Kaiser PermanenteReviews 234

My father waited 2 months to get surgery. When it was 2 days before his surgery the Kaiser receptionist calls him to let him know they have to pick another date. No explanation why, just another date. When he asked what date, she said that she didnt have the schedule for the exact date. She would need to call him back. He had waited patiently for 2 months for this surgery, to get polyps out of his nose so he can smell and taste. Its been 2 weeks no calls yet when he will have surgery. They dont care.

This company is the worst thing I have ever dealt with. Every time I want to make an appointment it takes 45 minutes to set an appointment and the customer service reps are absolutely horrible to deal with. I miss the days of my old insurance where I would just call the doctors office directly and talk to someone very sweet and caring and sett an appointment immediately and get in within a week or two. I called this week telling them that my hand has been numb for sometime and I need to be seen. They told me it would be three months before I could be seen. That is purely unacceptable. Effective immediately I have canceled my insurance with Kaiser because I can't take the difficulty in setting appointments and the horrible disorganization of their billing system. My son was in the hospital on and off for two years and it took me three years to get everything straightened out with them which held me to staying with them this long. Now that I have all of that worked out (after shedding many tears) to try to get someone to help me with the billing I am now leaving Kaiser for good. I spent well over 20 hours on the phone with them to get my billing straightened out. Come to find out they sent a lump sum check to Northside Hospital and never designated the payment to be placed under my account. Northside told me that Kaiser is an absolute mess to deal with. I highly suggest you go somewhere else for insurance even if you have to pay a little bit more I promise calling the doctors office directly to make appointments and having a doctors office that cares about you is much better than dealing with these people. Customer service treats you very poor when you try to make a doctor appt, they have even hung up on me when I would not disclose to them my exact issue and that I only needed to tell my OBGYN this information. This happened twice. Horrible! I canceled my companys group plan and I feel liberated to end the cycle of bad treatment, frustration, wasted time on the phone and wasted time trying to work out billing issues. Good bye forever Kaiser!

I have Kaiser and love it. I like it how my medical information can be looked at any Kaiser hospital so any doctor I see at any Kaiser hospital can see my medical records. I also like the cheap co-pay I pay for appointments. I would recommend Kaiser to anyone. The doctors at Kaiser are nice and the nurses are nice too. What I don't like is that Kaiser hospitals are not in every state. What I also don't like is that Kaiser is slow to offer new benefits and services in the Northern California Kaiser region. Most of the time these new features and benefits mostly become available in other Kaiser regions. Never the Northern California region. Such as the Colorado region and the Georgia region.

I have been a Kaiser Permanente member since 1970. Early on, I found it necessary to be my own advocate. When I did that I received the care I required and it was provided very professionally and timely. My son was born at a Kaiser hospital in Fontana CA in 1971. There was a rude and inappropriate nurse who handled my son in a manner I did not like and I reported her. Since that time I have been seen in the LA and Baldwin Park facilities. I did once have to request a change in primary care physicians, it was quickly done, and I am very happy with my current primary care physician and with all of the ancillary service providers at the Pasadena Clinic. Kaiser is proactive in addressing our family's health issues and the staff we encounter along the way are responsive and caring. Kaiser has developed into a very good provider. We jointly decide on how our health issues will be addressed, and they are competently addressed. I am a happy patient.

Over the decades 3 generations of my family have been a members -both privately and with a group. Your experience may vary greatly depending on your location. I live in a "desirable" area which is attractive to professionals.
Years ago Kaiser made a concerted effort to improve patient relations, and I have seen that effort sustained. If you don't feel a rapport with your doctor, CHANGE DOCTORS! It's easy to do; you don't have to explain why.
I like the free Mail Order pharmacy & the easy email to your doctor. There are also no-cost phone appointments. Really learn about your conditions and medications so you can ask the best questions.

