Should i switch to kaiser

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You may have even heard that sitting Visit Our Other Sites. Copyright information Other Languages. Lower monthly premiums, lower out-of-pocket costs, which may or may not include a deductible. Going through Richmond meant waiting, getting no answers and more waiting. We called a friend who is an OB nurse in Oakland So, I guess part of what I'm saying is you have to learn how to get around in the system. Knowing someone on the inside is really helpful. Good luck, you may need it.

I have no experience with Alta Bates but I have heard both good and bad stories about them as well. Maybe more bad stories lately. I have been in Alta Bates twice, once for the birth of my daughter and once a year before when I was an inpatient for 2. I have to say that both times I was quite pleased with Alta Bates. I had major surgury there and I felt that I got excellent care by the nurses and staff. However, I think a lot depends on your docter.

The thing you might consider though is the cost. This is different than the Kaiser system, where you would just have an inpatient copay. However, all said it was worth it for me and I didn't have to deal with the red tape and hassle that Kaiser is famous for. My husband just spent nearly a month at Alta Bates with complications of a gall bladder surgery, and I've had three babies there. What I can say unequivocally is that Alta Bates is a great place to have a baby.

For general medicine and extended stays, I think we have a more mixed review. The Emergency Room is, in general, a snapshot of hell. Rick entered the hospital both times through the emergency room, and it is a very busy place with a very wide range of ailments and clients served. He ended up waiting nearly eight hours the first time, mostly because he was quiet, once medicated, and didn't have an advocate.

To be sure, he was not imminent danger from a gall bladder attack. I observed on arrival there that they were very busy after a friday night in Berkeley There was a client screaming in one corner, and a naked woman walking through the ER.

He got admitted to the hospital within about a half an hour of my arrival. Lesson 1: Bring an advocate to the ER. He still ended up waiting about an hour in the waiting room, until I asked the triage nurse what we should do if he fainted in the waiting room.

They then found him a gurney in the hallway. They put an IV In his arm and sort of left it, and it ended up backing up, which was very scary. It was a particularly busy day, Veteran's Day, so some of this is understandable.

He got a reasonably nice room, by himself for the first stay of five days, sort of the luck of the draw. The second longer stay, he had two different roommates, one a very nice man, the other in later stages of dementia, so difficult.

The nursing, by RN's on the whole was good, though they were very understaffed. We saw this in the length of time that it took for him to get pain meds Often 45 minutes would go by before he would get them after a request. Unfortunately, AB is staffing difficult to staff shifts not with their regular, quite high quality nurses, but with registry nurses who are unfamiliar with their procedures, and don't always have much of a stake in taking care of the patients as they might.

This was particularly evident at the shift. I got several calls from my husband in the middle of the night after he had called for help unsuccessfully from the nursing staff. In this group there is a very, very wide range of skill and motivation. There were some very lovely and dedicated women who clearly cared deeply about their work and carefully came in and checked that everything was allright, emptied his bile bag and urine bottle quickly and carefully.

There were some very inexperienced and less dedicated ones, who did not. For some one who had an increased sensitivity to smell, the urine bottle sitting on his bedside table for more than an hour was a big problem, especially when he was supposed to be trying to eat. Other things we noticed as a problem: 1 Cleanliness: I don't have very high standards, but every day in the room, I would be cleaning up.

I cleaned up bile off the floor nearly every day. I picked up bits of medical waste bloody bandaids, tops to syringes, etc off the floor every day. The bathroom was not cleaned once in the whole time he was there nearly a week in a room shared with another elderly gentleman , except for the times I cleaned it.

After his last procedure he waited nearly two hours in recovery for transport, despite repeated calls by the nurse manager on the floor, the nurse, etc. The surgeon finally took pity on me waiting in his room long after day care had closed and went and got him herself. Once during a radiologic visit, my husband finally decided to leave himself, since he had been waiting for an hour and had visitors waiting for him.

