A letter from Kaiser Permanente

[Stinky The Clown]

This came tonight from our HMO (Note: we have been with them for about 10 years are are happy with the service/care even as the premiums were astronomical for a time.)

Moving forward with your health in mind


About the Supreme Court Ruling on the Affordable Care Act

The Supreme Court decision on the federal health care reform law has settled much of the legal uncertainty over how the law will be carried out.

As a Kaiser Permanente member, you need not be concerned about any disruption to your coverage and care resulting from the court's decision.

With your health and well-being in mind, we plan to continue our extensive efforts to implement health care reform, which began two years ago when the law first became effective.


We are implementing state and federal reform laws as an integrated health care system. These laws incorporate certain requirements around health care coverage. They also address broader improvements to the way health care is delivered now and in the future.

We are continuing to improve the quality and integration of care, and ensuring that we have the resources in place — physicians, nurses, and other staff, as well as the right health care facilities — to provide the care you and your family will need.

We are also reviewing the court's decision to determine how it may affect the law's expansion of Medicaid coverage to millions of Americans, which is planned to begin in 2014.


While political uncertainty still remains, we'll continue to be guided by our goals of providing high-quality care, great service, and affordability to our members and the communities we serve.

Learn more about health care reform.

[Mz Pip]

1. I've had Kaiser

for over 35 years and am very happy with it. If we don't go to single payer I would like to see more not for profit HMOs like Kaiser come into being.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

2. I've never had Kaiser

But I had a Cigna HMO years ago, and I'll never do that again. Military healthcare is also basically an HMO, and it was terrible.

Perhaps they're great for many people, but I prefer the fee for service plan I have now with BC/BS.

[shanti]

3. Just got that email as well

longtime kaiser member. it's ok for the most part, so i'm not inclined to change it. i just lost my PCP though, which sucks. it's not the first time either.

[alittlelark]

4. My daughter got one, then I checked and had one too..

I actually really like Kaiser. Their mental health benefits suck, but other than that color me happy.

[MurrayDelph]

5. All insurance companies/HMOs are evil

but Kaiser is less evil than the rest.

I had Kaiser decades ago. Since then I've had BlueCross, Cigna, Aetna. They all sucked.

If Kaiser was available where I live now, I would have tried to sign up with them instead of the Oregon assigned risk pool insurance, which is expensive. And sucks. But is (barely) better than nothing.

[Ms. Toad]

6. Love the model of care - hate the reality in Ohio.

100 hours of my time and 7 appeals to fix claim processing errors for specialty care (three surgeries and a CT scans) that were all approved in advance. Virtually every call I was rudely told the mistake was mine; that I didn't understand my plan; that I didn't understand the referrals I received; that I had neglected to wait until the approvals were completed (not true), and that there was nothing they could do short of filing an appeal to see if they would make an exception for me.

The straw that broke the camel's back was when they removed access to all pharmacies other than Kaiser (the closest one was 12 miles from me and about 30 miles from my daughter), fired all of the community based physicians and demanded that I terminate the physician who had I chosen around 6 years earlier when we joined Kaiser and who was managing a half dozen very complex medical issues for our family - and go with switch to a Kaiser based physician - the exact opposite of their goal of developing an ongoing relationship with a physician who sees you as a whole person over time and coordinate care with an appropriate team of specialists. (My last experience with Kaiser based physicians was that they never stuck around long enough for me to see them twice - but I had given Kaiser, if not their direct physicians, another chance.)

I was pleased with the medical care - but the bureaucratic nonsense, administrative nonsense, and abysmal customer service have made any other option more desirable.

Sad thing is, I had gotten so used to their increasingly bad customer service that I was not really aware how bad it was until I encountered customer service under our new insurer. We had a rocky start - some of it our broker's fault, some of it because I insisted they honor the certificate of coverage and put my spouse on a family plan with us - rather than a separate plan that would have cost $3000 more. But in all of the calls it took to sort that out, I was never once treated rudely. Never once told I did not know what I was talking about (in fact most assumed it was my second or third call on each issue because I knew far more {thanks to Kaiser} than most patients), and they were virtually all apologetic that the problem had occurred in the first place - and that they could not fix it instantaneously.

I wish the circumstances were different - because I really do like the Kaiser model for care. Just not the reality in Ohio.

[msongs]

7. I have Kaiser basic plan but it's cheaper to go to the local free clinic for office calls nt

[Kablooie]

8. I've got Kaiser too and it's the best medical plan of many I've had.

Blue Cross was horrible.
They'd regularly deny payment so the doctors had to call us, the patients, and ask us to request that Blue Cross pay them.
We had to call often and complain over and over again to get them to pay.

We tried an HMO after that and it was a long series of requests to business offices and then wait a few days until they approved medical treatments.
It was also horrible.

Kaiser costs $15 per visit for any kind of care, from a checkup to a full operation.
Anytime we want and they seem very organized.

I hear they used to be terrible but have changed and we've been very happy with them for the last few years.
If I need a heart transplant or something, I don't know how good they would be but for basic medical care they are not bad.