Kaiser Permanente review: Benefits plan and medical "service"

Avoid joining kaiser-permanente medical system! It is a trick-trap! When you join their "benefits" program you are locked into using only their doctors and those they refer you to. Otherwise your medical costs will not be covered! They also "play games" with their pharmaceutical formulary coverage!

I had a very bad experience with my first (and only!) visit there so that I am canceling my membership and switching back to the aetna-silverscript plan where I can go to any doctors and druggists I want to when I want to!

I had been prescribed an allergy nasal spray medication I need as a staple of my chronic respiratory allergy treatment at another clinic prior to joining kp. My silverscript plan covered it but when I joined kaiser they told me that their plan did not. However they stated that they would cover it the first time and after that I would have to get one of their doctor's to issue a "prior authorization request" for it. So I went to the clinic and told the doctor this. She went to her office and came back with a document that she claimed would allow me to get the medication because she said she had looked in the kp formulary and she said she saw it was in it but (and this is the other "stickler" about kp) I could only get it at their pharmacy; none other! I accepted that condition just being relieved it was available and went down to the "in-house" pharmacy. When I showed the pharmacist the document, which unfortunately I had not looked at closely since I had trusted what the doctor said, he pointed out to me that the medication is classified as not covered by kp and that the kp medicare program did not accept "prior authorizations" for it even if one of their doctors requested it! So she had blatantly lied to me! It was too late in the day to follow up with her about it so the next week I went back attempting to speak with her about what was going on and was told by the receptionist it is the new kp policy for doctors not to speak with patients in-person about their medication except either by an appointment visit or online. I then went to the membership agent about it and she refused to get involved saying there was nothing she could do and the kp "case managers" don't meet personally with clients either but only on the phone!