They are just too understaffed in that area. This is something that I think Kaiser does very well, and Alta Bates has more difficulty doing. Each doctor was an independent contractor. The doctors didn't always communicate well, and there were some real issues that came up as a result of that. There was no standard protocol, which Kaiser definitely has. The Radiologist wasn't an employee of the hospital and had to be called in to do a test on a Sunday.

The test had actually been ordered for the day before, but they couldn't get anyone in. He also found himself in the hallway on Sunday morning hearing the radiologist say ''I don't have time to do him today, you techs can do that''. Not exactly what he wanted to hear.

In any case, my husband came home, and is improving. Of course, he had an infection that had to be treated, a not unusual thing to happen after a stay in the hospital. So, I guess alls well that ends well. I have some opinions about the care of the doctors, but it's not relevant to the particular question being asked. I've read the archive posts on this subject, but they were scanty and a bit outdated. One of the archive posts said pregnant women see rotating nurse practioners instead of their own doctor, and are delivered by residents.

Is this true? Can you still deliver at Alta Bates? Do Kaiser doctors cut corners in terms of more expensive tests or procedures?

Are all the ''good'' doctors unavailable to new patients? Thanks for any input, positive or negative! I don't know how helpful this will be to you, as my son was already 15 months old when we switched from HealthNet to Kaiser I have had no problems with doctors got several recommendations first , appointments, and tests. The lines for the pharmacy can be long, but there are other, smaller pharmacies you can use, and the refills-by-mail are easy and convenient.

I have had Kaiser since I was a child and highly recommend it. I didn't have a high-risk pregnancy but did have a few things come up that I was immediately seen and treated for. When I went into labor, WC was very busy and chaotic but I was taken wonderful care of.

They welcomed my doula and lots of family too throughout the loooong labor. I know there are a lot of Kaiser bashers out there but I have to say, I have had good and bad experiences with other health plans and doctors over the years and find that Kaiser is simple, cost-effective and caring.

When I have been unhappy with a doctor, I simply switch, just like I would on any other plan. My mother had some health issues that stumped Kaiser drs. I have never felt short-changed or that doctors were trying to curb costs in all the years me and my family have had the care. I decided to test my other insurance out and have a private pediatrician for my baby. While I love him and am very happy with her care, I do miss not being able to show up in a same day urgent care clinic like I could at Kaiser for the occasional ear infection.

I would be happy to talk to you if you have other questions Nicole. When I was a Kaiser member, I saw a nurse practioner every other time. I liked my doctor and my nurse practitioner so that wasn't a problem. The NP can spend more time with you. I live in Fremont and had all my appointments there. With my second pregnancy, there was most definately more visits because of eclampsia. They monitored me very closely. As far as I know, if you belong to Kaiser, you deliver at Kaiser.

You also get whatever doctor is on call when it comes time to deliver. As for cutting corners, I have a lot of negative nasty things to say about Kaiser, but maternity and birth are not included in them. When I was finally able to get out of bed to go see my baby, I had to grab the wall for support due to dizziness. They made me stay another day because the nurse told my doctor. The Hayward hospital where both of my children were born had the highest infant survival rating in their NICU at the time my daughter was born.

They took excellent care of both myself and my daughter. I was there for two weeks, my daughter for four. There was nothing lacking in maternity. In Fremont, Dr. Coplan was my pediatrician.

He was also excellent and good with the kids. Kaiser excels at babies and kids. However, adult care is not as good. A lot of the nurses do not have English as a first language and don't communicate well in it, a fact that can really disillusion you if you speak English as a first and only language.

It isolates you more in an already isolating situation. My mother-in-law died while in their care due to their lack of care. The injuries she came in with were not life-threatening, but their care gave her life-threatening conditions which killed her in 19 days, all while under their ''care'' care being they'd rather clean up the bed when they have time than take the time to walk you to the bathroom.

