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Don't get Kaiser! We just switched to Kaiser HMO 2012, regret it!

My wife need to see a an OBGYN doctor, went to the office waited for 3 hours and was unable to get a refferal to see the doctor. Now, they informed her she needs to travel to another location to get the refferal, then travel to another location to see the doctor. (We were like WOW) I write on and on, but bottom line is -DON'T GET KAISER-!

- Lastly, how do you have a company survive like that, so regret. Can't wait to switch out

Location: Washington, District Of Columbia

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Guest

I have had Kaiser for years and have had some good doctors and would say, since every system and hospital is made up of humans there are problems, that I have gotten alot more good than bad. But recently I needed to send in a complaint and I have found that other doctors and staff read the complaint and have actually had another doctor hassle me because of that. I would say that makes there whole system of dealing with a complaint corrupt.

Guest

Canโ€™t even register my card with this ridiculous company! 1-888 number is a machine and their WA state line has been disconnected! How am I supposed to even get the coverage I pay for?!?!?!?!?!?!

Guest

Kaiser Sucks Too Many Problems I Can't List Them All. Take My Advice NEVER ENROLL WITH KAISER . YOU WILL REGRET IT !!!!!!!

Guest

Kaiser is horrible. Seems like it take 2 years to get an appointment

Duana Bee

yes I had Kaiser the refused service to me claiming the do not serve lgbt people and kicked me out filled a grievance happened they lie and cheat

Guest

Just switched and will be switching right out of Kaiser. Horrible service, drs are lacking a bedside manner and the whole system treats you like you are stupid for not knowing how things work.

I heard nothing but bad for years and years and my husband wanted to try it out.

Never again will i doubt those who told me it sucked. I now know for myself itโ€™s is truly horrible.

Guest

Kaiser is good when you don't need serious care. I have been having a stomach pain for 2 weeks and still waiting for the referral to see a GI.

I called in and the nurse just said "oh I sent the doctor the message and we can't do anything else ".

I am debating flying to a different country to get care. It may be faster and cheaper to get a proper care than with Kaiser.

Guest

My doctor quit Kaiser and I never received a notice that so needed to chose s new doctor. Pathetic care!

Guest

I called over two weeks in advance seeking vaccinations for our kid so we can travel overseas. They told us to call back 3 days before we travel. They said they are busy.

Guest

Been on hold for over a hour this morning and these evening.

Should be spending tine with my daughter .

But can not log on what so ever

Moved to different part of town, new Doc will not even look at my record's wants me to come in and pay again. So I will have to drive over a hour. It is now 5;31 been on hold over half a hour.

Guest

Well, it's now 2016 and Kaiser is getting worse each year. Obamacare has forced people to live with Kaiser, the worst healthcare provider in the industry.

Kaiser upper management should be in prison for their actions.

They are thieves...

The worst in US history.

They make the Mafia of past, look like choir boys. And the government encourages their deception and substandard care.

GOD help all that have Kaiser.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1086015

They might be letting my mother die right now. December of 2016 they had her take a PET scan (YES...Before a biopsy!) and Dr said looks like aggressive cancer in both lungs!

ok...so let's get aggressive back..Dr. replies...7 days later...well..we need another biopsy...let's schedule for January 10th 2017. WTF...she might have Stage 4 and let's wait 3 weeks...NO... so schedule another biopsy due to dad and I calling aggressively to the point where we were heard and scheduled within a day for #2...then she was told...well..we are still not sure.

Get back to you in a week or so, but let's schedule Oncologist appt. in the meantime since if we don't now it could take weeks (really....Thanks for admitting that Dr Kaiser man!)....still waiting for results of 2nd biopsy as of last night 1/3 to know if we can (fingers crossed) cancel Oncologist appt. Dr. tells her again..just keep it...we are still not sure but we'll know in the morning.

Well today is 1/4 and Mom diagnosed with Stage 4 in lungs and spread to spine (where she has had arthritis for few years now and possibly they are assuming the dark spots are cancer?) She was told just today ....too late for Chemo and no cure. take a pill to manage pain...Now what? well now another appt. to check if spread to brain, but yet they told her to schedule herself and then front desk reminded her she needed to schedule a blood test (YET AGAIN) for the MRI brain thingy...

Mom says "will Dr. order that" receptionist tells her "don't know...probably do that yourself" AGAIN WTF..... Is she just a number???

a prison of the Kaiser private sector? This blows and I don't know what to do to help her and who to contact at Kaiser...we need her out of there and back with a PPo!!!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1086015

I agree that Obamacare set this off... I used ti hear how wonderful Kaiser was, so I chose them.

