Just yesterday I received another complaint from an applicant for private health insurance. “Hi, Kaiser has taken long enough and I plan on filing a complaint. Please accept this email as my request to withdraw my application. There are other insurance companies that respond in an acceptable manner.” This customer is not alone in her aggravation. We are feeling the frustration of many customers who have had to deal with long processing times in the last two months. For those who got stuck in the backlog, this is probably little consolation, but for those who still plan to apply, hope is on the way.
The Kaiser underwriting crisis has gotten attention at the highest levels of the Kaiser Permanente Insurance Company. Additional staff have been added and systems have been improved. In a day and age when competitors are processing health insurance applications much faster, Kaiser Permanente realizes that they have to be competitive in processing times and not just in quality of product and pricing.
The addition of fast processing times will make Kaiser Permanente one of the most competitive individual and family health insurance companies in California. Currently over 1 in 5 Californians are Kaiser members and this statistic is expected to increase. The combination of high quality care, preventive medicine, affordable pricing and fast processing times will make competition with Kaiser Permanente very difficult for Blue Cross, Health Net and other carriers in the near future.