Why is kaiser bad

I have her sleep in my room from fear of her doing something because she wants to give up. When I ask about getting outside care they quickly schedule an appointment, but then it goes back the next month. I was born in a Kaiser Hospital. That is, until I needed help healing my mind, not my body. I could tell my therapist was trying so hard trying to get in additional appointments that we thought were critical.

But their calendar was booked hard, and well, the most they could do was refer me to other programs. All of this was before the pandemic.

I contacted Kaiser in the beginning of December to get help for a severe depression. I was referred to a therapist, but had to wait until March for my first session. I was only able to have one visit per month, and after the third visit, the clinician told me that he could only see me one more time.

The next appointment was two months later with a LCSW, and he canceled the day of my appointment. There was also some confusion about in in-house sessions and ones that are outsourced. I was left feeling frustrated and angry. Kaiser makes billions, but mental healthcare is severely rationed so some people will die as a result. Only wealthy people in this country have full access, and this is shameful. I am a therapist who contracts with Beacon to provide mental health services to Kaiser patients.

My practice has been full for about six months, and I have had to turn down dozens of people desperate for help. I always feel sympathy for people who are in need of help and cannot find it because so many contracted providers are full.

I requested to go back to Kaiser, as the county system is overworked as well. I made an appointment in December for a therapy appointment in March The appointment was canceled the day of and was rescheduled for May I was told that I was no longer eligible for the higher care they provide to certain patients due to the lack of severity of my symptoms.

I brought my daughter to see a therapist after she was diagnosed with learning disabilities and an autoimmune disorder. I am a clinical psychologist and my newest referral in my private practice is a Kaiser patient who was told she could not receive mental health services because her case was not acute and she was not suicidal. My daughter has anorexia. She has been hospitalized by Kaiser in the past for heart problems due to her eating disorder.

She has participated in their Intensive Outpatient Program not helpful. She relapsed recently. We are asking for out-of-network support. Dr says that what KP has in house is equivalent its not — by a long shot. This feels like care delay and denial — for an often fatal illness. For five months, our once healthy child without any mental health issues has now been in and out of six mental hospitals, three residential programs, three outpatient programs, three county stays, multiple emergency room visits, and now an ineffective and redundant IOP program.

When we tell the Kaiser IOP therapist and the facility manager about the struggle and request directly someone to work with our child individually — we are denied, two times.

I have a history of severe clinical depression. When I sensed a depressive episode coming on I contacted Kaiser and asked to see a different therapist. I tried multiple times to call and find a workaround. I filed a grievance and an appeal with Kaiser; both were denied. They claim that they are offering care with a psychiatrist and group therapy via Zoom.

Any mental health practitioner will tell you that those two things are tools, but not a replacement for therapy with a mental health practitioner.

In the end, I am paying out of pocket to ensure I get the care I need in a timely fashion. Ten-week delays are potentially dangerous for someone with depression. This is the third time in four years that I have been in a situation where Kaiser makes it so difficult to access therapy that I have had to go out of network and pay out of pocket. I am in crisis. My work life has been turned upside down by the pandemic. I am depressed, irritable, and exhausted, and totally in need of some mental health support.

They told me they had no openings in their network. Kaiser then referred me to Beacon Mental Health and I was given lists of their therapists to contact. I called almost all of them, and only two called back to say they had no openings. I need more than that. Kaiser has failed. Obviously I have no mental health insurance. I have had Kaiser on and off for decades. They have THE worst mental healthcare. In addition to delayed care, they have cookie cutter care.

All about profit, not care. It takes months to transfer meds. They preferred to prescribe ADD meds off label for treatment-resistant depression, rather than to try a promising newer med. After leaving Kaiser, I was given that new med. After I filed a complaint, they offered her a DBT class and then cancelled it without telling her. Since then, we have not been able to get her any treatment.

They have her in outpatient therapy for suicide prevention, but are not addressing her underlying diagnosis. The only progress made with this last visit is that she now has a KP psychiatrist and is on some new meds for the ADHD.

I am traumatized from all of this and hope my girl stays alive. After struggling for years with body dysmorphia, I reached out to mental health services through Kaiser. It took me two different therapists with month-long waiting periods and multiple cancelled appointments with part-time therapists before I decided to find an out-of-pocket therapist. One time I finally got an appointment at Bostonia.

The person I met with asked very basic questions. She typed word-for-word what I said, but I could not tell her any problems.

