Kaiser Permanente Problem

Now I'm having fun with Kaiser Permanente...

First off, the phone number on the card doesn't work! Or rather it's listed as 1-800-464-4000/TTY 1-800-7777-1370. Of course the first number seems like it's a TTY type of device where you type instead of talking you type. The second number doesn't work. The first number is the number to call.

Tip: Say "representative" to speak to a person. The menu system won't tell you that.

Ok secondly, I called up to try to get various numbers like RxBin, RxPCN, etc. for my pharmacy. Come to find out that I cannot use an outside pharmacy or rather I can but they won't pay for any of the prescriptions! I was not told of this during sign up.

Now in the normal free market, otherwise known as all other businesses, one votes with their dollars. So if you don't like the way a business is performing you go to their competitors. You shop around and you pick a business that suits your needs. Or you complain about the practices and even some will set up their own businesses seeing the opportunity to please others that feel like you do and making good money as well as provide a better service. In the field this is known as competition and it is the driving force that helps the market to control prices and make businesses better and better at servicing their customers.

To add insult to injury, I am now stuck with Kaiser at least until Open Enrollment. Another asinine concept that limits people to only being able to make changes to their plans once a year. How fucking stupid! This does nothing for me. Of course there are so called "qualifying events" such as new job, new baby, marriage/divorce but "hey I don't like that I can't use my own pharmacy" is not on the list of qualifying events. So I'm fucking stuck.

This is not free market, it's not competition and it's stupid!