#59 Dammm.....so my rush to judgment in lauding the healthcare industry for becoming forward thinking is tossed aside into the dung heap...

On the other hand, kudos to the Labor Union...


I'm not totally a Kaiser fan...I had severe chondro-malacia and arthritis on both knees. Kaiser had a prescribed regimen of treatment that would postpone surgery until all less invasive procedures were exhausted, dooming me to about 10 years of pain. I spoke to someone who said the reason was the low quality of artificial knees they provided. They postpone surgery until a patient reaches 65, because the artificial knees were expected to last only 10 years and they don't want to do the procedure more than once. At Kaiser, you have to be a patient patient.

Went outside Kaiser using my PPO plan, (I'm covered under my wife's Kaiser plan) and the orthopedic surgeon looked at the MRI and recommended an immediate replacement. I've enjoyed 6 relatively knee-pain free years and have been able to resume most physical activities, except running and sports involving running, jumping and physical contact.

Kaiser has made some great moves in information tech tho. You can get test results online easily, email your Dr instead of wasting the time to go in, reorder scripts online and have them delivered. I gotta give them credit on that.

+1

They have some of the best health care delivery data out there.

Of course it's not as good as blogs and stuff

I'm thinking that's the wave of the future. I've been able to get all of that for the last 3-4 years. It's nice to be able to get a med refill by scanning a bar code with my pharmacy app. Emailing my Dr is great. Been able to take care of all sorts of things, short of actual exams, without an actual appointment.

I suspect it has the potential to save them a lot of money too. If a Dr can take care of a patient with 2 emails for something minor that frees them up to handle other issues. And being able to then review your own info later and see when you were last in... it's very well executed.

Yup... had my blood drawn last week and the results the next day.