Never went back. I had an appointment at La Mesa, and the woman I talked to again asked very basic questions. She typed everything I said and changed my medication. It took me a long time to get my medication straightened out, and then I never went back. I tried recently to get an appointment and it was so far out I gave up. I am diagnosed with severe depression and told them I was very depressed when I called. I tried to make it work. I was going to wait two months for an actual appointment, and then my appointment was cancelled with no notice to me.

I only found out my appointment had been cancelled after I logged into my online account. The pandemic has contributed to my feeling socially disconnected. Trying to get help through Kaiser Permanente made that worse, but treating people this way makes sense if you want to discourage them from seeking help.

When I expressed that I needed more therapy, not meds, I was told that my condition would not improve without medication, and that the reason I felt I needed therapy was because I was not taking the medication. Nothing has changed. I waited eight weeks between psychiatrist visits. All she did was give me medications, all of which made me feel worse.

Therapy included video visits in chat rooms with other people. My husband, my sister, and my son died within three months of each other, but I can only talk to a counselor about every three months.

I need more. It took so long for me to reach out for help because I was ashamed to admit I had bad depression and anxiety. It was so bad I even drove to the ER. I was told another company would reach out to me to continue care … that was 2 months ago. It takes weeks to set up an appointment. First it took about 6 months to get a therapist, once I did we only had sessions once every two months.

The executives will not be moved by the truth. They will only change policy if it costs them more in lawsuits than to provide care. My therapist ended up leaving the office because she would rather do psych calls in an ER than not be able to provide the care her patients needed.

It has been more than eleven months now since I expressed that I need to see a different therapist, and I am still without mental healthcare. I have been shunted off to two other mental health providers who have given me the runaround for months. Every time I contact Kaiser about my frustrations I am met with wonderful but equally frustrated people trying their best to work with a useless system. I am working with a wonderful Kaiser psychiatrist for medications but pills alone are not helping.

I was told that there were no appointments available through November and that there could not be an appointment made for me at this time. Essentially, I have been denied care. I was dealing with a severe crisis and needed to see a counselor badly. When I tried to make an appointment, I had to wait for weeks!

Thank God I had a friend whose husband was a licensed counselor, and I was able to go to him. I finally left Kaiser because of the lack of mental health care there. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder. Despite this fact, Kaiser has woefully inadequate services available. Instead of providing adequate facilities and sufficient specialized professionals, Kaiser defaults to one-size-fits-all group therapies.

Something desperately needs to change. We have belonged to Kaiser for well over 25 years. Their services for physical healthcare are exceptionally good. However, their services for mental health care are abysmal. We have a year-old son with autism. We try to secure him regular therapy appointments with Kaiser, but they could only provide appointments once every 4 to 6 weeks — hardly enough for a child suffering from depression and anxiety.

There is no reasonable amount of progress that can be made seeing a therapist once a month. It took months for me to get therapy from Kaiser. The process was as difficult as could be. I had to call to learn new phone numbers to call, intake appointments not therapy to get through, where I learned new numbers where I had to make new appointments. It was impossible to communicate by email or by leaving voicemail — live phone calls during business hours are the only option.

My appointments were canceled at the last minute. I went through the Kaiser grievance process, but they were unable to help me. I am very frustrated. I struggle with suicidal thoughts every day, a mood disorder, anxiety, and this mess has making it all worse.

I wish I felt supported instead of fighting my healthcare company tooth and nail just to get the bare bones of what I need for mental health. Why does it have to be so hard? I have been receiving psychiatric care at Kaiser for several years. When my psychiatrist left Kaiser, I was not assigned a new doctor.

I was unable to make an appointment with a new doctor. After months and a psychiatric emergency that almost escalated to voluntary hospitalization, I walked into the mental health crisis clinic on a weekday morning and was denied access to a psychiatrist. I was told there was none on duty.

How do you run a mental health crisis clinic without a psychiatrist on duty? After many phone calls, email exchanges, and a lot of complaints, I was granted an appointment for one month later. I never felt like it really helped. Appointment scheduling is also a joke. Luckily, I can help myself when it gets to dark points. However, not many can say the same. Kaiser needs to step it up or get serious punishment for not helping their patients.

I have always had Kaiser, but have opted for University counseling which takes weeks , because of the long wait Kaiser has on mental health. I had also suffered from disordered eating but have learned to not utilize my Kaiser insurance for mental health services.

My son received limited services for depression and suicidal actions. They failed to diagnose him and he attempted suicide. Luckily he was found in time and resuscitated. He spent a few days in the hospital, then in a locked facility. Afterward he had their attention, but he never received enough therapy to address his concerns.

Individual treatment was very limited and still is. I worry every day about him. There is no one for me to talk to about this as Kaiser is too busy spending money on expensive Warriors advertising.

