2008 - 2012 Recommendations

2004 - 2007 Recommendations

Re: Will HMO pediatrican accept private MD's diagnosis?
I think Kaiser does a nice job of handling ADHD once you find a primary care pediatrician who specializes in the medications. There's usually one pediatrician at each facility who sees the ADD kids and knows about the meds. I don't see why they'd want to re-diagnose your child. If you come in with diabetes they don't do that. I have Kaiser and an EPO plan and we go to non-Kaiser doctors for the rare diseases we seem to have in our family but we use Kaiser for all our ADHD needs with great success. good luck

Bothered by ADD evaluation at Kaiser

My eight-year-old son is a very enthusiastic student and tries hard in school but has been struggling with reading since 1st grade (he is in 2nd grade) so it was suggested that he be assessed by the district and evaluated for ADHD.

For the ADD evaluation, we went to Richmond Kaiser and during the 3-hour process, we filled out reams of paperwork, then sat in a room full of parents and heard a lecture from the head of behavioral psychiatry while our son was observed in a room with 12 kids of different ages (all of whom were being evaluated for behavioral problems). The psychiatrist told all the parents that the only treatment option for ADD is drugs and Ritalin has no side effects which I found hard to believe.

Directly after, we reconvened in a psychologist’s office with my son. It was awkward to discuss why we were doing the evaluation while he was in the room but we did our best. At one point, my spouse mentioned that our son’s gymnastics teacher said he doesn’t always follow instructions in his class and he had to give him a few ''time outs''. It was the only example we could think of behavior that might be different from his peers. Otherwise, he is an active little boy who is happy and mostly well-behaved. From preschool through second grade, teachers have said good things about his behavior.

My son told me later that during the group session one little girl got up and was turning the lights off and on, then a few kids started yelling: “we’re prisoners, we’re trapped here, let us out”. He admitted that he did some yelling too. He wouldn't say much about it beyond that.

After the appointment, we and his teachers completed evaluation forms about his behavior. A few weeks later, the psychologist left a phone message that he was negative for ADD/ADHD. However, she had observed some defiant/oppositional behavior. She offered us space in an Oppositional Defiant Disorder Workshop. At that point I was feeling so demoralized, I didn't bother calling back. I have since had a subsequent conversation with her and clarified that there will be a note in his medical record that she observed ''oppositional'' behavior in groups. It's not a diagnosis, just an observation and was supported by what my spouse had said about the gymnastics class. I thought about defending my son, explaining that it had been a bad day and his rowdy behavior was out of character but it seemed pointless.

I am still frustrated by the whole experience and feel like he got a raw deal. Have other parents who have been through an evaluation at Kaiser experienced something similar? frustrated mom

2003 & Earlier