Let’s organize
This board can be utilized for so much good. All of the issues we have we can hopefully organize in a coherent manner, & reach out to state reps that enough is enough & the people demand action. We are really becoming a third world state. Find your state reps & let them know the issues & the legislation you would like to see implemented.
One of my experiences I had for a family member was so grotesque, I was at a loss for words. Long story short I had a family member who became disabled & was filing for disability. Social security required a functional capacity form & doctors statement from your treating physician. And his PCP refused to fill it out! She said it’s kaisers policy to not fill these out! I was just at a loss of words. So I reached out to member services & they said it’s not really a policy but it depends on the physician. Then I call the PCP back and plead his case, & the PCP is saying they have community clinics you can go to where they do it for $100-200. I said excuse me Social Security requires the form to be filled out from the treating physician. She still refused.
I went out & found an attorney to consult. And the attorney has been fighting Kaiser on this for years. Most of their physicians don’t fill out these forms! The attorney says often times patients who are truly disabled get denied benefits because Kaiser refuses to do it & they go to random doctors to get certified, but a thing Social Security looks at is the length of time the patient had a relationship with the physician. A statement from a physician who knows you for over 10 years is more trustworthy than a doctors statement from a doctor who only saw you once.
Nevertheless, this family member was being seen simultaneously by a specialist and the specialist God bless the PCP, ended up filling it out & Social Security approved.
Kaiser has been getting away with this behavior for a long time. But social media is our biggest tool to help affect change. We can write to state reps & use Twitter to reply to their posts with issues. If enough people do it there will be good outcomes.