Anyone here have Kaiser? I'm thinking of switching since my copay with Blue Cross would be $791 per month, which I can't afford. This month is our 'open enrollment' at work, and the only month out of the year that we can switch. I've heard a few horror stories about Kaiser, but I also know a few people who have told me that they have nothing but good things to say about Kaiser. But then again, I don't know anyone with P that has Kaiser. I'm curious how difficult it was to get approval for biologics. Thanks for any input!

Greetings Suzanne,
Switch to Kaiser. I’ve been with Kaiser for twenty four years. Every doctor and hospital has their foul-ups both minor and major because no one is close to perfection. All my doctors at Kaiser treat me as if I am their only patient for the day. I have had psoriasis for twenty two years and was recently diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis last December. I told my derm. about my muscle and joint pains and he immediately sent me to a rheumatologist who informed me that I had pa. After some lab test to make sure I can handle the biologics, my rhuematologist gave me the option of going on Enbrel, Amevive, Humira or Remicade. I chose Humira and I’m doing very well on it. It was originally prescribed to be self injected by-weekly but it starts to wear off before the next injection so my doctor prescribed it to be injected every ten days which took care of the problem. They have a web site that I use to get a great deal of information, make appointments, fill prescriptions that I can have delivered to my door (but not those that need to be refrigerated), contact my doctors via e-mail, choose a personal physician from a list that informs of their background and credentials, etc. If you don’t hit it off with one doctor you can easily change to another. I pay fifteen dollars per prescription for Humira (A one month supply). Here is their web site and even though you can’t sign on just choose a region and it will give you a pretty good Ideal what you can do without waiting for the normal operating hours.
http://members.kaiserpermanente.org...me/entrypage.do
Got any more questions? You can e-mail me at joe.Bagadonuts@hotmail.com .
James Kolyvas

I've been with Kaiser 20+ years as well. Let me second everything James has said in a previous post about how they treat P and PA patients. They have never refused me any treatment and have even suggested some I had not heard of at the time.
They are not perfect, but care enough to talk about what you may think they are doing wrong and will correct their process and procedure if it is possible.
-jeff

Jeff and James,
Thank you!!!!!! Since I moved abut 9 months ago, I have switched doctors recently and I have NO problem at all switching again!!! I have no allegiance, so I certainly do not mind starting over again with new docs. As a matter of fact, my PCP does NOT think I need to see a rheumy, and is referring me an orthopedist, so maybe it's time to switch again. I also did a little checking around on the Kaiser website - it looks pretty cool - you can renew Rx's online, it even looks like you can email the docs? Wow, my doc barely has a fax machine! Also, there is a Kaiser center 2.5 miles from my house, and I think they are building a big new facility in Irvine. Can I ask you this - when you have to have blood work done, do they do it right there? Right now with my HMO, I have to go to a Quest facility and the wait time is 2-3 hours to have blood done. Since I have to go every 2-4 weeks as I'm on Soriatane, it gets to be a pain in the butt! Also, does Kaiser work the same way that an HMO does, where you have to have a referrel from your PCP? I have no problem with that, just curious.
Thanks,
Sue

It's not too bad, but I've sort of given up on the treatment route now because nothing's helped in some time. I recently decided to try cellcept, but chickened out. I'm still thinking about it. One thing I'll say is my dermatologist is always willing to look at different treatments, but I've not been able to get Humira, which I wanted to try. He says it's not authorized for psoriasis, only pa, so I'm out of luck there. Whether or not he's free to prescribe drugs off label I don't know. He insists he isn't, but I think he doesn't want to because it's expensive and figures they'd give him a hard time because it's only approved for pa. I have an appt with a rheumatologist on 5/30 to see if I have pa.
All in all I give Kaiser a B minus, but I've had it for 30 years, so I don't know what its like outside of Kaiser. Maybe if I knew what life was like outside Kaiser I'd give it an A minus.

