3 ms·
> I believe we have pretty similar diagnostics and treatments to other developed countries I don't know. I remember reading an MIT PhD thesis describing how Ka
by skissane 2y ago
> I believe we have pretty similar diagnostics and treatments to other developed countries
I don't know. I remember reading an MIT PhD thesis describing how Kaiser Permanente does autism diagnosis [0] – and comparing it to my personal experience of the same topic in Australia, it seemed significantly more rigorous – e.g. specialist centres that only do autism diagnosis, using the multidisciplinary team diagnosis model instead of the single clinician diagnosis model, use of research reliable examiners for ADOS (the training and validation process required to use ADOS in research settings is much more intensive than that required to use it clinically), etc. Now, the thesis does acknowledge that Kaiser is somewhat of an outlier in this regard compared to the US average (plus it is 10 years old so now so I don't know how things have evolved since), but I still get the impression that this highly rigorous approach to autism diagnosis is much more of a thing in the US than in Australia – and if that's true of autism, maybe it is true of other conditions as well.
[0] https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/90070 https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/90070 – the first half of the thesis uses the pseudonym "Allied Health", but I know from other sources that "Allied"=Kaiser; the second half discusses Kaiser without any pseudonym
- pclmulqdq 2y agoKaiser is above average in the US, but in the major cities on the East coast you can actually find care that is much more sophisticated than you will get at Kaiser. If I were dying of a rare and aggressive form of cancer right now, I would rather be in Florida (Mayo), New York (Mount Sinai and Sloan Kettering), Boston (Dana-Farber), or DC (Johns Hopkins) than California. Kaiser's big advantage is the whole-life aspect of care, which is pretty appealing as a healthy person, but the medicine available in the US gets much more complicated.
- jquery 2y agoA recent study showed Kaiser had the lowest denial rate of any major insurer, at 7%, versus the industry average of 16%. https://axenehp.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/20241218_chart_01.png https://axenehp.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/20241218_char... If you live in an area served by Kaiser and don’t have a very specific health reason to choose a different provider, I highly recommend them. They might not be able to treat that rare and aggressive cancer as well as the Mayo Clinic, but because it’s whole-life care, you’re more likely to find the cancer early. Edit: Question. Can Mayo expand to cover everyone in Florida? Or is their advantage in hiring the best of the best? What makes their model better than Kaiser?
- pclmulqdq 2y agoI agree with you that the Kaiser model is very successful and has great outcomes at relatively lower cost. I was just pointing out that if you want to show off the complexity of US Healthcare, Kaiser isn't the best model.