Face to Face

This page born on:
Friday
January 22, 2021
Mailed on: to be determined

Kaiser Permanente
Member Services Department
2500 South Havana Street
Aurora, CO 80014

I joined Kaiser Permanente 1/1/2014.

The Long Story

In July, 2020, I had a problem with a prescription at the Mail Order Pharmacy. As a result of that problem, I became aware of the Kaiser Permanente member rights and responsibilities statement. I read it, for the first time, in late 2020. It says (in part):

I Can't Get No

We want you to be satisfied.

If you are dissatisfied for any reason,
please let us know.

If you wish to file a complaint,
follow the procedures listed below:

Denver/Boulder service area
1) Send a written complaint to the Kaiser Permanente Member Services Department; or
2) Request to meet with a Member Services representative at the Health Plan Administrative Offices; or
3) Call Member Services at 303-338-3800

Satisfaction

When I read the above passage, item number 2 caught my attention.

Door Number 2

The face to face meeting appealed to me.

I had a punch list of my issues/complaints. The list had over 20 items. I felt overwhelmed. I had too much chaos in my life. I had a lot of questions. If I turned in one complaint and waited, I would learn a lot, but that would take 2 months. I was desperate for even just a little bit of "off the record" wisdom.

Talk is Cheap

I thought if I could meet 'face to face' with someone that had experience with how things worked, it might save me a lot of wasted effort. I re-read the entire Kaiser Permanente Member Rights Statement, and I wondered if they really meant it. Or was it just lip service? I was skeptical.

It says I can request to meet face to face. It does not say how.

I called the Member Services Help Line. I called 7 or 8 times, over a period of 5 weeks or so. My notes are not that well organized, and my memory is not that good.
As best I can:

I spoke with Cindy Martindale on September 15th, 2020. She was the first. She was very nice. She made it sound easy.

She said:
Just ask to speak with Member Services when you check in at any building.

I was skeptical. I was scheduled to visit Centrepoint the next day. I said to Cindy Martindale, point blank:
You mean I can ask to speak to Member Services when I check in tomorrow at Centrepoint? And they will arrange for me to meet with someone in a conference room or an office or something? Just like that? No appointment needed?

And honest to God, she assured me that it would happen! I was going the next day any way. I thought OK, sure, why not?

I asked Cindy if I could talk to her again the next day, after my face to face meeting with the Member Services Rep at Centrepoint. I wanted to follow-up with Cindy, just in case things didn't go as planned. She said fine, no problem. I could ask for her, and leave a message. She would call me back. She made it sound like no problem.

I was right to be skeptical. The next day at Centrepoint, the woman at the check-in looked at me like I had just stepped off a space ship.

I called Cindy Martindale back the following day. It was not quick and easy. Getting thru to her sucked up quite a bit of my time. I learned that she is from somewhere not near Denver. Blah, blah, blah...

Next up.
I spoke with a nice woman who told me she was getting ready to retire in just a few weeks. I don't remember her name. She had never heard of a face to face meeting, or how to go about requesting one. She suggested I use the KP.org email, and send an email to "submit a complaint/grievance".

So I did. On 9/24/20. Case ID 40769975. with
Karen C. having

"forwarded this additional information to a case manager for review, investigation, and response."

I then followed up on the phone (attempted to), about 10 days later, with Dan S.

Dan S. = Lazy Moron

Dan S. didn't know anything about how to do a 'face to face' meeting. He didn't want to admit that he didn't know anything about it. And he was a jerk about it.

[note to Member Services: Please treat this as a complaint against Dan S. for being a Jerk on this phone call. Refer to the part where it says: If you are dissatisfied for any reason, please let us know.]

From 9/24/20 to 10/14/20, I spoke with an assortment of equally un-helpful Kaiser employees. My best guess is there were 3 to 6 more of them, most memorable for being forgettable.

10/14/20

On Wednesday, 10/14/20, my wife had an appointment with the eye doctor. My wife has (age related) macular degeneration. In 2018, the eye doctor told her she was not allowed to drive. I drive her everywhere. While she was in with the eye doctor, I waited in the car.

I knew I would be in the car for 90 minutes. I decided to call Member Services on my cell phone, and see if I could successfully "request a meeting with a Member Services representative at the Health Plan Administrative Offices".
I do not remember the name of the woman I spoke with. When I told her I wanted to have a face to face meeting in accordance with item #2 of the member rights statement, she put me on hold.

After about 7 minutes, she came back on the line and told me an idiotic story about going to Parker to find the meeting room.

I told her this was the 8th phone call I had made like this, and laughed, and asked her if she could go back to the person who told her the lie, and ask them for a better story.

She laughed too. Then she put me on hold for another 7 minutes. When she came back, she told me another obvious lie. The call went on like this for about an hour. There were a lot of laughs and a lot of lies.

The Big Empty

The next day, I drove to the building at 2500 Havana.

There is a big building, with the word Kaiser in big letters on the side of the building. The parking lot was empty. The building was empty. I spoke with the guard, inside the building.

Acme Guard and Triage

The guard claimed that there used to be face to face meetings in this building. People like me would show up and talk to the guard. The guard would play match maker.

The Guard, who does not work for Kaiser, was given the responsibility to do triage. He would select the correct person at Kaiser, based on the interview.

The guard would use the magic phone (on the desk), call the correct Kaiser person, who was available without an appointment, to fetch the member for the face to face meeting in the readily available meeting room. . The guard told this to me with a straight face. I'm not making this up.

The guard was standing next to a desk, with the magic phone at his side. I asked him if there was any way I could get back to him with a question. He just looked at me. I asked him if he would tell me the phone number. He would not. He told me he did not work for Kaiser. He would not tell me who he did work for. He would not tell me his name, or his cell phone number.

He did take my name and phone number, and said that he would leave a message and ask that someone call me, but (of course) he would not say who.

I was contacted (a day or 2 later) by:
Victoria D Roeding
Case Resolution Team Lead,
Kaiser Permenante,
2500 S Havana St,

We spoke on the phone one or two times. I sent her some info by email. I can summarize: She tricked me. She was dishonest, disingenuous, bad faith, disrespectful.
- Take your pick.

Victoria Roeding = Dishonest, Disrespectful

I told her I wanted to have a face to face meeting.
She said, sure Phil, we will have a meeting, but just give me an agenda. What are we going to talk about? I don't want to get blindsided.

OK fine. I told her I would send an outline of what I had in mind, but only if she would promise not to turn it into a grievance until we had a chance to meet and talk about it.

The next thing I know, I get a grievance letter (dated 10/19/20) with my name on it. It says if I have any questions, I can contact Victoria R.

Funny thing is, now that Victoria has what she wants from me, she is not returning my calls, or my emails.

Talk about blindsided. Ain't that a fine, "How do you do?"

Do I need to say it? There never was any follow up to the letter.

The last communication I got from Victoria D Roeding was an email, from her KP.org email account, dated 10/27/20 at 2:31 PM.

Nothing since then.

Philip G Rice
11268 E Linvale Dr
Aurora, CO 80014
720-282-3376
phil.rice@mkgappraisal.com

Health Record Number 427582802, DOB 4/25/53

-- End of Letter --

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