Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns. Some wouldn’t even consider anything but Kaiser… This means that coverage varies (sometimes greatly) from one state to another. They won't experiment on you. Join our community, read the PF Wiki, and get on top of your finances! Kaiser mostly offeres HMOs, so I’m assuming you are comparing Kaiser HMO and Blue Shield PPO. For many consumers, they are anything but indifferent about Kaiser Permanente. Kaiser Permanente is a private, not-for-profit company. The insurer is also the provider of health care. Care coordination. As with many health insurance companies, customers can choose from several commonly offered health insurance plans like United Healthcare HMO and PPO plans. That said, UnitedHealthcare scores better than Kaiser Permanente across: Cost, and Coverage. With Kaiser you're locked in to their specialists to a large degree. They love it, or they hate it. Kaiser went all in! I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Most of the points below are still valid if your Kaiser option is a PPO. UnitedHealthcare has lots of plans to choose from, which makes it easy to find affordable medical coverage. Blue Cross Blue Shield vs United Healthcare: Network Coverage. Learn about budgeting, saving, getting out of debt, credit, investing, and retirement planning. I'm just wondering if anyone have any opinions regarding this, and correct me if my understanding is wrong on this. My wife just got a job that offers healthcare for the whole family. Press J to jump to the feed. It's a different company now and they've made large strides in the right direction in terms of quality of care. I live in the SF Bay Area (East Bay) and all of the doctors I've seen are top notch. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the personalfinance community. Just look it up and you'll find a ton of information on it. However, the lower premiums and out-of-pocket costs swayed me. Blue Cross Blue Shield is not a nationwide company but rather a consortium of smaller independent health insurers who band … Kaiser will send you out of network immediately for specialty work if needed, especially for children. These days, the choice of PPO vs. HMO vs. EPO vs. POS vs. any other option may matter less than the specific plan you choose, since there are no standard definitions, and … The official subreddit of Los Angeles, California! On one hand, everything is integrated. Health Details: Your out of pocket tends to be much lower ($5 Co pay vs $20 with hmsa for me).Having the in network urgent care is a great triage for passing health problems. Press J to jump to the feed. This can be good and bad at the same time. Kaiser Permanente have facilities and individual doctors we can choose from. I've had three separate employer-sponsored plans through UHC and none of them required referrals. They try to keep closer appointments opened for established patients, which is why it's much easier to find an appointment after you've already had one with that doctor. United Healthcare allows us to pick our own doctor from a network of doctors. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the actuarial values for the four levels of coverage are: Bronze: 60 percent. The Affordable Care Act substantially … On the flip side, my roomie's brother who's a neurologist for Kaiser NorCal said that his HMO is really efficient at managing chronic non-terminal diseases like diabetes, hypertension, rheumatoid conditions & back pain. Hi all. I live in Northern … Internal Revenue Service. Yes, Kaiser can be very location dependent too. There's more coordination of care & consultation between specialists & primary doctors than the general physician refer-a-specialist (tit-for-tat) system that's traditional. These are some key statistics for Aetna vs Kaiser Permanente: With a headquarters in California, Kaiser opened for business in 1945. Kaiser on the other hand is a dominant player in the individual market. Silver: 70 percent. Other areas where doctors would have to "settle" to work for Kaiser - not so much.... And yes, I did love that I could go to my local kaiser location and get an x-ray, a flu shot, and fill a prescription all in one trip.. If you think you'll ever need surgery ( neck, knee, hip ) Do not choose Kaiser. Kaiser is great and has won a large number of awards for quality and customer satisfaction. Here are the Blue Cross results I found, listed by … I think this type of thinking is based on "the old days" or maybe more rural areas. Its health insurance plans includes coverage for dental, life, vision and disability. Silver: 70 percent. Do your own research and come to your own decision but I think the care can't be beat, especially for the price. Currently, this nonprofit healthcare organization serves … This can be good and bad at the same time. FWIW, I have Kaiser and really like them. It sounds like if i want all my testing (x-rays, blood draws, etc) and basic care done, I have the convenience of having it all done in one location/building? HMO vs PPO. That's kind of the holy grail of health care and Kaiser … I had kaiser for the last several years, we were considering kaiser for our kid(s) - but in our location the hours of service and the services available near us is horrible.