In Northern California, Kaiser is so dominant that her best bet is probably to just stay on Kaiser. If she needs to, she can private pay for an out of network dermatology visit or two, and she will still save money over what she’d pay for a Medicare supplement.
As far as dermatology, though, they want you to go through your primary, and if the primary sees anything interesting, you get a referral, and (in my recent experience), a fairly quick dermatology appointment. Which is honestly much better than it used to be when everyone went straight to dermatology, and it took 6 months or more to get an appointment.
The Covid shot thing is weird, though. When I needed an out of season Covid shot (I have health conditions too), I left a message for my primary, and they just told me to go to the nurses clinic, where I had no trouble. I’m not sure if my doc had put in an order, or if they just did it.
As far as dermatology, though, they want you to go through your primary, and if the primary sees anything interesting, you get a referral, and (in my recent experience), a fairly quick dermatology appointment. Which is honestly much better than it used to be when everyone went straight to dermatology, and it took 6 months or more to get an appointment.
The Covid shot thing is weird, though. When I needed an out of season Covid shot (I have health conditions too), I left a message for my primary, and they just told me to go to the nurses clinic, where I had no trouble. I’m not sure if my doc had put in an order, or if they just did it.
Statistics: Posted by quantAndHold — Wed Nov 05, 2025 10:15 pm — Replies 6 — Views 456