In its latest press release, Kaiser Permanente reveals plans to command and conquer the internet by squandering piles of member money on every tawdry PR trick in the book. Is anyone else as sick of being managed and manipulated by corporate strategists as we are?
We’re calling our new campaign Murder by PRBS?, and we’re looking for volunteers to assist with a little social media strategy of our own.
If you are interested in helping us to get the truth out about Kaiser, please contact us through the link in the top navigation menu.
It’s a worthy cause, it won’t cost you a penny, and the good karma generated will last a lifetime.
Kaiser Thrive Exposed would like to personally thank Dr. Geoff Galbraith - Kaiser Permanente Care Management Institute board member; and Vice President, Hawaii Permanente Medical Group, Quality Improvement Management - for inspiring us to create this website. Did we make it into the top 5?
SIGN ME UP TODAY.
Now we have “eMurder.”
I “came out” against Kaiser in a recent article in the LA Times and have quite a specific “catalogue” of IT “issues” that I am now happy to share in much more detail. Our daughter died at Kaiser and I have decided that speaking truth to power now is more important to me than trying to salvage my career. I know the real “National Enquirer” version of Health Connect and it is not (in my opinion) a particularly pretty picture.
Hi Andy,
You probably noticed I followed you around and added links to all of your comments.
Please send me an email with more information about your plans. You and I have a lot to talk about…
Let’s just say that I believe the Emperor will be scrambling to find one of those fancy tie me up the back gosh my butt really IS COLD gowns they so thoughtfully provide once they see what I have to say. I want everyone to “shiver with an - ti - ci - pation” just a little while longer, though. But I do believe that what I am writing will make for an “interesting” perspective on Kaiser’s internal malaise once I am done. Honestly, I do.
After reading that Oregon Kaiser hypocrisy article with comments, and noticing Kaiser’s recent internet ads about having a doctor “before you need one,” it becomes obvious that Kaiser is out to sign up only persons who are 100% healthy because they definitely do not want any sick patients or people with very minor “pre-existing conditions” they might have to treat. Obviously its cheapest for them to focus only on preventative care, and the way they are weeding out and killing off all the low priority patients that they are already saddled with would make any Nazi doctor proud.
And now, with CMS (Medicare/Medicaid) starting their campaign to weed out doctors who do too many tests ala managed care fashion, we have already set the stage for a mass genocide of Baby Boomers. Ten years from now there may be billions of people over 40 who are too sick to have the luxury of a doctor. A very scary picture.
Kaiser’s TV commercial of the healthy elderly African American man bee-bopping down the street is just too funny. Maybe they will care for him if he is a 100% preventative care patient (unlikely) and doesn’t have one teeny tiny minor health problem?
Well my 33 year old daughter tried today to use her Kaiser health care for the first time. she had chest pains and was trying to find out where to go for emergency. We were given an orange county number and when calling it finally got a live person after several attempts. We said, “My daughter is having chest pains and we need to know where to go for an emergency.” The person on the phone said would you like the appointment line? We repeated the words chest pain and emergency and she repeated would you like to make an appointment. This happened a third time before we asked for the supervisor or yelled for the supervisor. We were trying to find out if there was an emergency site closer than an hour away.
At the same time we are exposing and testifying to the bloody, ugly, underbelly of Kaiser, we should all also be doing whatever we can to tell our politicians that we demand single payer standardized medical services on a national level: health care that is equally available to everyone, paid with tax dollars, a system in which no doctor can refuse to treat any patient and no clinic or hospital (such as Kaiser) can refuse to accept any patient regardless of whatever illness or condition they have. This means we would have no use or need whatsoever for medical insurance, the middlemen who make such obscene profits, no need for permission to see a specialist, no limits on care to boost profits. (The limits should be only for medically justifiable reasons, such as procedures that are wasteful and dangerous.) I’m talking about a system like every other modern country has, in which the main purpose is health care, not profits for wealthy doctors and insurance companies and Kaiser executives. Such a system would actually be more cost-effective than what we now have: a system that is broken in which uninsured people go to emergency rooms because they cannot get less costly care before the condition gets worse.
