Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

veteran+
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Re: Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Post by veteran+ »

In the 90s and up to 2002 I had Kaiser's "small group" insurance plan for myself and my employees.

I also had an individual plan.

This was in Los Angeles and Miami.

I and my employees never had any issues. But, that was back then!
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Re: Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Post by J-Man »

The strike has apparently been averted, at least for the time being. But this raises another issue: I've been a Kaiser Permanente member for decades--both in Northern and Southern California. And I find the mail order prescription refill service to be outstanding--BUT--under the plan I have, I can often find prescription drugs for lower prices than my Kaiser co-pays. So there has never been any restriction about using another pharmacy for your Kaiser prescriptions. I'm pretty sure that would be illegal.

And has anyone checked out Amazon's new prescription discount card that affords lower prices at many major pharmacies? Their prices are often lower than my co-pay as well.
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Re: Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Post by Alpha8472 »

My sister who is a Kaiser Pharmacist says the Pharmacies will still go on strike. The pharmacy union is small and weak. That union was unable to reach a deal with Kaiser. The pharmacies will be closed for 10 days and the mail order pharmacy is the option that Kaiser is pushing. Someone I knew tried to fill a prescription at Walmart using Kaiser insurance. The Kaiser insurance card gave no discount on the medication. So it was like paying full price. Kaiser has always allowed their customers to use other pharmacies, but they had to pay full price out of pocket. Instead of the Kaiser insurance card getting rejected, it is now accepted but with little to no discount on prices. Kaiser started allowing their insurance cards to be accepted at outside pharmacies starting November 11 which was just before the strike.

The nurses have a powerful union and were able to get what they wanted. However, the pharmacy union is tiny. Kaiser feels that they can force the pharmacy employees to accept lower wages. Kaiser pharmacies pay their employees way above other pharmacies. CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, etc. all pay much lower and understaff. Kaiser pays top wages and therefore their pharmacies make less profit. Kaiser wants to make their Kaiser pharmacy employees work for poverty wages as well. This is Kaiser's goal with their new hire policy where new employees will be paid a much lower wage. The Union does not want this, because the new employees will feel that the Union is weak and cannot guarantee proper wages. The Union will not budge or else they will lose their power.

Amazon is giving out this "discount card." Most pharmacies already offer discount cards and there are tons of online discount cards that are accepted at many pharmacies. Amazon advertises their discount card, but they are not the lowest priced pharmacy. Walmart is one of the lowest priced pharmacies. They try to beat or match all other pharmacies. Amazon is losing a ton of money trying to do free mail order delivery. They are losing money on this free pharmacy delivery. Pharmacy chains these days are turning towards vaccinations as the source of profit. The profit from one shingles vaccine is worth the profits of dozens of cheap prescriptions. Vaccinations are keeping these brick and mortar pharmacies in business. Amazon mail order lacks the high profit vaccinations and this is Amazon's weakness. Mail order pharmacies suffer from high levels of fraud. People claim that their prescriptions were lost in the mail and the mail order pharmacies have to refill those prescriptions and take the losses. It is a big drain on profits.
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Re: Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Post by Alpha8472 »

Kaiser reached a deal to prevent a pharmacy strike around 1 AM on Monday. However, the engineers continue their 2 month long strike at Kaiser. Sympathy strikes set for Thursday and Friday by some other unions at Kaiser.

Kaiser caved in since there was chaos at the Kaiser pharmacies in the past few days. The wait times a Kaiser pharmacies was 2 and a half hours on Friday. People were stockpiling prescriptions in case Kaiser was to be closed for 10 days during a strike. There were wall to wall people waiting in the pharmacies and people were so dissatisfied. Many Kaiser pharmacies ran out of medications on Friday. There were no new deliveries of medications until Monday.

It is open enrollment and tons of customers were threatening to leave Kaiser permanently. The employees picked the perfect time to threaten a strike. Now many people see Kaiser as unreliable. The entire system could be crippled by a strike. Kaiser will lose many members because of this.

Kaiser has relied too much on mail order. If every Kaiser member tried to get their prescriptions in person, there is not enough staff to fill prescriptions in person.
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Re: Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Post by Alpha8472 »

The strike was called off of course, but the damage to Kaiser has been done. Kaiser transferred many hospital patients to non-Kaiser hospitals and it is a huge mess trying to transfer them back. Many Kaiser patients are still waiting for their mail order prescriptions. Kaiser told the patients to use mail order in anticipation of the strike and now the mail order pharmacy is unable to fill hundreds of thousands of prescriptions. Thousands of patients are still waiting for delivery of their medications. Kaiser patients are threatening to leave Kaiser and open enrollment for Medicare is coming up.

The Southern California Pharmacy Union settled with Kaiser first. Then later when Northern California threatened to strike, Kaiser said that they would replace the Northern California pharmacy workers with workers from Southern California which had already made a contract with Kaiser. The Northern California union was too weak and a threat of strike was not enough to beat Kaiser. The Northern California union agreed to a lower pay rate.

This is union busting. The unions are weak. The strike was defeated by sneaky dealings on behalf of Kaiser. Kaiser is quite shrewd. The biggest loser of course is Kaiser as many people now hate Kaiser and are leaving. Outside pharmacies should do well as their business will increase. I believe that Kaiser is still paying for Kaiser members to get prescriptions from outside pharmacies until November 25.
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