It was just a week or so ago that I was out walking my dog, and ran into a gentleman who thought he had seen me at his heart clinic. We got to talking, and he informed me of his heart condition and how fragile his health was. I showed him my sympathy for his condition, and he responded by telling me not to worry, that he had the best care possible and a fabulous doctor. I then asked where, and he told me Kaiser Permanente! My heart sunk for him. He was as good as dead in my experience.
Goodbye, Pal, I wanted to say. You see, I have both had KP care and have worked for them, too. Squeezing necessary medical care from them is harder than squeezing water out of a rock. So the story making the rounds of the news outlets today (see Gazette page A4), hardly surprises me at all. Los Angeles is bringing charges against Kaiser Permanente for not caring, in essence. KP ‘dumps’ patients every day, and not just indigents into the streets. So if you have their coverage, Be Aware. You will be having your own health care dumped all the time, in one form or the other. LA files patient dumping charges
Oh, Tony. We are so in agreement here. Not only does KP dump patients that won’t yield them a nice profit, no top notch med school grad has EVER gone to work for Kaiser. EVER. Your friend is DOA.
Kaiser gets nothing but second rate docs who know that they can’t compete with the fellowship-trained top 10%-ers. Top 50%-ers. Maybe 75%-ers. Kaiser docs need their poor patients to be brought kicking and screaming, without any choice, to the doorstep or they’ll be working the night shift at Starbucks to make ends meet. Enter the big corporations trying to save a buck and caring nothing about their employees. A heavenly union!
It is fact that “managed care” is government/media speak….it means “be unresponsive, give second rate care, take money from highly-trained doctors and put it in the pocket of incompetent fraternity boy administrators. Despise the patient, hate wellness, promote illness.” This is the vision and the mission of KP and most other managed care systems.
I agree that we have issues with our healthcare system. Many issues. Complicated issues. However, Kaiser Permanente, with enough money apparently to hire an incredible advertising team….slick enough to almost impress me….is a blight on an already fragile system.
I read today that the American public has revolted against the managed care concept. Good news. Change is needed but it will need to be system-wide change…..not a mediocre little band-aid like Kaiser Permanente.
This is only the latest in a string of Kaiser fiascos. You can read more on my blog at http://corphq.livejournal.com
One thing I haven’t covered because I think the Health Care Wonks are doing a better job – Kaiser was the spokesman for AHIP’s recent proposal to “expand” health care (by pushing HSA’s and getting the government to throw more money at deep-pockets insurance companies – ROTFLMAO!)
I should tell you some of my own KP horror stories, Marie. You would get a great kick out of them. Imgaine Moe as doc, Larry as administrator, and Curly at the front desk! Funniest medical team I have seen assembled outside the Texas Department of Corrections.