My plan is lowest anf I pay $700 per month JUST for me. ($7500 deductible!) So far my doctors have been idiots. My primary doc sent me home with pneumonia ...telling me I wasn't "sick enough" to have pneumonia but I insisted on a chest xray. One week later the lab call ME saying get back in, you HAVE pneumonia!

I had been super sick for weeks already.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Got a new doc, who makes "notes" in my file that I won't "follow the care plan" (Because there are meds that I will not take, based on known problems) ALl they want to do is cover their liability and do not care at all about patients.

Guest

sad but company is falling apart. my bosses boss in marketing HR is a total ***.

Many complaints made against him and he's still there. Sad!

Guest

A couple of things.

Kaiser and mental health do not mix. Do not choose Kaiser if you need mental health.

They claim they've hired a lot of new therapists and psychiatrists, but they have to stretch the numbers back to 2011 (before Obamacare) to today. As of October 2015, the wait for mental health is still two months for ongoing appointments.

Also, do not choose Kaiser if you are old and very sick. They will give you bargain prescriptions and send you out the door in 5 minutes so they can take care of all the overbooked patients. When you figure out you want to go elsewhere, you're trapped and they won't pay.

It's impossible to get a referral outside of the Kaiser system.

Finally, look at the medical background of Kaiser primary docs. They usually come from schools outside of the US or the med school rejects in the Caribbean. I'm sure there are good primary docs who were taught elsewhere, but I think most of them are bottom of the barrel rejects.

Or you can choose a nurse practitioner, but would you trust your complex health problems to a pretend-doc who didn't do the full sequence in med school and residency?

Kaiser stinks just like all of the HMOs.

Don't be tricked with the Medicare 5-star ratings. And if you have mental health needs, stay very far away.

Guest

This story is very hard to get across in words how tragic and desperate we felt but I will try. Two years ago my son was in his 2nd year of college.

He developed a drug problem. We had no idea how bad it was and what to do about it. We expected to get guidance from our health care professionals at Kaiser. After all, that is what we have insurance for.

When our son came home after the second year was over, thru various and horrible ways we found out he was abusing drugs.

He agreed he had a problem and wanted help. We turned to Kaiser Addiction medicine. They put him in outpatient rehab. We felt that maybe he needed more but we had never dealt with this and did not question their โ€œknowledgeโ€.

He attended most meetings, he did miss a few, but he drove himself to and from the meetings on his own. He wanted to be sober. After a couple of weeks, my husband and I found him unconscious and barely breathing. It was latterly the worst moment of our life.

My husband performed CPR until the 911 responders arrived. They shot him in the heart with something to make his heart beat again and start breathing. He was taken to the closest hospital, not a Kaiser hospital. He was there for about 8 hours.

The doctor there told us that he needed more treatment then he was getting and he has a serious problem. When he was stable enough, they moved him to a Kaiser hospital where he stayed for about another 24 hours. We were told he was ok to go home with us. A big red flag went off in both our heads and we knew this was not right.

We asked if any psychiatrist had seen him and they said no. We insisted he talk to someone before he left. They called someone in and she had about a 2 minute conversation with him and said ok he is free to go. Just make an appointment with the addiction doctor.

Once again, we did. The next day my husband took him to the โ€œaddiction specialistโ€ (HAHA and told him what happened and how close to death my son was. The doctor then said something that to this day is unbelievable, he said to my husband AND my son in the same room that death was nothing to him, they deal with it every day and that my son should quit smoking cigarettes. Then he said to our son that he should attend Kaiserโ€™s outpatient rehab that meets every day for two weeks.

My husband tried to get him into in patient but the doctor said no. My son at this point was frustrated because he knew what he was doing was not working but we really did not have a choice.

He attended the meetings; again, he did miss some. He was a 19 year old drug addict. But he did attend classes and had us go to classes as well.

He was trying. Then, about a week and a half into the everyday rehab, the second overdose happened. Again 911 responders came and gave him something to wake him up. This time he was taken to a Kaiser hospital where he stayed for about 3 or 4 hours then was released.

At this point his father and I were begging the doctor to put him into an in-patient rehab. The emergency doctor told us is was not that easy and sent us on our way. My son was still showing effects of being on drugs. It was horrible.

We knew something had to be done and it was up to us.