It is clear that the KP customer service budget has gone into masked selling activities instead of solutions. They are very good at calling you for reminders and setting up more and more tests but try to negotiate with the finance department and you get sent into voicemail hell, finally pointing you to the Internet labyrinth. My $60 co-pay "checkup" turned into three additional laboratory bills, each listing a different amount and due date, so far totaling over $300. I signed up because they advertised free preventive care and I still don't know when the bills stop rolling in!
Update...
At the next call to sign up for a new test I complained about the preventive care bills and eventually got them to reverse charges and credit my account. When my annual plan renewed I had to renegotiate a monthly fee based on fluctuating income (entrepreneur with unknown income cycles), I fought for six months to reduce my fees and keep my coverage. Ultimately, it took an appeal to Covered CA to get Kaiser to take notice and reinstate my coverage, followed by repeated corrections to the number of months that had been paid.
Fast forward...
Once all that got settled I lost half my clients to economic conditions and Kaiser dropped me for late payment. I do not qualify for Medicaire or Medi-Cal. Thanks Affordable Care Act, for giving Kaiser free reign to terrorize the self-employed! I am guessing I can fight back once I can pay the past due premiums but what a nightmare to maintain the financial aspect!
All this for preventive care... hope I never get sick and actually need their services!

I've been covered by Kaiser since I was born. There are some things I'd like to change about my plan but in general, I've been very pleased with Kaiser itself.
When the website came out, I signed up right away. It really is so helpful. You can set some appointments in certain departments which is really handy, but at the same time the only reason I gave this site 4 stars and not 5 is because of the lack of departments they offer for online appointment bookings.

The site offers a plethora of options. They have self-help sections, tips, past appointment information, and so many other things. Great site and it continues to add different things to improve the sites reputation and helpfulness.

Northern CA, Santa Clara Kaiser is the most amazing place I've ever dealt with. I've had Cadillac care from them for the past year. They have spared no test, scan, surgery. But too bad obamocare is coming in to place. The wonderful benefit I've had for past year is going down hill, no fault to kaiser. Even they seem baffled and embarrassed by these upcoming changes and I will have to say 'goodbye' to my wonderful healthcare because my premiums are going up by 37%. Thanks Obamo. But seriously, Kaiser has been a wonderful, comprehensive plan with staff that is caring, visits to any doctor for whatever reason, short waits. Reasonable pharmacy. Too much good under one roof to say.

I find it hard to believe that these reviewers are talking about the same Kaiser Permanente I have been using for over 25 years. Could it be different care at different Kaiser facilities? At any rate, over the years I've been hospitalized at Kaiser, had surgery, preventative care, the whole nine yards... and all of it excellent with doctors I liked who would respond to my emails within hours, even on weekends or late at night at a great price with zero ins claim paperwork! What more could you ask for?

My mom had Kaiser most of her life, she died when she was 86. She had a stroke. Kaiser was just OK in her treatment as far as I could see. It's a very long story all the things that happened, but if you want really high quality health care, don't go to Kaiser. Any honest nurse will tell you that, too. I was horrified at some of the things I saw. Afterward I filed a very long complaint with the State agency that licenses Kaiser, and they took TWO YEARS to investigate. And in the end they found all my complaints had merit and made Kaiser come up with a plan to fix all the many things. I never went back to see if there had been improvement. One of the worst things that happened was twice she was taken to the hospital, Kaiser, by ambulance and then Kaiser said, "we have no one by that name", and insisted she wasn't there, on two occasions. We called her cell phone and a nurse picked up the first time, the 2nd time I just walked all over the hospital until I found her. Pretty sick not being able to even tell me my mom was there, twice! And we asked very nicely, and even had her Kaiser number, and they still couldn't find her. It just goes down hill fast from there, at least it did for us. I'd often leave the hospital in tears seeing how my mom was treated, but I never complained until the end when it was all over, I knew better than to complain while she was still there.

This is a terrible organization. I took my gf to the ER yesterday and the doctors and nurses didn't have a clue what the other was doing or had done. The nurse didn't even know what she had already done a few minutes before, she brought in the same supplies again, I couldn't believe it. Then, mid sentance, the doctor took a phone call on his mobile and never came back. I'm not a member and my gf is moving to PPO as soon as she can.