KP Southern California Sports Medicine Complaint
Kaiser Permanente Thrive Exposed
May 2012
Received by email a few days ago. Unfortunately this is all too typical, and here’s why: Kaiser Permanente doctors are trained to minimize your symptoms, and pressured to always default to the least expensive treatment. In fact, nearly all of the grievances we hear about are at least partially due to this cost-saving practice. Many never find out they have been receiving substandard care until they change insurance, because KP won’t even tell you more expensive alternatives exist. That is what happens when your doctor is employed by your health plan. Money first; Hippocratic Oath last.
By Michael Doering
I left Kaiser some time ago because my son has epilepsy and needed a better choice of doctors to deal with his problem. My own problem was pretty simple compared to his. Shoulder trouble. I went to the Kaiser same day appointments for years and to the “sports medicine” doc, named Holmes. I also reported it to my primary care physician, a Dr. Lane. All I ever got from them was a shot of cortisone and one session with a physical therapist who said I needed to hold my shoulders back more. She was a contractor. One session. That was about 5 years ago.
Today, on another medical plan, outside the bureaucracy of Kaiser, I went to a GP called Chambers. He asked me to lift my shoulders and move my arms in one or two other positions. He saw me trying to get my wallet out of my pocket. In about ten seconds he could see the problem. He said “You have frozen shoulder.” He took an X-ray and referred me to an orthopedic surgeon. Before I left he spoke to me and said I had severe arthritis in my shoulder and probably some cartilage damage too and would probably need surgery. SO WHERE WERE YOU ON THAT ONE, KAISER? 5 years I waited in pain, unable to sleep at night.
No comments:
Post a Comment