Alternatives to Kaiser

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by verrip1

Kaiser cut off my geriatric wife's 2 codeine pain pills per day for osteoarthritis some time ago because of "the fentanyl epidemic".



Nobody will listen to her about how stupid this is. They couldn't care less about her pain level. Her PCP and orthopedist both say it's Kaiser policy for nothing but Tylenol for geriatric chronic pain.



Old people who are Kaiser patients do not thrive on pain. They do not thrive at all. Kaiser sentences them to a life sentence in the prison of pain.

I'm surprised they haven't been aggressively pushing surgery on her for the osteoarthritis; some kind of joint replacement or other. Has she been deemed too old to withstand surgery?

[evening sun]

If she is geriatric, is she on Medicare, There are many Medicare supplements that are not Kaiser.


We dropped Kaiser as soon as we cold. They suck.

[mattja]

Originally Posted by artillery77

I've been growing unhappy with Kaiser more and more. I'm wondering if there are others that switched from Kaiser to another place and are glad they did.

I had good luck with the United Healthcare and Aetna PPOs. Never got any flak over what was covered.

[Heidi60]

Originally Posted by verrip1

Kaiser cut off my geriatric wife's 2 codeine pain pills per day for osteoarthritis some time ago because of "the fentanyl epidemic".



Nobody will listen to her about how stupid this is. They couldn't care less about her pain level. Her PCP and orthopedist both say it's Kaiser policy for nothing but Tylenol for geriatric chronic pain.



Old people who are Kaiser patients do not thrive on pain. They do not thrive at all. Kaiser sentences them to a life sentence in the prison of pain.

Good grief!
Certainly this isn't the only pain med available for her.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by verrip1

Kaiser cut off my geriatric wife's 2 codeine pain pills per day for osteoarthritis some time ago because of "the fentanyl epidemic".



Nobody will listen to her about how stupid this is. They couldn't care less about her pain level. Her PCP and orthopedist both say it's Kaiser policy for nothing but Tylenol for geriatric chronic pain.



Old people who are Kaiser patients do not thrive on pain. They do not thrive at all. Kaiser sentences them to a life sentence in the prison of pain.

Very true, my brother was a Kaiser fan he thought they were fantastic...then he got prostate cancer. They did radiation and gave him drugs, they did a scan and told him everything was fine and he didn't have to come back for 2 years. He went back for scans and they said that the cancer had spread to his kidneys, liver and gallbladder and it had basically destroyed his spinal column. They put him on some drugs and sent him home. They told him when he got to feel too bad to call they would put him in a hospice. He said "why, am I going to die?" He went through all of that without them telling him that he was going to die. He died 2 days later in the hospital, he was 66. I asked the doctor why no one told him the prognosis and he said "he never asked"

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by mattja

I had good luck with the United Healthcare and Aetna PPOs. Never got any flak over what was covered.

My husband has an Aetna PPO, he really likes it. I have really good healthcare from my former employer but it would cost me $300 a month to add him to it.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

I'm surprised they haven't been aggressively pushing surgery on her for the osteoarthritis; some kind of joint replacement or other. Has she been deemed too old to withstand surgery?

they never aggressively push anything that costs money. When I was with them I asked if they could do something about my knees, they took X-rays and lost them but refused to re-do them, they said they could just go by the report from the x-ray guy. So, long story short the only thing they would do is offer physical therapy so I said "ok". I had to go in a little tiny room like a closet, a young man was sitting at a desk and handed me around 20 pages of handouts, they were all instructions for knee exercises. He turned away and told me I could leave when I was done...I put the handouts on his desk and left, that was just insulting

[fluffythewondercat]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

Very true, my brother was a Kaiser fan he thought they were fantastic...then he got prostate cancer. They did radiation and gave him drugs, they did a scan and told him everything was fine and he didn't have to come back for 2 years. He went back for scans and they said that the cancer had spread to his kidneys, liver and gallbladder and it had basically destroyed his spinal column. They put him on some drugs and sent him home. They told him when he got to feel too bad to call they would put him in a hospice. He said "why, am I going to die?" He went through all of that without them telling him that he was going to die. He died 2 days later in the hospital, he was 66. I asked the doctor why no one told him the prognosis and he said "he never asked"

That's appalling. I'm so sorry about your brother. We dropped Kaiser like a hot rock and never looked back.

[JGC97]

Judging by some of the comments I've read here and in various places over the years, I see Kaiser's level of care (and their reputation) hasn't improved. I discovered in the late 70's that Kaiser was a place doctors worked when they couldn't practice medicine in the real world. Easily put, if Kaiser was my only choice, I'd go without and likely come out ahead.