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[truedelphi]

17. This is why it is so galling.

I just heard from a former neighbor who signed up with one of the only three choices he had: Kaiser. (The local exchange only offered Kaiser, Anthem(Blue Shield/Blue Cross) and one other totally new entity no one had previously heard of. Anthem makes it hard to be re-imbursed, so he didn't go with them.)

So after getting the insurance, he goes in to Kaiser with a few complaints. "Well, you need to have a colonoscopy" he is told.

He suffers through that procedure. But when he is told that he has polyps in his colon, he feels the procedure was well worth it, as now he may get relief.

But wait - Kaiser physicians then tell him that since he is 65 years old, their suggested treatment for these polyps is simply to ride it out. As in "You are too old to have any surgery, and since it is likely you will die in the next two decades, jsut suffer with it!"

Apparently MediCare covered the cost of the colonoscopy but Kaiser itself would have had to foot the bill for the surgery to remove the polyps.

This steams him up. Also, it leaves me wondering, as my dad was in his situation when my dad was 82 years old, and his physician insisted he get the polyps removed surgically, both to stop the polyps from growing and becoming more uncomfortable, and also because he felt uncomfortable.

Kaiser is the crappiest place in the world - I have heard more stories about how poorly they treat their patients, and it was also the HMO that caused my spouse's mis-diagnosis and our eventual med bankruptcy.