Kaiser, Don't Deny

Calls were never returned

My mother died in a single plane crash on my birthday this year. My primary care physician referred me to psychiatry. I left numerous messages, but not one was returned. I asked my PCP to intervene; I was referred to a third-party vendor, who gave me the names and telephone numbers of five therapists who were accepting new patients. I called all of them. Not one of them was accepting new patients. I called the vendor back and was told there was nothing they could do to help me. I left messages with Kaiser again, and again, but my calls were never returned. Once again my PCP intervened, but to no avail. I was hurting a lot and using copious amounts of methamphetamine to help me cope. I finally took matters into my own hands since Kaiser had zero interest in helping me. I called my old therapist in Seattle and he agreed to to weekly video therapy at the cost of $160 each session. He is well worth the money. Kaiser told me flat out that, because I didn’t get their approval to see him, I would not be reimbursed. What a joke! It took me months to finally see someone at Kaiser, and that was only after making numerous complaints. There were several occasions on which I should have died because of the large amounts of meth I was doing.

Troy
San Francisco