Their excuse was it was the wrong time of year to get sick two days before Christmas she fell and broke her shoulder. They tried to make us take her home without even seeing if she could stand up on her own she couldn't or finding out why she fell in the first place. Once we proved our point they were forced to keep her and then promptly farmed her out to a cheaper facility after being exposed to pneumonia.

She already had symptoms and we told them so, but they said everyone had those symptoms. They ignored us, told us we would be responsible for the bill if we interfered.

We found a place close by and they said they had room, but Kaiser intervened and said they had no room. They refused to place her close enough so we could visit her every day. The place they sent her to was three hours away one way, too far for us to check on her progress everyday. The care there was no better and she ended up in a coma on an ambulance in the middle of the night to Oakland emergency We refused to let her go back to Hayward.

By the time she got the care she deserved at Oakland, it was too late. She was so septic her body could not fight the infections. My mother-in-law died for the price of a hospital bed. And then they turned around and tried to bill us for morphine shots alledgedly given to her three days after she died. That went on for several months before they didn't dare call us anymore. So that's the bad story. As for ''good'' doctors, it all depends on your personality.

My doctor has since retired and I am no longer a Kaiser patient. I stopped seeing them since the death of my mother-in-law. If all you are looking for is for your kids and future babies, by all means find a good Kaiser. A lot of the facilities have evening and weekend clinics for those after hours ailments one often has to deal with when one has babies. I personally have never heard anything bad about Kaiser in relationship to babies and kids, just adults. If you're fairly healthy or of a temperament to fight for your rights, you should do alright at Kaiser.

Just remember your rights and don't be afraid to insist on them. Kaiser only pays for the cost of a double room in the postnatal unit.

If you want a single Alta Bates will bill you for the difference. Kaiser covers all the other costs though. To address your concerns directly. Yes, with most pregnancies the prenatal apts are with NPs. With this pregnancy since I was going the repeat c-section route the dr set me up for the ''MD Prenatal Clinic'' so that I could get to know the different drs who might be on duty to perform the c-section.

If I had been considered high risk I would have been seen in this clinic also. I always saw a dr until the last month when the apts were harder to get, and they bumped me to the NPs. That was fine with me, I figured the high risk moms needed the apt more than I. I couldn't see my regular Gyn, she doesn't do prenatal care.

I was in the MD clinic so I could meet the drs, but the receptionists generally try to schedule you with the same dr or NP every visit and so I saw the same OB for most of my pregnancy. I only didn't when I asked to have a different Dr. Yes, residents do most of the deliveries at Alta Bates. There is always a supervising OB around though.

With my first son I saw several residents, although there was one who primarily took care of me during my stay. With this pregnancy my c-section was scheduled so I only saw the resident when she went over the forms with me immediately before going into the ER. With both deliveries my c-section was performed by both an OB and a resident.

I didn't find it problematic in anyway. Hope that info helps. I had my baby at Kaiser Walnut Creek last summer. I had a great N. I had many ultrasounds at each appointment after the first one so I could monitor my little one. I loved that! I ended up needing an emergency c-section after a really bad labor that sort of stopped after I dilated loooong story , and the doctors and midwives and nurses in labor and delivery were all very wonderful They kept me informed and gave me options that didn't seem to be limited by cost.

I was not thrilled a bit with the maternity nurses, they were really bad Our pediatrician at Kaiser is also great. I have no experience with Healthnet, I've only been in the bay area for 5 years and have always had Kaiser here, and an HMO when I lived up in Seattle.

I've had great experiences with HMO's Mom of a 11 month old born at Kaiser. I changed from Healthnet to Kaiser just before my latest high risk pregnancy.

Kaiser is extraordinary. They sent me straight to Larry Newman, Perinatologist, whom I saw for every visit every two weeks. He was outstanding. Unlike Healthnet, where I had to argue for tests, Dr. Newman encouraged me to tap into every available resource, and the beauty of Kaiser is that there is no insurance administrator saying otherwise.

I delivered by c-section last July at Alta Bates under the care of an extremely competent staff doctor not a resident. I had sent information about my son's rare condition a few weeks before his birth. Absolutely every nurse and every doctor who came in contact with my son had read my instructions and respected them.

