Emergency Elder Care Resources requested
December 5, 2019 2:00 PM Subscribe
My daughter's fiance is dealing with the sudden ill health of both of his parents and I have no idea how to help - so I am copying and pasting his question here.
I've never dealt with this personally so I'm grateful for any advice I can send to him. He is located in Northern California, but his parents are in Southern California, and money is an issue.
Thank you!
"Anyone have experience w/ their elderly parents using Kaiser? Open enrollment ends Saturday and I need to find a solution for my parents FAST.
Well, my parents are on something called SCAN right now and have doctors through some shitty network that has been failing them royally. Kaiser is WAY more expensive out of pocket than what they have, but right now quality of care they're getting seems absolutely abysmal. So I'm trying to assess if the dramatically higher out of pocket costs are worth it."
"Anyone have experience w/ their elderly parents using Kaiser? Open enrollment ends Saturday and I need to find a solution for my parents FAST.
Well, my parents are on something called SCAN right now and have doctors through some shitty network that has been failing them royally. Kaiser is WAY more expensive out of pocket than what they have, but right now quality of care they're getting seems absolutely abysmal. So I'm trying to assess if the dramatically higher out of pocket costs are worth it."
Is this kidney problems? Undiagnosed something-or-other? Dementia?
posted by amtho at 4:47 PM on December 5, 2019
posted by amtho at 4:47 PM on December 5, 2019
My mom is an elderly parent with Kaiser. As an ex-employee she has a great plan, but her care falls under the same rules as everybody else, and it's been basically fine. She broke her hip in May and got a replacement and a handful of days in the hospital for observation. After that was two weeks in rehab that was supposed to be 10ish, and since then she's been at home with no Kaiser involvement. She's now paying for in-home caregiver, but if she couldn't I'm under the impression that Medicare/Medi-Cal and state agencies can be brought to bear for this. I don't have experience dealing with that side of things, though.
This is all post-treatment, so if the parents in question are in the midst of something acute I would first look at alternative plans under SCAN (I'm just poking around their site) as well as Covered California options, which have Kaiser and may be less costly than what you've already been finding.
However, one thing I've had to confront in myself is that medical people have a much better sense of condition than I do, so there can be a bit of the, "yeah, that's a thing that happens at this age," from doctors and nurses, though I'd say that was more of a thing with multiple-medical problem cases like my Dad. This is to say that sometimes there's not a lot to be done anyway. Don't be afraid of asking about what-if options, you aren't a ghoul for wanting to cover contingencies and possible eventualities.
I'm sorry you're going through this. It's hard and there's not a lot of information out there when you just want to google about something that just happened. Good luck, and feel free to update here. Maybe additional detail can help tease out some more options.
posted by rhizome at 5:16 PM on December 5, 2019
This is all post-treatment, so if the parents in question are in the midst of something acute I would first look at alternative plans under SCAN (I'm just poking around their site) as well as Covered California options, which have Kaiser and may be less costly than what you've already been finding.
However, one thing I've had to confront in myself is that medical people have a much better sense of condition than I do, so there can be a bit of the, "yeah, that's a thing that happens at this age," from doctors and nurses, though I'd say that was more of a thing with multiple-medical problem cases like my Dad. This is to say that sometimes there's not a lot to be done anyway. Don't be afraid of asking about what-if options, you aren't a ghoul for wanting to cover contingencies and possible eventualities.
I'm sorry you're going through this. It's hard and there's not a lot of information out there when you just want to google about something that just happened. Good luck, and feel free to update here. Maybe additional detail can help tease out some more options.
posted by rhizome at 5:16 PM on December 5, 2019
SCAN Health Plan is an HMO plan with a Medicare contract and a contract with the California Medi-Cal (Medicaid) program. -- yeah, there's really not enough info in the ask; SCAN itself has a caregiver or family member w/ questions hotline, 1-800-559-3500.
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:17 PM on December 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:17 PM on December 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
Some detective work is needed. The OP says they are "elderly", thus I assume over 65 and not working. "Open enrollment" probably means Medicare, so the deduction is that they currently participate in SCAN's Medicare Advantage plan and they are considering switching to Kaiser's.
posted by megatherium at 4:39 AM on December 6, 2019
posted by megatherium at 4:39 AM on December 6, 2019
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posted by suelac at 4:32 PM on December 5, 2019