Kaiser Permanente review: Kaiser permanente denial and evasions

Quite evidently Kaiser denies anything that's not profitable for them, cost too much or they cannot bill Medicare.

My primary care (PC) Dr. is a professional denier who plays everything down or denies. I suspect an internal Kaiser memo that instructs PCs to be minimalists and denial as much as possible.

I'm a 69-year-old man.
COMPARE: When I came 20 years ago, age 49 to SF I had in the beginning no health insurance. Back then I signed up with a city provided health service called Healthy San Francisco or SF Health.

I received more comprehensive and engaging healthcare and service by Healthy SF then during the last five years with Kaiser.

From annual head to toe full body dermatological exam by a dermatologist, to x-rays when needed, MRI scans, physiotherapy when my lower back became very painful. Angiogram to check my coronary arteries because of some obscure mild chest pain, colonoscopy and whatever else to make sure I'm healthy and okay and no potential dangers lurking. I felt the doctors really cared about me, the patient.

ENTER KAISER: in the little over five years with Kaiser I received no annual check up, and when I requested it, it wasa superficial "quickie in the office" of my primary care (PC) doctor listening to my heart. That was about it.
No annual exam by a dermatologist, instead the PC got a bottle of liquid nitrogen to freeze quickly a few spots on my skin...

For a while I had a persistent caugh, No x-ray ever. No colonoscopy. Just annual male in test swaps of stool samples. my abdominal artery okay? No one bothers to check.
In the beginning they did do an MRI scan to look at my coronaries but probably because they got a new [toy] machine...

Not clear why as I still literally run up the stairs without having to catch my breath.
Of the various ailments that come with old age my blood sugar went up.
They prescribed me the cheapest blood sugar control medication @500 mg but it showed no results. So they doubled the dosage to 1000 mg but that didn't show any results, so they double the doses again... to 2000 mg... no effect.
I asked if there is nothing else that works better? No response. My A1c gradually drifted upward past 6.4. I then asked if I could have something more effective prescribed for example Ozempic as an elderly friend of mine really got his blood sugar beautifully under control. That was denied.

My blood pressure went up and never down so they prescribed me another generic which shows no effect. Then they added another one that barely showed a tiny little effect. Then a cardiologist changed that medication and later the PC changed it again back to to the previous but doubled the dosage. Then the cardiologist changed again to another medication... seems they cannot make up their mind or he was a cost issue to them.

I developed a pain in my hands and asked for an x-ray to check what's going on in my hands. That also was denied, and the list of denials goes on and on and on.
Three years ago I asked for an eye exam because I noticed developing a minute but gradual change in vision. I was told to eat more green leafy vegetables.(!) (My farmer can tell me that too)
Instead of an ophthalmologist they sent me to the optometrist. So they can send me to one of their elaborate glasses showroom with premium priced glasses.
My kidney function mentioned as being fairly good. but nothing was done seriously to get my blood pressure down. Now they tell me that I have CKD.
In late March of this year I noticed a rapid recent change in my left eye vision. this time they finally sent me to an ophthalmologist. Result: wet AMD.
Now I'm getting injections in the eye. However, the initial generic did not work so they recently switch to a different medication.

On my last lab my A1c was 9.1. That's bad, very bad. A "runaway freight train". The answer was "we need to adjust your medication". I asked what about Ozempic that works very well doesn't it? Denied.
Shortly thereafter I read that Medicare covers Ozempic when prescribed for blood glucose control.
So I went back and asked my PC. The answer was no but when I quickly added that Medicare covers it, there was a pause and then the reaction was as if I'm about to bankrupt Kaiser. I finally got what I had asked for some times; Ozempic. the results are astonishing my average glucose level is down to ~100mg/dl which computes into a approximate A1c of 5.4. Beautiful. and yes, as a little sidekick due to much slow down digestion my weight loss efforts were greatly accelerated. That's also good. So far -35 lbs.

But sadly so, fact is whatever I got from them was never a comprehensive and engaging service or attention. Only when I became my own "doctor" and insisted on something I got now and then but reluctant acknowledgment and treatment.
Many ailments could've been prevented or eased with timely and proper treatment, but no.

in other matters, they shield themselves and don't want you to be able to easily communicate with them. No phone calls and the newest changes to the website do not allow me as a patient anymore to send a short email.
any email I get expires within several days and I thereafter cannot answer.

My "care team" is a more offensive fashionable buzzword as all the doctors that were once listed and I received treatment from are gone and only my primary, the denier in chief available.
I cannot call or email, I have to schedule a "video phone"calback conversation or appointment.
I wanted to change provider last year but I'm definitely going to change this year provider.
This is BS.
This is not healthcare.