Each doctor spent a lot of unhurried time with us. The docs and nurses there were also outstanding. This was my fifth pregnancy, so I'm coming from a broad base of experience when I say that hands down Kaiser is absolutely outstanding.

I'm also very happy with our pediatrician and the follow up care we've received. Good luck. I have Kaiser, and my partner had Kaiser and switched to Healthnet. In addition, I am a medical social worker and am pretty familiar with both systems. There are pros and cons to Kaiser. Kaiser was great with my preganacy I conceived with the help of the fertility clinic in San Francisco , and I saw my OB for all visits except for urgent care.

I followed her when she moved in my 7th month of pregnancy to Redwood City Kaiser, and when I needed an unexpected c-section, they paged her and she came in early and did it! I also have a great primary practioner and ask her for any and all referrals to specialists. The lactation nurses are fabulous! My pregnancy was not high risk, but I hear they do a good job with that. For our daughter, we got recommendations for pediatricians and were assisgned to our second choice.

We like her, and we like that we go to Children's for emergencies. They seem quite pro-active around children's care. That being said, I travel to San Francicso where I work for my primary care, because the two previous doctors I had left, and reassigment was challenging at best.

We had huge drama and mismanagement for my partner's breast cancer, enough that she switched health plans never to return. I also see patients who are admitted emergently to where I work who have Kaiser. Kaiser is the most aggressive health insurance in terms of tranfering patients back to their own hospital, and definitely more concerned about money then family wishes i. All in all, if you can get a primary care person you trust, and don't have any need for specialty care, its fine.

In fact, more conveint than Health Net for flu, allergies, eye glasses etc. But if you have some crisis like breast cancer or a car accidient you definitely give up your choice of seeking the ''best'' in the area. I have a mo old, and I started out that pregnancy with Kaiser through my employer.

It seemed like a great idea, but it ended up being a huge mistake. I did have a personal doctor, who I saw for all my appointments, but he was not on call when we went into labor, so a doctor in his practice who I had never met ended up delivering my daughter. I also had some risk factors over age 35, possible Rh incompatibility,Group B Strep , and ended up having an emergency C-section.

I delivered at Alta Bates, and I have no complaints about the care I received. But the post-delivery, namely the bills, have been a nightmare!!!!! We got bills from at least five different places Ob, Pediatrician, hospital, lab, State of CA , which we still have not straightened out.

I haven't delivered with Kaiser, but I do know that Kaiser patients deliver at Alta Bates at least Kaiser Oakland patients, I can't say for sure about other Kaiser offices.

We're expecting again, and are using Kaiser. I'm looking forward to everything being billed through one place, so that if we owe anything at all, we'll only have to deal with one bill. As far as having a personal doctor goes, I see the same Nurse Practitioner for all my appointments. I know she probably won't deliver my baby, but the same thing happened with my first.

So far, I feel that the quality of care I've received is comparable to what I got with the non-Kaiser doctor. We'll see how the delivery itself goes I had similar worries about switching from HealthNet to Kaiser two years ago.

As a matter of fact, I continued paying out-of-pocket for office visits to these providers even after we'd signed up for Kaiser. Then one day I decided to try Kaiser out when my daughter was ill at PM. I called Kaiser and we had an urgent care appointment for that same night. I was stunned to have been given an appointment in the clinic that night and was immensely impressed by the lovely pediatric clinic, state-of-the- art equipment, the fact that we were seen at exactly PM no waiting!

Bottom line:. The outpatient clinical care is excellent and much more integrated than non-Kaiser care it's one system, so the specialists, hospital, pharmacy, primary care are coordinated. The physicians are supported by an impressive clinical support system and protocol I feel that my physicians are top-knotch and the fact that they are part of a large group of Permanente physicians really enhances their clinical expertise.

Pediatric care is the best! Every time my daughter has been sick, she has been seen within hours of our calling by wonderful, caring pediatricians.

