Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Alpha8472
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Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Post by Alpha8472 »

Kaiser Permanente pharmacies are closing due to a 10 day strike by pharmacists and other frontline workers such as nurses. Hospitals will also be affected. The strike starts November 15.

Kaiser usually requires that you use only Kaiser pharmacies to fill prescriptions if you have Kaiser insurance. However, due to the strike by the nearly 100,000 workers, Kaiser will now pay for your prescriptions at outside pharmacies such as CVS, Walmart, Rite Aid, etc. This new pharmacy option began November 11.

Being forced to use a Kaiser pharmacy is what I hated about Kaiser. Now Kaiser members can use any pharmacy. This is going to be so much more convenient. Kaiser already started covering flu vaccines and COVID vaccinations at outside pharmacies earlier this year.
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Re: Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Post by babs »

Alpha8472 wrote: November 12th, 2021, 4:53 am Kaiser Permanente pharmacies are closing due to a 10 day strike by pharmacists and other frontline workers such as nurses. Hospitals will also be affected. The strike starts November 15.

Kaiser usually requires that you use only Kaiser pharmacies to fill prescriptions if you have Kaiser insurance. However, due to the strike by the nearly 100,000 workers, Kaiser will now pay for your prescriptions at outside pharmacies such as CVS, Walmart, Rite Aid, etc. This new pharmacy option began November 11.

Being forced to use a Kaiser pharmacy is what I hated about Kaiser. Now Kaiser members can use any pharmacy. This is going to be so much more convenient. Kaiser already started covering flu vaccines and COVID vaccinations at outside pharmacies earlier this year.
I've used Kaiser pharmacies both in person and mail order for the last several years and found them to be superior to any of the chain store pharmacies. I'm sorry that your experiences were so bad but I wouldn't go back to Walgreens, CVS or Rite Aid if I had a choice. I only found the Costco pharmacy to be decent. CVS at Target has got to be the worst place to get a prescription filled between the snarly no customer service pharmacist and jacked up prices.
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Re: Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Post by buckguy »

People seem to either love or hate Kaiser. I've never heard anything in between. They seem to be shrinking in at least some of the places where they've never had the kind of market share they've had in California. They left Cleveland several years ago and the competition among the DC networks and Johns Hopkins seems to be squeezing them in DC/Baltimore.
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Re: Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Post by Brian Lutz »

They entered this area by taking over what used to be Group Health Cooperative (also known colloquially as "Group Death"). Haven't ever used their services, but being limited to one provider seems like a real pain, especially when things like this happen.
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Re: Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Post by BillyGr »

buckguy wrote: November 12th, 2021, 9:24 am People seem to either love or hate Kaiser. I've never heard anything in between. They seem to be shrinking in at least some of the places where they've never had the kind of market share they've had in California. They left Cleveland several years ago and the competition among the DC networks and Johns Hopkins seems to be squeezing them in DC/Baltimore.
They took over a local group (CHP) in the Albany, NY area back in the late 1990's, but have since left the area.

Never actually had anything to do with them, though, but I don't know if they ever instituted that pharmacy deal here (may have been different as they only had a few offices so it would likely not have been too convenient for people to have to go there for prescriptions all the time, as opposed to going to see a doctor once or twice a year).
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Re: Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Post by Alpha8472 »

Kaiser is so restrictive. They used to be in Texas, but fled Texas after a lawsuit. A young baby needed medical care, but Kaiser required that the baby only use a Kaiser hospital. The baby had to be transported past other hospitals to a Kaiser hospital which was hours away. The baby lost its arms due to lack of bloodflow.

Years ago in certain rural areas of California, Kaiser let customers use Rite Aid pharmacies but only because there were no Kaiser pharmacies for hours. That program ended years ago. Some people still need to drive hours to a Kaiser pharmacy. Kaiser also has some restrictions on filling medications from outside dentists. They want prescriptions from Kaiser doctors only.
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Re: Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Post by storewanderer »

I have heard the same- nothing but very positive or very negative about Kaiser. I guess it really depends on establishing a local network of doctors you like with them and if you can get that set up, then it works out very well.

Look at why the pharmacists are going on strike- it is because they want to drastically cut starting pay of future pharmacists.
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Re: Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Post by babs »

Alpha8472 wrote: November 12th, 2021, 5:04 pm Kaiser is so restrictive. They used to be in Texas, but fled Texas after a lawsuit. A young baby needed medical care, but Kaiser required that the baby only use a Kaiser hospital. The baby had to be transported past other hospitals to a Kaiser hospital which was hours away. The baby lost its arms due to lack of bloodflow.

Years ago in certain rural areas of California, Kaiser let customers use Rite Aid pharmacies but only because there were no Kaiser pharmacies for hours. That program ended years ago. Some people still need to drive hours to a Kaiser pharmacy. Kaiser also has some restrictions on filling medications from outside dentists. They want prescriptions from Kaiser doctors only.
Why would anyone drive for hours? Their mail order pharmacy turns prescriptions in 24 hours. You can even do it over the phone. Talk about something that doesn't make much sense.
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Re: Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Post by BillyGr »

babs wrote: November 13th, 2021, 3:01 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: November 12th, 2021, 5:04 pm Kaiser is so restrictive. They used to be in Texas, but fled Texas after a lawsuit. A young baby needed medical care, but Kaiser required that the baby only use a Kaiser hospital. The baby had to be transported past other hospitals to a Kaiser hospital which was hours away. The baby lost its arms due to lack of bloodflow.

Years ago in certain rural areas of California, Kaiser let customers use Rite Aid pharmacies but only because there were no Kaiser pharmacies for hours. That program ended years ago. Some people still need to drive hours to a Kaiser pharmacy. Kaiser also has some restrictions on filling medications from outside dentists. They want prescriptions from Kaiser doctors only.
Why would anyone drive for hours? Their mail order pharmacy turns prescriptions in 24 hours. You can even do it over the phone. Talk about something that doesn't make much sense.
They may get them filled and out in 24 hours, but some places it may take more time for the mail to actually deliver them.
Also doesn't help if someone goes to a doctor and is supposed to start something new that day.
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Re: Kaiser Permanente Allows Prescriptions At Other Pharmacies Due To Strike

Post by Alpha8472 »

I was referring to Kaiser back in the 1990s. In the 90s, Kaiser had 1 hospital in Walnut Creek, California and Sacramento. That was the farthest Kaiser went East and North. People who had Kaiser and lived in the Sierra Foothills or anywhere East were hours away from a hospital. If it was after 6 PM, the few rural Kaiser Pharmacies would close and people would be stranded without medication. What if you needed blood pressure medication or an antibiotic late at night. The only course of action would be to either pay out of pocket and go to an outside hospital or drive hours to reach a Kaiser 24 hour pharmacy in Sacramento or Walnut Creek. So getting medical care back in the 90s from Kaiser was a horrendous journey that could involve driving for 100 miles for more. There were no hospitals in Manteca, Modesto, Roseville, or anywhere else that far out there.

The Kaiser mail order is hit or miss. Sometimes it could take 2 days, and if the mail gets lost it could be a week. When you are suffering and need an antibiotic, it is often inconvenient to get to a Kaiser Pharmacy. They are not as common as the corner drug store.
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