My husband just holds it all in. All Kaiser wants to do is turf us into groups. I tried complaining to Kaiser. Nothing happens with any complaints or grievances. A series of losses in a short span of time has left me with PTSD. I was diagnosed in early I finally got a psychiatrist after waiting a few months and going through numerous pre-interviews. I only see the doctor once every three to four months.

This past January I was really depressed. I had trouble focusing on any tasks. I emailed my Kaiser doctor who immediately requested a therapist for me. It is now August! I finally got a call from Kaiser to set up an appointment to address my PTSD with special therapy and another call to see a therapist outside Kaiser.

I am happy that although I am very depressed I did not consider killing myself, because thanks to Kaiser I would have! I told my husband that the reason that I am so depressed is because of the care or lack of care I get through Kaiser. I have been a Kaiser patient for over three years. And despite my continuous need and multiple requests for therapy sessions, I have only managed to schedule one appointment besides my in-take session.

The professionals I have seen have been extremely caring and knowledgable, but Kaiser mental healthcare remains inaccessible and dysfunctional as a whole. With the suggestion of my non-Kaiser therapist, I tried requesting alternative methods of therapy in hopes of getting appointments from less busy professionals.

I was outsourced to Beacon twice but even then, I was not able to schedule any appointments. I have come to the conclusion that Kaiser does not care about my mental health. I am still living every single day in the pain of my illnesses and disorders, with no coping mechanisms or medical support systems available to me, despite paying a high price for the illusion of access to such resources. My therapist took me out of work for a month and put me in a program that was three times a week.

After that I was scheduled to have an appointment with my therapist five weeks later that was the earliest appointment.

I got a call the day before saying my appointment was being cancelled because my therapist was not going to be in. I had an appointment scheduled for four weeks after that again, that was the earliest appointment. I was called the morning of that appointment and told she again was not going to be in. I am now 10 weeks past my appointments and have not received any calls to reschedule at all.

I am pregnant, and I was taking medication for my depression. They obviously thought it was bad enough to take me off work, but now I have nothing. I am in a downward spiral and feel like everything is getting worse. For months I was struggling with anxiety and depression. Due to a long wait list for counseling, Kaiser referred me to outside providers.

It was very difficult to reach someone; after several months one of the therapists on the list called me back. It was a difficult time for me and I had to navigate it on my own.

I read books and through prayer I made progress. I have been struggling with severe anxiety and depression for years. They already charged my card and checked me in and then denied me my appointment?! Not to mention that I left work early, missing out on my pay! Last year my church paid out of pocket to help me receive some counseling. Kaiser needs to be held accountable. People like me are suffering. I thought THAT was long. This past January, I reached out to Kaiser to restart therapy.

After meeting with a consultant, I was told I would not be able to see a Kaiser Therapist for about two months. The consultant and I agreed I would be referred to Magellan to find a therapist that I could see more often s.

After reaching out to more than two dozen potential therapists on the Magellan list, at least two months since the beginning of this process, I finally found a therapist who was part of a group office who would see me. Eventually, I found out that this therapist was only seeing patients in this office nine days per month!

I saw this therapist three times between April and July. I was told there was no availability to meet with a therapist until December. I had finally convinced my year-old son to seek some help for what to me seemed like depression.

He made an appointment with his general doctor, who did a physical and ran blood work. My son informed the doctor about his symptoms and what emotionally a mess he was. The doctor said he would make a referral for him. The next day, a nurse called my son and asked him a couple of questions. After he answered only two questions, she determined he was not depressed. Now my son does not want to get help now because he feels that nobody will believe him.

I try to help him as much as I can. Sometimes he cries, and sometimes he looks so sad that it scares me! Early in I decided to finally do something about it. I called to make an appointment in April, on a weekend, and listened to a robot tell me to call during business hours.

I tried again in May and got the ball rolling on my treatment. My child started showing signs that something was wrong as a toddler. She was not affectionate with family and would scream and repeatedly hit her head. In grade school, she would go catatonic, curl up in fetal position, and have to be picked up from school.

In middle school, she started having terrifying auditory, visual and tactile psychosis symptoms including commands to kill her family and herself. My child deteriorated right before my eyes. Thanks to a non-Kaiser program, my child has now finally been properly diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, receives individual and group therapy every week, as well as medication management and social services. My child is now stable! My son was diagnosed at 17 with bipolar 1 disorder. There was no support for parents or patients.

