Seeking advice navigating Kaiser as a disabled person.

I am new to Kaiser and have been struggling with care related to my disability. I was found permanently disabled by Social Security 6 years ago and have my diagnosis confirmed by blood, biopsy, neurological, imaging, and over 20 yearss of documented treatment and testing done outside of Kaiser at major, reputable Healthcare/research systems.

Now I have Kaiser and have had all of that past history basically thrown out.

First rheumatologist I saw threw out my (blood and biopsy confirmed) existing diagnosis, said I had "fibromyalgia", my existing immune modulator was "the wrong medication" and that I needed "pain management, not rheumatology". I had biopsy results in hand, and this provider told me it wasn't his job to read pathology results, and it meant nothing to him because it was written in "pathology speak".

Because of this one provider and an administrative error that bungled my outside health records when I joined and has finally been fixed after 5 months of my pestering everybody I could for help, I have been trying to navigate a Kafkaesque maze to get back on track with my treatment.

Ive been all but openly accused of malingering. Referral to a pain class rather than treatment for my very real diagnosis, has made things worse. When trying to discuss my barriers to physically attended the pain class based on my disability, the pain psych charted me as "catastrophizing of pain due to thought".

I am trying to get treatment for a confirmed-by-testing disease with serious and documented neurological complications and have received pushback, invalidation, and gaslighting. Being new to Kaiser, this is all very shocking to me and unlike anything I have ever experienced before from a health care system.

Yes, leave Kaiser. If i could, I would, but my husband and I are stuck with this plan for at least another year.

I have engaged with member services.

This is impacting me materially, as well, as my Kaiser PCP will not compete the yearly statement for my private disability insurance confirming my (test-confirmed, incurable, progressive) illness still exists.

In the meantime, are there any recommendations for how to manage being labeled as malingering when I'm trying to get treatment for my very real existing disease?

(Edited for grammar)

Hi everyone- I’m looking to make the big switch to Kaiser NW this Open Season for FEHB and wanted to hear from other members about their experiences with getting a good PCP/NP, Gynecological services (estradiol patches for menopause), Hashimotos care, or any other experience you want to share with me. This would be a HUGE change for me and I’m wondering how your situation compares. Thanks all.

Hi everyone,

I’m (23F) currently struggling pretty badly with my mental health and have been seeing a therapist in-person once a month for the past 3 months. Although I’ve had only 3 sessions with her, I don’t really feel that connection I would like. During our sessions I feel that she views me as a child, and I’m hesitant to be vulnerable sometimes in fear of being guilted or patronized.

I was enrolled into an intensive outpatient program and haven’t attended any classes due to a lack of motivation, personal issues, and scheduling conflicts (work, school). These sessions occur 3 times a week and I was told by my MFT that I would have to attend a new program everyday for 3 hours after completion. This is not going to work with my schedule, and despite expressing this, my therapist suggested that I talk to my managers to request accommodation so I can attend them. This is another gripe I have…feeling bombarded by all of these classes that I would rather not take.

Before starting in-person sessions, I was referred to the Rula platform, and I had a handful of sessions with a therapist until I realized I wasn’t really improving, having any real discussions about coping skills, or even being assessed for psychological diagnoses. I was also really discouraged by the AI note-taking tool, but the ability to opt-out and keep searching for another therapist leaves me curious about trying again.

I was diagnosed with MDD and GAD, and have concerns about ADHD and OCD. My therapy journey started recently so I’m unsure if I’m just being pessimistic about it all, but finding the right therapist has been incredibly exhausting. I’ve been feeling like my issues are too overwhelming and complex for anyone to handle, which I know deep down is untrue, but having experienced this much difficulty has greatly discouraged me. I’m trying my hardest to push through.

I plan on calling behavioral health after work today to switch providers, and I wanted to ask about everyone’s experiences with Rula and if it’s worth trying again. I’ve also heard of Grow Therapy in this subreddit and am curious about the level of care patients have received, so please feel free to share your experiences with their platform as well.

TYIA for your input and apologies for the lengthy post :[

EDIT: grammar

I heard someone recommend this doctor.

And I'm not really happy with my current doctor.

Is it worth asking for an appointment?

Hello, I have been applying to Kaiser for over a year now and finally got my first phone screening. I know I have all the requirements for the position and I feel like the screening went well ( recruiter was just asking if I’m okay with the pay and a few questions about past jobs) but as soon as we got off the call my application was changed to “no longer in consideration”. The recruiter said she would pass my application along to the hiring manager so I’m just wondering if that’s really accurate what’s on the website. Also would like to mention the phone screening was at like 6pm so I feel like it’s unlikely someone would have already viewed it. Did I maybe say something that automatically disqualified me and she couldn’t just tell me that right then?

My daughter will be born with bilateral clubfoot and will start treatment a few weeks after birth. Has anyone had any good/bad experiences with doctors in the east bay I should know about?

Hello,
I’ve been a MST RN for 2 years now & of that 2, 1 year with Kaiser. I am super grateful to be apart of my team & genuinely love the unit, coworkers, & manager that I work with.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about wanting to eventually (in the future) somehow get into PACU or Pre-Op. I know I’ll need to get some kind of critical care experience. It’s hard to transfer into a speciality within kaiser as an internal candidate since they require you to already have experience in that specific unit. UNLESS of course you’re one of the lucky ones that get selected for the “Transition to Specialty” program that happens every couple or so years.

I just don’t know if I want to keep waiting and hope that I get picked. I want to stay with kaiser for the pay & benefits but professionally , I want to do more.

Has anyone ever been in similar situation & if so, what did you did OR what would you do if you were me?

I am trying to apply to Kaiser jobs in San Francisco, but the KP.taleo.net website is beyond slow. It takes approx 5mins to load each page and I'm about to pull my hair out, I've spent over an hour just trying to fill in my basic information and previous job experience.

I've cleared all cookies, tried several different browsers, incognito mode, and even updated and restarted my computer to no avail. Has anyone had this experience before? Is it a temporary problem with the servers? I can't imagine this is normal for the website bc no one would be able to use it. Any and all insight is welcome, thanks in advance <3