Kaiser Permanente

I’m so incredibly disappointed in Kaiser Permente right now. I’ve been without health insurance for 6 months and haven’t been able to get my prescriptions, including Adderall for my ADHD. It’s been a huge problem for me to focus and get work done as a freelance web developer. I was so excited to finally have insurance again through my wife. Then they told me to get an Adderall prescription I need to take a drug test!!! Since I have smoked recreational marijuana (legal in CO) in the last 30 days I can’t get the medication I need to function. And once I get drug tested a month from now I’ll still be randomly drug screened as long as I’m prescribed Adderall. Thanks for denying me the medication I need and treating me like a criminal Kaiser…

I stumbled on these reviews when I clicked on a wrong link and was shocked at these negative reviews. It’s too bad that only complainers seem to take the time to write reviews here. While I have noticed Kaiser going through some minor growing pains evidently due to changes in healthcare over the last year, I have to say the impact has been minimal. I have used Kaiser for at least 7 years and find them to be top notch.
I have a complicated health history and spent 10 of the last 15 years in and out of doctor’s offices, ER’s and hospitals-​so I feel I have some experience in dealing with doctors and healthcare, since during that time I had 3 different insurance companies, due to work.
I LOVE my Kaiser doctors, all of my health records are computerized and able to be accessed by any doctor I visit-​a big advantage over visiting multiple unrelated doctors who have no idea what is going on with my other healthcare professionals.
I can email my doctor and get an answer directly from him within ½ hour usually. (and he always remembers who I am!)
I can go online and order prescription refills, look at test results or previous appts. and book new appointments-​no waiting on hold.
I don’t think I have waited more than 10 minutes (and it’s usually 5 or less) to have a blood test, mammogram or x-​ray.
ALL aspects of my healthcare are tracked and co-​ordinated by Kaiser, including my eye appointments.
Kaiser sends me health alerts, treatment plans and reminders, so I never forget when I’m due for a check-​up and what I should be aware of in order to stay healthy.
I don’t know what people writing these reviews are looking for in a doctor, but I don’t think their priorities seem to be finding a place that is dedicated to keeping them well. It sounds more like they want an $$$$$ concierge doctor.

Really mediocre. This is an organization where you will spend 40 minutes on hold for the wrong department. Kaiser use to be much better about 10 years ago, but they’ve really gone down hill (especially admin/​offices/​services).
We’ve had all types of things happen to us (i.e. they forgot about one of my children in a waiting room for over an hour). Physicians are oversubscribed too, long waiting times, non welcoming front office, confused billing, non-​working phone numbers. With the big double digit bump up in premiums for multiple years, the value proposition is declining rapidly.
The two good things I can say for the organization is that they emphasize prevention which is a good (they offer «free» flue shots, and one free preventative visit a year, as well as a positive newsletter emphasizing healthy living practice). The other positive part about Kaiser is that I have encountered hardworking, very qualified practitioners. Thus, if you can avoid the business, service, office, admin side the underlying doctors, RNs, PAs etc. are great, but it’s often a hassle to actually access them.
I think in this new era of health care, your best value is probably doing a good job taking care of yourself, i.e. healthy diet, exercise, rest.

Go with United.

Very medicore health care system Very impersonal, phone system takes you no where, Kaiser tries depersonalize everything w automated systems, but they don’t work. Try calling the mail pharmacy and you get sorry our system is full call back another time. The good docs don’t put their bio on their site cause they already have too many patients. The best thing is their pharmacy prices are below commercial chains.
I understand their difficulties after affordable care act was a rush, but it’s a year later and not sure much improvement.

I am aware that this Kaiser location has closed and the Baseline location is now the sole Boulder location. However, since this has been the place where I primarily received medical treatment during the time Kaiser was my workplace insurance, I am copy/​pasting my comments about Kaiser to this location. I had originally and erroneously placed my comments in another city’s Kaiser location on Unilocal,as it was my first Unilocal comment, and I did not quite understand Unilocal yet. The original comment, dated October 2, 2007, is below:
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My son was born while I had KP insurance, and he is almost 30 now. I have had KP coverage on and off during that time, enough to see the changes that have occurred during that time. KP was pretty decent at the time my son was born. Unfortunately, it has gone downhill since that time. There are still great doctors and health practitioners that somehow end up employed by KP, but the difficult and potentially deadly stuff that happens to people seems to come from the corporate entity… from policy and protocol that the doctors apparently must strictly follow.
Very fortunately, my employer recently ended its relationship with KP due to some of KP’s policies that did not mesh with their own healthcare philosophies. So I was liberated. The new HMO I’m with is magnificent so far.
But it’s been several months, and KP still sends me letters. Not about money, oh no, they’re semi-​threatening letters about a particular health condition they diagnosed some time ago. I’ve since had a clean bill of health regarding that condition, actually, probably due to some preventive and alternative health approaches I was doing.
These aren’t just regular letters. They’re registered letters, where the mailperson comes to the door and a person has to sign for them. One just came today. I called my local KP office, the # that was on the letter, right away. The person I spoke to was very pleasant, and trying to be logical and reasonable. She pointed out that they had acknowledged I was no longer with KP as an HMO. She was trying to justify the rationale for them continuing to send me their letters, by stating one of their corporate protocols. I told her that they needed to stop sending me letters immediately, as I am considering this harrassment, and will hire an attorney if necessary to get them to stop contacting me.
She then stated she would do everything she could to be certain that KP will not contact me anymore.
Here’s to my health, and all of yours. Let us thrive, somewhere, far away from Kaiser Permanente.
Thank you for listening.