He was very depressed and walked out on his job at 20 years old. The psychiatrist gave him Zoloft, an antidepressant. Due to my ignorance with the illness, I was unaware that this medicine would send him into a full manic episode. I took him back into emergency and to a follow up the next day, and he was not admitted. He took off and assaulted and was arrested after assaulting someone.

Due to the mania and stress of being in jail, he went into a psychotic episode that lasted more than two months. He could not be released as he did not understand his charges. If he had not been given the wrong medicine, he would not have had to go through that. I was feeling like I needed some help.

I was told I had to go to the Kaiser facility. First I had to wait a long time just to check in. Then I was told that they operate on first come, first served basis, so I had to wait around two hours to see someone. After that, I had to wait more than a week to get referral to the company that they contract with. When I heard from the company, I gave them my location and waited to receive names of clinicians in my area.

I believe I had to call them back after another week because I thought they forgot me. I had specifically requested a clinician specializing in childhood trauma. That includes the United Kingdom which provides the dreaded "Socialized Medicine".

Get over it America - it's better than anything you'll ever experience. My partner has stage IV cancer. The treatment he is receiving from Kaiser is really substandard. He goes months without seeing his oncologist; everything is done via e-mail, no physical examinations. While other organizations have cancer teams to deal with the side effects of chemo and other problems one might have, with Kaiser your basically on your own. If you feel sick, send your doctor an e-mail.

They might answer it. It sucks. Stay away from this horrible organization. Kaiser makes many things easy, but it has become either greedy, or unable to hire enough health practitioners to provide timely appointments.

Two months is too long to wait. Their medical software, or a tech, took my suggested reason for that appointment, and inserted a record with that diagnosis, as if I'd been seen. They even extended the issue to both eyes. I've never seen this Dr in my life. They repeatedly billed me, I told them it never occurred, the doctor said she'd fix it, but billing refused to remove the fake record and sent the bill to collection.

After 6 months of my emails, they modified some records to extend the falsehood, making the cancelation phone call a 'telemedicine' call, which it was not. So they stick to a lie rather than admit a mistake, which seems like an unhealthy business culture to me. I have been treated like a criminal on more than one occasion by Kaiser staff while I'm sick with cancer.

I cannot wait to get some other healthcare provider. If it were one bad apple, I could forgive it, but it's a pattern. They are understaffed and the staff they do have are terrible. Their member services do nothing when you complain and they have so many lawyers, it does not matter if there is gross negligence they will support the lying doctors at the patient's loss.

If I could give negative stars, I would. I have no idea what has happened to Kaiser Permanente, but they have seriously gone downhill since I was last with them I have had a Neurologist overseeing part of my care since the s. I rejoined and was actually told by two Kaiser Primary Care Practitioners I could 'not' see a Neurologist and the Rx from my Sharp Neurological Surgeon - of exemplary standing - was bad - and they would not refill it - and that I need vitamin supplements and acupuncture instead.

I'm game for any preventative care, but as a life long Neurological patient This is not a solution. It is ignorance at the Primary Care levels. I have been in an 8 month fight - EiGHT months, friends - a fight to receive something close to appropriate care. It has not happened yet. So I am writing to hopefully help others from making the same mistake I did foolishly switching to Kaiser.

Don't do it. I am removing both myself and daughter from Kaiser Permanente insurance at Open Enrollment. There is no hope for this company on their current path, and it is very sad. I hope will take my review seriously, and choose another health insurance provider. To your continued health and success, friends. I have been with Kaiser since a child. Currently have my entire family with them and I am appalled at the length of time to see your primary, trying to make an appointment, and hearing back from anyone.

Their phone system is one giant loop system. This is not the Kaiser I grew up with. I am amazed the ratings from so called government sources they are 10 out of Sounds like the fox watching the hen house to me.

Please dont be fooled try another medical provider. Called several times to Kaiser. Spoke to Aurora and she could not help hung up on me when I explained to her we were frustrated about our services. We have called to utilize our insurance because my husband works in construction and got a follicle or something in his eye!

Kaiser did not help us we needed to go to Walmart Dr to check because Kaiser could not help him unless ER! Why do we pay for ins? Then all your representatives have no clue what they are talking about and hung up on me! Very disappointed! Out-patient care is good if you doctor hunt and find a good doctor.

Some specialist are good but most are mediocre at best and when you are really sick me and go to the hospital that's when it all goes down hill. Dirty, old hospitals with terrible "care". They run tests, kick you out the door and mean time still suffering.

NO diagnosis or misdiagnosis. Trying real hard to switch plans. Need to wait for open enrollment. Hope I'm still alive by then. My employer switched to Kaiser last open enrollment period so I had to as well. Pre pandemic they were ok. Couldn't get in to see a dr but at least video calls were available.

