s always other alternatives if low estrogen birth control is what your gf is looking for. she can discuss with her ob/gyn at kaiser and they can always do an exception code if they feel medically the medication makes sense.

the point here is there’s a lot more checks and balances in kaiser as opposed to regular ppo plans.

as for edna’s blanket anti-generic sentiment. remember we are all paying for her preferance for Branded medicine here.

except here’s another example:

after prilosec ran out of patent, AstraZeneca produced prilosec’s isomer, nexium along with the full on “Purple Pill” ad campaign.

there is no scientific evidence that nexium is really better than prilosec. annedotally, nexium might occasionally allow someone with reflux to continue to enjoy Mexican food with beer better than prilosec.

cost of nexium? $1840 per year per patient.

cost of prilosec? $240 per year per patient.

2006 total sale was $5 billion.

had all that folks took prilosec generic instead of nexium, we would have saved $4.4 billion.

I can honestly say no lives were saved or made better by spending that extra $4.4 billion using nexium instead of prilosec.

the choice of Brand vs generic, be it birth control or acid relief, does make a huge difference in controlling health care cost. the question now is, do you want your doctor to make that decision or do you want to have things get to a point where we would have no choice but hand that decision to the government?

[ocrenter]

dwcap, there’s always other alternatives if low estrogen birth control is what your gf is looking for. she can discuss with her ob/gyn at kaiser and they can always do an exception code if they feel medically the medication makes sense.

the point here is there’s a lot more checks and balances in kaiser as opposed to regular ppo plans.

as for edna’s blanket anti-generic sentiment. remember we are all paying for her preferance for Branded medicine here.

except here’s another example:

after prilosec ran out of patent, AstraZeneca produced prilosec’s isomer, nexium along with the full on “Purple Pill” ad campaign.

there is no scientific evidence that nexium is really better than prilosec. annedotally, nexium might occasionally allow someone with reflux to continue to enjoy Mexican food with beer better than prilosec.

cost of nexium? $1840 per year per patient.

cost of prilosec? $240 per year per patient.

2006 total sale was $5 billion.

had all that folks took prilosec generic instead of nexium, we would have saved $4.4 billion.

I can honestly say no lives were saved or made better by spending that extra $4.4 billion using nexium instead of prilosec.

the choice of Brand vs generic, be it birth control or acid relief, does make a huge difference in controlling health care cost. the question now is, do you want your doctor to make that decision or do you want to have things get to a point where we would have no choice but hand that decision to the government?

[ocrenter]

dwcap, there’s always other alternatives if low estrogen birth control is what your gf is looking for. she can discuss with her ob/gyn at kaiser and they can always do an exception code if they feel medically the medication makes sense.

the point here is there’s a lot more checks and balances in kaiser as opposed to regular ppo plans.

as for edna’s blanket anti-generic sentiment. remember we are all paying for her preferance for Branded medicine here.

except here’s another example:

after prilosec ran out of patent, AstraZeneca produced prilosec’s isomer, nexium along with the full on “Purple Pill” ad campaign.

there is no scientific evidence that nexium is really better than prilosec. annedotally, nexium might occasionally allow someone with reflux to continue to enjoy Mexican food with beer better than prilosec.

cost of nexium? $1840 per year per patient.

cost of prilosec? $240 per year per patient.

2006 total sale was $5 billion.

had all that folks took prilosec generic instead of nexium, we would have saved $4.4 billion.

I can honestly say no lives were saved or made better by spending that extra $4.4 billion using nexium instead of prilosec.

the choice of Brand vs generic, be it birth control or acid relief, does make a huge difference in controlling health care cost. the question now is, do you want your doctor to make that decision or do you want to have things get to a point where we would have no choice but hand that decision to the government?

[ocrenter]

dwcap, there’s always other alternatives if low estrogen birth control is what your gf is looking for. she can discuss with her ob/gyn at kaiser and they can always do an exception code if they feel medically the medication makes sense.

the point here is there’s a lot more checks and balances in kaiser as opposed to regular ppo plans.

as for edna’s blanket anti-generic sentiment. remember we are all paying for her preferance for Branded medicine here.

except here’s another example:

after prilosec ran out of patent, AstraZeneca produced prilosec’s isomer, nexium along with the full on “Purple Pill” ad campaign.

there is no scientific evidence that nexium is really better than prilosec. annedotally, nexium might occasionally allow someone with reflux to continue to enjoy Mexican food with beer better than prilosec.

cost of nexium? $1840 per year per patient.

cost of prilosec? $240 per year per patient.

2006 total sale was $5 billion.

had all that folks took prilosec generic instead of nexium, we would have saved $4.4 billion.

I can honestly say no lives were saved or made better by spending that extra $4.4 billion using nexium instead of prilosec.

the choice of Brand vs generic, be it birth control or acid relief, does make a huge difference in controlling health care cost. the question now is, do you want your doctor to make that decision or do you want to have things get to a point where we would have no choice but hand that decision to the government?

[ocrenter]

dwcap, there’s always other alternatives if low estrogen birth control is what your gf is looking for. she can discuss with her ob/gyn at kaiser and they can always do an exception code if they feel medically the medication makes sense.

the point here is there’s a lot more checks and balances in kaiser as opposed to regular ppo plans.

as for edna’s blanket anti-generic sentiment. remember we are all paying for her preferance for Branded medicine here.

except here’s another example:

after prilosec ran out of patent, AstraZeneca produced prilosec’s isomer, nexium along with the full on “Purple Pill” ad campaign.

there is no scientific evidence that nexium is really better than prilosec. annedotally, nexium might occasionally allow someone with reflux to continue to enjoy Mexican food with beer better than prilosec.

cost of nexium? $1840 per year per patient.

cost of prilosec? $240 per year per patient.

2006 total sale was $5 billion.

had all that folks took prilosec generic instead of nexium, we would have saved $4.4 billion.

I can honestly say no lives were saved or made better by spending that extra $4.4 billion using nexium instead of prilosec.

the choice of Brand vs generic, be it birth control or acid relief, does make a huge difference in controlling health care cost. the question now is, do you want your doctor to make that decision or do you want to have things get to a point where we would have no choice but hand that decision to the government?

[AK]

IIRC Kaiser doesn’t cover Viagra or other medications for treatment of erectile dysfunction. (Unless your employer pays extra for the sexual dysfunction coverage rider.)

[AK]

IIRC Kaiser doesn’t cover Viagra or other medications for treatment of erectile dysfunction. (Unless your employer pays extra for the sexual dysfunction coverage rider.)

[AK]

IIRC Kaiser doesn’t cover Viagra or other medications for treatment of erectile dysfunction. (Unless your employer pays extra for the sexual dysfunction coverage rider.)

[AK]

IIRC Kaiser doesn’t cover Viagra or other medications for treatment of erectile dysfunction. (Unless your employer pays extra for the sexual dysfunction coverage rider.)

[Author]

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