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DGreene's avatar

Kaiser has been great for "whole package" coverage. And they were a leading company in embracing electronic medical records that were accessible by any provider within Kaiser (talk about improving provider-to-provider communication!) Their hamstring is that to get those benefits, you have to go to a Kaiser facility. If a Kaiser patient is on vacation, they will cover emergency services if the nearest facility is more than x miles away (I think it's around 300 miles), but it is kind of a nightmare for the treating hospital to sort it out and determine if they have to transfer a patient in order to have their care covered.

Still, I would love to have Kaiser, but we live in a rural area and the nearest Kaiser office/facility is over 150 miles away, which makes accessibility somewhat problematic.

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Judith Swink (CA)'s avatar

True though several years ago when visiting a friend in coastal CT, I suddenly developed a very painful UTI. Friend referred me to a private doctor's office. The receptionist contacted Kaiser and the office visit was authorized by Kaiser, I didn't have to pay anything.

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