Kate Dahlke
1/5
With Beaver/Optum over the years I'm always told by the Drs if I call first thing in the morning when they open that they always have same day or next day appointments for when you are sick or get hurt. IF you can ever get through on the phone I can't think of a single time I've been able to get such an appointment. This week I tried and went "to their website or your my chart account to schedule instead of continuing to wait on hold". I requested an appointment ASAP for a cough that has only continued to get worse since it's onset Christmas Eve and now was making it difficult to breathe now that we are well into February. The next morning I finally get a reply, not with an appointment, but a bunch of questions asking for all kinds of detailsabout the cough and duration. Ok, so they don't want to actually have to see me and bring my germs into the office, it IS a Drs office and that's what they do but ok. I type out all the details they asked for and send it back. I hear nothing all day or all day the next day, Friday. Then just after five I get a message telling me these coughs can last up three weeks (ok..... We are past six weeks at this point) considering everything I said I should probably schedule a "follow up appointment" and if it continues to cause breathing problems call 911 and go to the ER. What?!?!? This is all from an appointment request Wednesday morning! I never got an appointment!!! How do I schedule a "follow up appointment"?!?! Grrrrrr... Typical non existent care you get from this medical group! Entirely frustrating! So, in frustration, I go to a nearby urgent care. I check ahead, yes they take my insurance. Great! I get there. Yes, they take Blue Shield but not if the primary care group is Optum. We are so sorry. We tried to get Optum to let us help with their patients but we were rejected because optum said this area is already too saturated with urgent care and medical groups and they don't need any more. What?!?! If true, why can I never get in? I can't even get them on the phone to make an appointment! So, even though they take my insurance, because my medical group is Optum and Optum won't allow them to see "their patients" I can't go there! I have to drive much further away to an optum urgent care where I have to wait hours to be seen for subpar care!!! Grrrr..... Medical groups and urgent cares aren't overly abundant!!! If they were, why can't I ever get through on the phone? Why can't I ever get an appointment? And why are urgent cares so far away and with hours long waits every time?!? I pay tens of thousands of dollars a year for health insurance that Optum makes nearly impossible to use!!! Stinking California bureaucratic politics! I'd way rather have catastrophic insurance that costs a minimal amount of money and then just pay out of pocket for regular medical expenses. But we can't do that! California REQUIRES you to have insurance that covers all the basics AND if you try to pay out of pocket when you have insurance the medical group can't take it because they could get in trouble! Yes, optum stinks, but no more than California Politics that take away our rights to choose for ourselves.
