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Wife and I are Kaiser Permanente members on Mainland and will be relocating to Kauai by mid-2014 (as retirees). Anyone have experience with this situation (positive or negative)? Mahalo
Last edited by kaletjo; 11-29-2013 at 07:30 AM..
Reason: typographical errors
Mahalo, TVC15, for the reply. I misspoke. Wilcox Hospital accepts Kaiser Permanente-covered patients. I recently checked with KP HQ and they said that it's no problem to transfer one's coverage from one part of the US to another, so long as the health care provider accepts KP. At this juncture, it appears like we'll be OK once we relocate. If you know anything to the contrary, please feel free to share. Again, mahalo.
I suggest that you contact Wilcox Hospital and find out what kind of services they offer to KP patients. Checking with KP HQ will not give you the whole picture. Only the actual office where you will be getting services can tell you what is available. It may be that you will only be eligible for certain things, like hospital care. Will your regular office visits be covered? What about things like mammograms?
Location: SF Bay Area /on the banks of Waikaea Canal
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Originally Posted by kaletjo
Good suggestion (contacting Wilcox). Worth pursuing. Mahalo!
Speaking from personal experience many trips were made to Oahu for specialized medical treatment not available at Wilcox. Also since we're on the subject Lihue tends to have more nursing and convalesence homes than the other districts.
Don't get me wrong medical care on Kaua'i isn't bad and Wilcox is probably the best on the island but make no mistake about it if one needs medical specialists Oahu is where you will find the bulk of those services.
OpenD summed it up very well...its a small island, in a small state, with a small population.
While we were Kaiser members in Colorado, they would cover us as visiting members in Hawaii for three months out of every calendar year. Once we went on Medicare, that changed to six months. So what will you do for the extra six months of the year?
And how much have you budgeted for those trips to Honolulu for specialized care? Kaiser Hawaii will fly their members to Honolulu, but as visiting members from another state we had to pay for our own transportation. Gets expensive when you have something like a torn retina that needs to be checked out right away and there's no-one on the BI to do it.
All very good and informative comments. Mahalo. Our personal situation is that spouse and I each are entitled to health care benefits in retirement, as a result of our employers (government entities). So, as permanent residents of Kauai with health care benefits (Medicare as primary, retiree health care benefits for excess up to a certain level), we think we'll be ok. But the comments cause us to focus on issues that we might otherwise overlook, so mahalo nui loa.
We are exactly like you -- we are retired and get health care benefits through our old (state government) employers. That doesn't change the fact that the level of health care in Hawaii is not what you are used to. Nor does it change the fact that unless you are a member of Kaiser Hawaii, then you are a visiting member. Kaiser Hawaii is under the KP umbrella, but it a different entity from the Kaiser that you are part of in your home state. So in order for you to be fully qualified for care in Hawaii, you need to switch to Kaiser Hawaii.
Mahalo, DOH, for pointing out the need to connect with Kaiser Hawaii. When you google "Kaiser Hawaii," you end up with "Kaiser Permanente." I found a very helpful link on the Kaiser website (Members Only section) that identifies Kaiser connections/affiliates on Kauai, Lanai and Molokai. The link takes you to a PDF that addresses each island separately, i.e., what services are available, doctors, specialists, etc. I was going to include it in this message, but it may have proprietary info in it (the https prefix suggested that to me), so you may want to check out the Kaiser homepage for this info.
As far as reduced services and having to travel to Oahu for more advanced treatment, we accept that as part of the trade-off. After 40+ years in the Washington, DC area, we are looking forward to a small population on a small island.
Aloha
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Mahalo for info