Greetings,
To Suzanne, All the lab work that Kaiser has done on me was always within walking distance of my doctors office. The waiting time to have samples drawn has never been more than thirty minutes but of course I can only speak for my own experiences. Kaiser is an HMO and in some cases referals are necessary but I didn't need one to go from my derm. to a rheum. The one time I needed a referal it did not slow down the process, I didn't feel a thing.
To Maracel, Amevive is a biologic approved for psoriasis and Kaiser does prescribe it for such. Through the years I have learned that two things are necessary and most beneficial to battle our health problems especially the chronic ones and those are being well educated in what ails us and establishing a good rapport with the doctors and staff that treat us. For me the rapport thing has been most beneficial as medical staff are forced to deal with too many self-centered jerks so when you treat them with respect and patience and establish a relationship with them, they tend to by-pass much red tape and put you in the front of the line. Treat them well, make them laugh and smile and they will go out of their way to help ease your pain.
Your Brother in sufferance, James

I'm with Kaiser too and I guess I have to agree with everyone else here.. ;)
I am on UVB narrowband and the nurses all treat me wonderfully...even with different Kaisers throughout the SF Bay Area...
Abby

Oh yeah, anyone who has access to NBUVB (Narrow Band UVB) should ask their derms. about it. It has sent my psoriasis packing in a very short time. I am 100% clear from a severe case of plaque psoriasis and I go in only once a week for a maintenance dose. It doesn't use the band wave associated with cancer and you don't need to take Psoralin as you do with PUVA. I just wish we can find a way to get these choices to those who don't have decent medical coverage.
James K.

Thanks for the good report on Kaiser. I just got insurance with them thru work and was wondering what to expect. I'm in Colorado, not SF but hopefully their network is the same quality.
Tom

Thank you all! I sent the paperwork in to make the switch - I'll have Kaiser effective June 1st!!! :)

It's not too bad, but I've sort of given up on the treatment route now because nothing's helped in some time. I recently decided to try cellcept, but chickened out. I'm still thinking about it. One thing I'll say is my dermatologist is always willing to look at different treatments, but I've not been able to get Humira, which I wanted to try. He says it's not authorized for psoriasis, only pa, so I'm out of luck there. Whether or not he's free to prescribe drugs off label I don't know. He insists he isn't, but I think he doesn't want to because it's expensive and figures they'd give him a hard time because it's only approved for pa. I have an appt with a rheumatologist on 5/30 to see if I have pa.
All in all I give Kaiser a B minus, but I've had it for 30 years, so I don't know what its like outside of Kaiser. Maybe if I knew what life was like outside Kaiser I'd give it an A minus.
I don't know when you saw your derm, but it was approved for treatment of P by Kaiser. An email went about 2-3 months ago to all Kaiser derms making them aware of this.
-jeff

Jeff,
So does this mean that Embrel and Humira are now both in Kaiser's formulary for both P and PA?

Now Kasier peferres Humira for P.
Enbrel is now only approved for PA.
My derm wrote me a rx for Enbrel becaus eI am new to KP and was on Enbrel before. The (kp) pharm refeused to dispense the Enbrel bacause Derms were not arthorized to rx it.
the pharm tried to call the derm, but could not contact her (lunch time), then the Pharm noticed the derm had also given me a referral to a rhumy, so the pharm gave me the Enbrel (1 month) and told me to get an rx from the rhumy before time to refill.
When you start kp and have rxs from privious doctors, you call a rharm tech and talk to them before you see the doc. I did this before going to the derm, and was told that humira was the drug of choice for P, but if Iwas already on it, and the derm and I agreed that it was best to stay on it, the derm could rx it.
This just happened, so I have not seen the rhumy or the derm again. But my appt for the rhumy is after my Enbrel runs out, so this week I am gonig to try to get the rhumy appt moved up.
Other than having a pharmisist override my doctors orders, My fist week with kp was pretty good. My kp derm seemed stumped dxing the P on my feet and hands, since it is red, but does not have any leasions on it. My old derm dxed it as P in a flash. OF course the old derm was twice the age of the new derm, and the old derm was with a group that specilized in P. Otherwise the new derm seemed to be good and upto date.
Dennis
Dennis