We immediately made plans for my husband to take our son out of state to clean up and get away from the bad habits he had fallen into. They were leaving the next day and it was my job while they were gone to work things out with Kaiser and get him into an in-patient facility that he needed. Our son agreed. He knew he needed help and he felt he was not getting it.

He was very discouraged. They left and the next three days were spent on the phone with Kaiser talking to anyone who would listen and could make the decision to get him into inpatient facility. I kept hearing No and no approval never came. They said the reason was he lacked motivation and missed some outpatient meetings.

Well, he is a 19 year old boy addicted to heroin. But the kid CLEARLY is crying out for help. I had some really amazing conversations with the Kaiser doctors. They are completely incompetent when it came to addiction and mental health issues.

We were on our own. We are not rich and that leads to a whole different storyโ€ฆ( http://www.gofundme.com/spwjv4m )

I was blessed enough to find a wonderful place where he attended in patient rehab for 3 months. He had to learn a lot of things to live a clean and sober life. He got the treatment he needed.

He needed daily follow up care for 9 months. At this young age, they do not have the skills or wisdom to stay on the right track without help. So we did what we had to do to get our son healthy and on his way to a happy, healthy life. I am proud to say he is sober today and has earned himself his personal trainer certification and has a job he likes.

We are so happy to have our son back. No thanks to Kaiser. We submitted all our bills to them and they declined to reimburse us. They said it was because we did not use a Kaiser facility.

Well it does not make sense. We tried to go to a Kaiser facility, they said no NUMEROUS times. They gave a different reason. But now, they give us a different reason again.

There were so many rude comments and inconsistencies from Kaiser. They just did not care. When the doctor told my husband and son his little death explanation, I immediately filed a complaint against him. I feel that from then on out he truly did not care what happened to my son and went out of his way to make treating him as difficult as possible.

The only thing I could find on this guy was that before Kaiser, he was a family practitioner. Normally, addiction specialists are trained in mental health issues. He was a family practice doctor. He exacted his retribution on us to the tune of the cost of rehab for about a year.

Kaiser never paid. We tried to get a lawyer but nobody would take our piddly little case.

It is my opinion that Kaiser does not have it's own facility and they would have to pay someone else to treat my son. That is why he was not treated by Kaiser. By sharing our story, it is my hope that you will share this with as many people as possible.

Eventually, if enough people who have had similar problems stand up to the health care industry, in particular Kaiser Permanente, there is a hope of changing the way doctors and health care workers deal with and treat an addiction problem. No person or family should ever have to be treated as we were and struggle to pay bills when we pay for health insurance. The patientsโ€™ needs should dictate the treatment, not the cost to the insurance company.

My son is happy and healthy today and I thank God and pray to him to keep him that way. Thank you for your time.

Guest

I feel your pain. I can only get Kaiser.

Instead, I have to use WebMD because Kaiser is freaking useless. They've never told me anything I couldn't figure out myself. Also, you can't sue Kaiser, so they can do whatever they want.

People die from neglect and Kaiser gets off easily. I hate Kaiser with a passion.

Guest

The pharmacy staff is terrible. They don't know anything about medications and are very rude, especially an old, skinny blonde in Carlsbad. The wait is horrible and prescriptions are incorrect most of the time.

Guest

So, I am a new member with Kaiser. I went to their hospital today because i was having such horrible sharp and constant pain on my right side.

I had my blood pressure taken and was asked questions (the entire time they talked to me they seemed kind of rude). They more or the less said that i wasn't important and that they were going to put me on the back burner. They then told me that someone would call me in for a blood test and to go to the bathroom and urinate into a bottle and bring it back. I did but when i returned they were taking care of someone else and having a conversation that had nothing to do with the other patient's problem!!!!

I ended up spending 10-15 minutes with this bottle of ***..I then got PISSED and stomped into the little room and slammed that bottle of *** on her desk. I waited some more in the lobby....about another 10-15 minutes and nothing....So i ripped my little patient bracelet off and threw it into the garbage and walked out.

I drove to Providence and was treated with respect and was seen right away. EVERYONE was friendly and nice. I was diagnosed with a ruptured cyst on my ovary.

They understood how painful it was and put me on pain meds right away.

Thank you PROVIDENCE! AND F U KAISER!

Guest

They lied to me. They told me my premium would remain the same at the beginning of 2014 for the whole year then the day I turn 55 my premium goes up from $390 to $900.

I think Kaiser is over rated and rates itself now that I see this happening. Time to drop all health insurance and move to another country

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