To Anon: You’ve given us an excellent template from which to write our legislators.
To DS: See, they don’t want any sick patients at all. If you asked for preventative care instead, want to bet they’d give you the name of a nearby Kaiser clinic?
…and tell you to eat some broccoli…
I agree Kaiser is horrid. I recently tried to switch from a group plan back to a family plan so i could have a laparoscopy done and they denied my coverage but covered my husband and 2 children. I then told them to re evaluate and they still denied me saying the reason was :Pending for a Laparoscopy surgery for ovarian cyst and ovarian cyst. Thrive my ass if they wanted patients to thrive they would not tell them they needed surgery and then deny them for coverage.
I am a Kaiser member and while I am not crazy about Kaiser service, I take exception to some of the comments above - specifically - Kaiser should not care about preexisting conditions - Kaiser is a non profit, not funded by uncle Sam HMO- if they accept everyone - guess who is paying for it - the ones who are healthy and are looking for “Insurance” - Kaiser is not a social welfare organization - if you want to fix the system - do not take it out on Kaiser - the problem is the uncle Sam - until we address health care for all as a national problem attacking Kaiser is not going to fix anything
While I don’t disagree that we need universal health care in this country, some of the points you have made here are misleading.
1. Kaiser does receive federal funds
2. Kaiser’s not for profit status is bogus because of the deceptive organizational structure and financial arrangement with the FOR PROFIT Permanente Medical Groups (the doctors). Half of the money goes to them, therefore there is an implied incentive to deny care.
3. The whole concept of insurance is built on the premise of risk-sharing, meaning the well are paying for care of the sick. The perversion of the system has come from greedy insurance companies covering only the well, dumping the sick, and keeping all the money…yes, even Kaiser.
4. Medical care is a human right, and denying it to sick people is murder.
5. “Attacking” is an interesting word to have chosen. Many people have the same misconceptions about health care and Kaiser that you do, and that won’t change unless someone informs them otherwise.
Well put Admin. It’s all about money in kaisers world. I personally found out the hard way how true this is. This website is an accurate and much needed resource for enlightening the public about what kaiser really is about.
fascinating thread. i work for kaiser. “not for profit” is a ridiculous term, i agree. but truly, kaiser isn’t the only one with the problem.. .entropy is slaughtering all the health care in this country, and along with it, our citizens. what is wrong with that picture? as sick as the kaiser system may be, show me a better one (Aetna, Blue Cross, etc). . .?? because i am in health care i know horror stories about those groups too, the only difference in which is the name of the group. i do NOT write to ‘get kaiser off the hook’- - they need to be on the hook!! the $ they spend on IT and advertising is obscene, and comes directly at the expense of patient care and staffing. it is shameful. but equally shameful is the USA’s complete dearth of a solution for those who suffer. . .that would be, to a greater or lesser extent, all of us.
Yes, health care is a nightmare for all but the very richest in this country, even those with insurance. I follow health care issues in general so I am aware of many horror stories that occur outside of Kaiser.
What makes Kaiser unique is its closed system. It’s similar to what happens when one political party controls the entire federal government. Absolute power corrupts, and it’s impossible to get a fair shake at Kaiser because everyone is in on the scam.
You can’t even count on the integrity of your medical records because Kaiser controls all of the evidence, and alters it at will. It’s difficult for outsiders to believe, and I probably wouldn’t believe it myself if it hadn’t happened to me, and if I hadn’t heard hundreds of similar stories since then. Our purpose here is to point out the pattern so changes will occur.
Kaiser has been paying a lot of lip service to issues of transparency and culture change recently. If I ever see any real evidence that they are doing anything more than talking about it, it will be my pleasure to report it here. But I won’t be holding my breath.
Have you heard the joke: How can you tell if a Kaiser spokesperson is lying? Well….. his lips are moving of course!
hardy har har har
You could reach more people if you put up posters at colleges.
Even though humans are not going to be here forever, while we are here, we should take care of each other to the best of our abilities.