Kaiser Permanente Oncology Experience

First, let me offer my condolences about your sister. That's very tragic and I'm so sorry about it all.

In your sister's situation, she should have changed oncologists. Kaiser is so big on service and they survey regularly about experiences with doctors. It's super easy to change doctors if you want to. Doesn't matter which health insurance you have, you should never settle for a bad doctor. So, whether you go with Kaiser or another provider, keep that in mind. It's your health and you have to be your own advocate. I've been with Kaiser most of my life and can tell you the absolute most incompetent doctors I ever found were during the three years I was out of Kaiser. I was shocked at how poor people are treated outside Kaiser. It was so bad I made my husband talk to his employer about adding Kaiser so we could switch back, which they did.

A local oncologist with Kaiser is the one who created the breast cancer awareness postage stamp and is up for a presidential honor this year. He's also known for being a top-rated oncologist. So, not all Kaiser oncologists are lousy.

My dad had prostate cancer and an excellent experience with Kaiser. Because they're so vigilant about preventative medicine, it was caught very early. He got great treatment from a skilled surgeon and had no bad side effects that can happen when this surgery isn't done well (my uncle and FIL outside of Kaiser both had problems -- my uncle's was quite serious -- after prostate cancer surgery). His doctors and nurses were awesome. They've been great about monitoring things since then.

I think you can have good and bad experiences with any health plan. The key is speaking up when you're not happy and insisting on the care you deserve.
ETA: Get in for that mammogram now. Kaiser will do them early if you are high risk. I have friends who are in that category and Kaiser started mammograms with one of my friends in her 20s. It's always better to find out early you have cancer than to hold off. I know with my dad's cancer, the survival rate is very high when caught early but it's quite deadly when it's not. Get in now so you can be around for your kids.

Dear V.:

All HMO's have a weak area called Conflict of Interest. They are the insurance company, the practitioner, the diagnostician and treatment all in one package.

This is a losing battle from the start.

Business is Business no matter whether it is saving lives or not. Share holder has a huge expectation and expects a huge return on their money or they pull it. All HMO's make very little money from the patient but they do from their shareholders.

It’s a sad world when money comes before life.

You can enter an HMO and do the normal breast examination and they may see a fatty cyst or a little calcium spot. Then they decide to do a CT Scan. The CT Scan says your good and nothing is wrong. Unfortunately they just did the one test that starts the cancer.

So a year later you return and guess what? That Ct Scan was equal to placing your breast into a microwave for 15 minutes.

Don't blame Kaiser, just their shareholders!!

Title: High CT Scan Radiation is Deadly | Reasons to Avoid CT Scan

Url: http://emf.mercola.com/sites/emf/archive/2010/09/25/high-...

Anatomystery.com

Good Luck

Kim

So sorry about your sister. I would say do your exam still, there is no reason to wait. Hopefully you learned the questions that need to be asked and the way things should be done from her experience. If you dont like what you are hearing go to a different doctor.
My father had cancer, and had Kaiser. I do think they could have done things differently to prevent his death. He too had a dr with horrible bedside manner, and just seemed too busy to care. My dad had Lymphoma. He had 3 tumors in his lower abdomen. The doctor just assumed this is where they all were, and never did a full body scan. He had a tumor in his upper back, and by the time they found it he had 10 days left of his life. We had never had anybody in the family with cancer before, so assumed he was in good hands.
I would just say do your research about proper procedures/protocol. If you arent happy, just keep going somewhere else until you are. You are their boss, they arent yours.

I'm so sorry for what you are going through. Most of my family has Kaiser (I don't) and if I were you I would switch asap!! My mother-in-law had leukemia, my aunt had breast cancer.....both treated through Kaiser, both awful expriences. We too had differing diagnoses (oh sorry, we had somebody else's report regarding your remission). Please get your exam and move on.