Since the pandemic forget it. When I call or my son does, as he's on the plan, we are lost in a sea of prompts and if we get lucky and get an "appointment " the dr who is supposed to call back doesn't. It's awful. I have Kaiser their chiropractor broke my arm, he is in hiding Kaiser committed Medicare fraud, I have had 4 surgery's on my arm lost the use of my arm and Kaiser has had 15 months to step up and be responsible and to this day they still have not stepped up!

Stay away from this corrupt insurance company it about the money not health care the CEO of Kaiser is paid million a year. I a m going to attach the bind with the state of Colorado and Kaiser attorneys lie going after their attorneys also.

Products used: Your staff sucks your chiropractors suck your admin sucks. Kaiser Permanente has been part of my life for decades. Every Doctor and Nurse I've seen has told me they constantly live in fear that Kaiser is going to get rid of them. I'm having to go outside of Kaiser to get competent Healthcare.

All executives currently at KP should be immediately fired. Products used: Healthcare and Mental Healthcare. I purchased the Kaiser Gold Health Plan, which is the most expensive, hoping to get good access to care and customer service. Contacting member services is intentionally convoluted by a complex phone tree with an automated voice system that often hangs up after leaving customers on hold for hours.

It is a miserable customer experience that wastes countless hours for patients. Moreover, Kaiser consistently exploits designed loopholes in coverage to prevent from paying bills they rightfully owe. Finally, they demand customers provide their social security number just to speak to a customer service representative.

This is a serious, reckless, and gross security breach and a violation of customer privacy. They could validate customer information in many ways - which would be compliant with all regulations, for example birth date. Instead, they exploit customers and their data to their advantage without regard for their customers security or general interests.

It is a shame the government continues to pour billions in profit into this company for virtually no value in return, there needs to be competition in the healthcare marketplace so insurance companies can't treat their customers without respect. Please don't go to kaiser my daughter is being having uti issues and the doctors don't care now her results came back with protein on her urine no one call her back to follow up, she had to call them numerous time, she sent them email without anyone reaching out to her, finally after a week of bugging them they told her that she should take antibiotics because she's an infection Kaiser is a dangerous place to take your love ones.

Kaiser is a terrible company. The APA claimed Kaiser could solve this problem if it wanted to by simply hiring more therapists, but that Kaiser as an institution appeared to be in denial that it had a serious problem.

In a response to questions for this story, Kaiser Permanente released a statement that read, in part:. The American health care system historically has been under-resourced for mental health. Providers across the country—including Kaiser Permanente—are working hard to address the growing demand and emerging mental health crisis. For at least two decades, both the federal government and the California state legislature have mandated that insurers provide access to mental health and substance use disorder benefits on par with its medical and surgical benefits—but health insurers, including Kaiser, have resisted.

Kaiser also admitted that its own internal investigation matched the findings of the DMHC and pledged to remedy the flaws brought to light—the chief concern being that patients were unable to access non-urgent initial therapy appointments within the legal time frame of 10 business days. By , after millions of dollars in fines and over enforcement actions levied against it by the agency, Kaiser had done little to fix the problem. The settlement set out goals for Kaiser to meet to ensure shorter wait times for patients, with help from a third-party consultant to help oversee the behavioral health care system.

In , shortly after the settlement, Kaiser established a Connect2Care C2C call center to address regulatory concerns regarding initial appointment access times in the Northern California region. There are currently two centers servicing the state, located in Livermore and San Leandro, that house licensed behavioral health providers who are responsible for intaking, assessing, and coordinating follow-up care for patients during to minute phone calls.

Some therapists interviewed for this story allege the C2C centers were established for Kaiser mostly to placate regulators by obtaining and reporting improved data for initial appointment access—the main deficiency noted by the DMHC in three consecutive reports.

Michael Torres, a Kaiser child and adolescent psychologist in Alameda, said that for his young patients, the C2C centers are particularly problematic. He alleges that initial intakes intended to assess children and teen patients are often conducted without them present.

Torres explained that Kaiser can then report higher access to initial appointments—even though these first phone screenings do not meet recognized practice standards, and do not include the child or adolescent. Once patients complete the initial intake assessment with a C2C representative, they are processed into an utterly overwhelmed system in which therapy appointments may not be available for four to six weeks. Thus, some patients with both severe and moderate symptoms of mental illness are left without timely access to consistent therapy—and therapists are left frustrated by their inability to help these clients.

Capell said that too often, Kaiser patients are left with no option but to search for care out-of-network. Eastman explained that the need for treatment shot up once the pandemic hit.