Group Health Behavioral Center

No parking! I spent 25 minutes driving around looking for parking only to give up in frustration-​cancelling my appointment. I will not be back.

The doctors are very understanding and listen well to my issues. My therapist is very peppy and goal oriented. The group sessions aren’t as bad as other places.
My only real complaint is the wait time. If I pay for an hour session then I’d like to start on the hour not 15 or 20 minutes late and then end on the hour.

Group Health does many things well, but mental health is not one of them. The shrinks see you for a 20 minute appointment, during which time they sit in front of their computers and type. If your shrink is out of the office, you will not be able to get your prescribed medication refilled. Dealing with this office is a bureaucratic nightmare. Group Health’s motto should be: «Managed Health Care: You Won’t Manage to Get Well and We Don’t Care.»

The people here are very passionate about their jobs. From Psychiatrists to therapists to the receptionists. Its a nerve racking ordeal for people sometimes to go to get help in any form. However there are a lot of great people that want to do just that, Help. They people are very supportive and go out of their to help. I have never had a bad day there, and hope that continues for the past year its been great.

My first experience here will be my last. What a joke. Cold, clinical, methodical,
mechanical. I left feeling worse than I entered. It’s all about the $$$$. Period.

I have been a Group Health Cooperative supporter and member for years. I often felt that they were vilified around this area, and that people hung on to their «Group Death» reputation too tightly and didn’t base their opinions on their own experience. While I myself will never choose to call them «Group Death», I am unfortunately done being their supporter. Here’s why: I have two children with Autism, both on different ends of the spectrum.
Navigating through the Group Health maze trying to get to the core of this diagnosis was maddening. Autism is on the rise, and Group Health has NOT prepared. They want to be a contender in the Seattle health insurance scene, and they have ONE child psychologist on staff to serve their half million members.
I kept hearing they were in the process of «hiring others», but I’m not sure it’s even happened. Instead I waited months for an appointment with the one specialist to see my youngest child who was more severe in nature. I was pretty excited to be getting somewhere in the area of diagnosis and a treatment plan. Sadly, the anticipated visit was a joke.
Group Health’s child psychologist (Dr. Keyes) sat with a clipboard and methodically went through a checklist. He seemed to be annoyed and tired, which I’m sure he is since he’s their one guy. He told us that more sleep greatly helps children, and that we should be more active parents. He told us to join a support group, to read some books, and he suggested a couple of titles.
His diagnosis was primarily behavioral, and his write up was 4 sentences long. He told us that there’s a more thorough way to diagnose autism where the child would be observed for a couple of hours, but he didn’t see the need. Total visit time: 40 minutes.
That was the day I decided that I’m done with Group Health. Thankfully, we are blessed with other group options through our employers, and will be switching as soon as humanly possible.
My oldest son was diagnosed with ADHD, and we watched the primary care provider’s (Dr. Nohle) interest level decline over a span of time. There was no proactive move on his part to help us get to the bottom of it when the medication trials were a giant train wreck, and he asked in our last office visit «why are we here today?»
Thankfully, we have gained traction now, but not since we bid adieu to Group Health. I had to start calling the shots. Both children have been through three hour appointments with an autism specialist in Issaquah, who has been more thorough in one conversation than Group Health was in almost a year. My youngest was accepted into the Lake Washington School District Special Needs preschool, and has a three year IEP in place.
Here’s what I want to publicly say to Group Health: Don’t collect hundreds of dollars per person in premium on a monthly basis, and then let your members down in an epic fashion. It’s not cool.

I like my psychiatrist a lot. She is really good with figuring out my my medications. She is always on point.

I am angry. Really, really angry.
I have been trying to be seen at this clinic since January. In January, I started a new job and worked until 5pm and didn’t get sick time until April. Did Group Health want to work with me to help me be seen after 5pm? No. I eventually skipped lunch and breaks one day and got into a 4pm appointment in at the end of February. YES. It took THAT long to be seen at 4pm.
So moving on, that doctor recommended I see a therapist — a specific therapist at their clinic. I told them a million times that their clinic is a bit too far and inconvenient for me to go during work and lunch hours and I’d rather go to someone closer to my work AFTER 5pm. They don’t make that easy though, so after trolling the internet trying to find someone close to work, I gave up and set up an appointment to see the therapist recommended to me at their clinic. I call and try to book the appointment, and the soonest I could get in was three weeks out at 3pm. I’m sorry but three weeks out is ridiculous. I am asking for help for a reason, right? I have legitimate concerns that should be in my medical record, but of course, nobody fucking cares yet again. I went ahead and scheduled that appointment, which would have been today, but instead, I get a call an hour before I had to leave saying the guy had a family emergency and I can’t go in. I ask when the soonest I could get in would be, and they say May 11. That is two weeks away. AKA now I have to wait five weeks to see somebody, or we could say five months if we want to count January when I initially asked this clinic to help me.
This center definitely is not about mental health because I am going crazy just dealing with them. I asked for help and they’re unwilling to give me any. I sure as hell hope they know their liability laws. It just really, really upsets me that there is absolutely no flexibility in this clinic, which seems to me to be a crucial thing necessary when running a mental health clinic.
Anyway. I think at the end of this year, I will be switching to Regence. Fuck you, Group Health. If you don’t give a shit about your patient, I don’t want to be a member. We’re through.