Kaiser Dermatologist for Full Body Skin Cancer Scan
Can anyone recommend a Kaiser dermatologist? I am looking for a doctor who will do a full body scan and make note of areas that look suspicious (pre-cancerous) and check those areas Yearly (or more often if necessary). Do doctors do this at Kaiser? If you have gone to Dermatologists in two or more different Kaisers, have you noticed a difference in the level of care and attention to detail? My mother had melanoma; so I am trying to be proactive so I don't end up suffering as she did. Recommendations for dermatologists practicing at Walnut Creek, Oakland and Richmond, as well as any Kaiser doctor in the greater Bay Area, would be fantastic! TIA.
Dec 14, 2017
Parent Replies
My Kaiser GP just did this, from stem to stern, as part of a regular checkup/physical. Just email your GP and ask for an appt.
Kaiser Oakland dermatology is excellent. They will do a full body scan. You may need to get a referral from your doctor to get an initial appointment but with your family history that should not be a problem. Doctor Moskowitz who is no longer in Oakland, caught a basal cell carcinoma on my face that was not even visible to the naked eye. Since he left I have been seeing Estelle Kahn who is great. I have also seen Dr. McKlowski (sp?)
I am in the same boat as you. I like to have regular full body checks because skin cancer runs in my family and I am fair skinned. My husband is a primary care physician at KP. He says that Kaiser (at least here) doesn't refer out to dermatologists for full body checks, but that your PCP can do a full body check. They should have a dermatoscope that they can use to take pictures of suspicious looking areas and send to Kaiser dermatologists for their opinion/diagnosis.
As the previous user mentioned, Kaiser dermatologists do not do skin checks. The primary care doctor does the skin check and then if necessary, she will call in whichever dermatologist is available to consult at the time. My primary care doctor said that I could request that a Kaiser dermatologist do my skin check instead, but she warned that they don’t have day-to-day experience with skin checks and mostly are called in by the primary care doctor to perform biopsies.
I have a parent who died of malignant melanoma, so I am considered high-risk for melanoma and I am supposed to get skin checks every 6 months. However, my Kaiser primary care doctor has only done one skin check in the past two years. Compared to the skin checks I’m used to getting from an actual dermatologist, my primary care doctor’s skin check was abbreviated and less than thorough. She did not check my scalp, genital region, or feet. She had me stand up instead of lie down during the skin check, so she had a close view of my upper body, but not my legs.
The bottom line in my opinion is that Kaiser does not take skin checks seriously. I plan to start paying out of pocket to have an actual dermatologist do my skin checks in the future.
I was very disappointed by how Kaiser handled my request for a full body scan. Like you and other respondents, I have a strong family history of skin cancer and every other doctor/health system I've had has recommended an annual skin check with a dermatologist. My primary care doc at Kaiser Oakland tried to refer me to dermatology and was told she needed to do the skin check, and could call the on-call derm to come in to consult. I felt that the check he did was very cursory and not nearly as thorough as I'm used to. Like one of the other respondents, I am considering paying out of pocket to go elsewhere, and would welcome recommendations on where to go if anyone has found a good alternative! I'm also curious if anyone has had experience paying out of pocket for a skin check, and then if there was anything suspicious, taking the report back to Kaiser for follow up. I'm concerned about going down a dark hole of out of pocket payments for procedures that really should be covered by Kaiser!