The urgent care system which has appointments in the regular clinic til PM and in the E. Alos, Kaiser pediatrians do not rush to prescribe antibiotics for any ailment; I really appreciate their clinical approach.

The call system has been greatly improved in the last five years. When you call an advice nurse, you do have to wait, but I've never waited more than five minutes. The advice nurses are fantastic. If anything, I would say that we receive more care than I did outside of Kaiser. When I call an advice nurse if one of us is not feeling well, more often than not we are advised to come in ''just in case''. She is constantly saying that she feels so grateful she switched from HealthNet last year because of the rapidity with which her cancer was diagnosed and is being treated.

She feels that the Kaiser system is really holding her and that had she been with HealthNet, she would have had to navigate through the specialists in a way that would have felt daunting. On the other hand, a friend of a friend felt that she did not receive state-of-the-art cancer treatment with Kaiser; experiences will vary, as they do between non-Kaiser physicians. Kaiser is particularly renown for its state-of-the-art protocol and clinics to treat chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma, etc.

They advise other countries on these clinical protocol, which are widely respected. You can choose your personal physician, who follows you. It is true, of course, that the popular physicians' practices are often closed to new patients as is true outside Kaiser.

But you can wait for them to open up, while still being in excellent care from the newer physicians. I was actually very happy just seeing whatever urgent care doc happened to be on call, though they kept urging me to sign up with a personal physician. Kaiser is non-profit fully integrated health care delivery system; HealthNet is a for-profit HMO that contracts with physicians and hospitals for care.

The CEO of Kaiser recently said that Kaiser has a ''mission dividend'', not a stock dividend, which distinguishes Kaiser from the for-profits. Kaiser's mission is to deliver affordable, quality care. I work for Kaiser in a health policy position. Much of my work involves evaluating benefits and products that are offered to members. I often have Kaiser physicians working on my teams to assist in clincial assessments of policy decisions made.

I have been extremely impressed by the level of concern every physician I have worked with has over quality and access to care. While business people within the organization are feeling compelled to become ''more competitive'' read: less rich in benefits in order to compete with the other HMOs , the physicians consistently argue for staying true to the commitment of ''Permanente Medicine''--with its high quality and ready access for a broad range of members.

In this day when everyone is concerned about the bottom line, it is truly inspiring to hear the Kaiser physicians deeply concerned about quality and affordable medicine. You do hear scary stories about bad care at Kaiser--which is why I was so loathe to become a Kaiser member even after I had worked here for a year.

I didn't want second-class medicine for me or my family. But I have seen no evidence of bad care; quite the contrary. The one ''bad'' story I know of personally is from my manager at work, who had frustrating experience with Kaiser, waiting for her carpal tunnel surgery to be scheduled. I'm sure you'll hear other stories, but they happen everywhere, unfortunately. Kaiser's may be more highlighted because it is both a delivery system and an insurance company--so it's easier to identify.

I do know that member satisfaction surveys show high regard for outpatient care and less satisfaction for inpatient care. Kaiser takes these surveys seriously and is under constant self- improvement. I don't believe that you would compromise your family's care by switching to Kaiser. It think you will be wonderfully surprised by its excellence. The administrators of the hospital wanted to make healthcare more affordable for some patients, many of whom were Dallas public school educators on restricted budgets.

The initial payment plan set up by Baylor University Hospital consisted of a cent prepay each month for up to 21 days of hospitalization per year. The success of the program leads to enrollment by employees in other professions across Dallas. After the war ended the shipyard workforce fell from 90, to 13, Only 12 of 75 medical group providers remained.

On July 21, , the Permanente Health Plan opened to the public to continue the health care delivery set up by Kaiser and Garfield. In , the name of the health plan and the hospitals were changed from Permanente to Kaiser Permanente. Which health insurance company is better? We've made it easy to compare companies side by side. The app allows users to find doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies, view claims, pay bill, and manage prescriptions.

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