Tell me about Oak Street Health

[aruzinsky]

Do they have an online messaging system that gives patients rapid access to test results?  Can appointments be made online?  (I dislike having phone conversations.) Do their PCPs like to pass the buck to specialists?  Do they offer covid and other shots at their facility or pass the buck to CVS and Walgreens?  Do they prescribe opioids or pass the buck to pain clinics?

[JuliaM377872]

Oak Street Healt (CVS) just paid a $60million dollar fine for fraud and kickbacks in steering Medicare people to this program.  The reviews are awful.  This company is not to be trusted and shame on AARP for endorsing them.

[GailL1]

@JuliaM377872 

That was in 2024 AND they “settled” - Sometimes companies settle in order to avoid higher legal cost going thru a trial.  

Justice.gov - 09/18/2024 - Oak Street Health Agrees to Pay $60M to Resolve Alleged False Claims Act ... 

from the link ~

Oak Street Health, headquartered in Chicago and a wholly-owned subsidiary of CVS Health since 2023, has agreed to pay $60 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by paying kickbacks to third-party insurance agents in exchange for recruiting seniors to Oak Street Health’s primary care clinics.

. . . . The civil settlement includes the resolution of claims brought under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by Joseph Stinson. Under those provisions, a private party can file an action on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of any recovery. The qui tam case is captioned U.S. ex rel. Stinson v. Oak Street Health, et al., No. 20-cv-7381 (N.D. Ill.). As part of today’s resolution, Mr. Stinson will receive $9.9 million.

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only. There has been no determination of liability.

—————————-

[end copy/paste from the link]

What reviews are you talking about ?

Are they still owned by CVS Health?  I don’t know.  Maybe the ratings vary by location.   I know many people that go to the ones in the metro areas around me.  They are what I would call high needs patients and they like Oak Street Health mainly because there are few other physicians in their area and it is convenient and responsive to their various needs, healthcare-wise and otherwise. 

[aruzinsky]

Now that I have first hand experience with Oak Street Health (OSH), I'm tempted to tell everybody what went wrong but decided against it because nobody will believe me.  But, I'll describe one thing because it's funny.  I dropped both OSH and my insurer, Wellcare, at the end of 2024.  But, I am still getting statements from Wellcare because, as late as April 2025, OSH is fraudulently billing Wellcare for services allegedly made in 2024. Most are from an agent of OHS called "Solutran, LLC,"  So, the statements say "$0.00 Plan's Share" and "$0.00 Your share."  

[CarolynBI]

The local to me Oak Street Health is horrific. As someone else said it probably varies by location. On site they were selling only Humana advantage plans (which I find ironic considering whom AARP is affiliated with so to speak). Compounding the situation is everyone else locally uses EPIC (mychart) and they use something else so that makes it harder for people when they need something other than a PCP.

[GailL1]

I believe Solutran is just a healthcare payment platform - and I think they are or were connected to the spendable cards (OTC) that some of the insurers were using for special MA plans - 

I don’t know how they worked but I do hear a good many complaints about the cards in how to use them, for what and how. 

Sure does seem weird that there are so many middle men between the provider and the beneficiary in some of these plans.

All theses various plans and programs, rewards and incentives get pretty confusing. 

Hope you get it worked out - and you are happy with your new insurer.

[GailL1]

I can’t really answer on the specifics but keep in mind that CVS owns Oak Street Health and then by that measure CVS owns Aetna and thus it’s also involved with Oak Street.  CVS has become a great(in size) Medicare player.

Oak Street Health is one of the several ACO REACH models.  It services both Traditional Medicare and some Medicare Advantage plans.  The goal of this type of model is to take care of the health needs of those on Medicare under a different payment method - paying based on outcomes rather than just fee for service or some rate negotiated with providers.

The way I understand the concept as a layperson is that the model is designed to be a good one-stop shopping for healthcare.  They may cover lots of other things that are related to health but not usually considered traditional healthcare.

They are suppose to focus on those who are in underserved areas, giving them access to good and complete care.  

Just from the concept it seems that the providers should have an incentive to service you well and pretty much in-house or with some services where they actually come to you.

I don’t know the answer to your specifics about opioids but as we have discussed earlier they probably are gonna discourage as much use of them as they can - However, under the concept, I would think that they would work closely with you on what’s is best.

I wish I could tell you more but I just don’t know - I wish I could tell you what to expect on a more personal level but I just don’t know - it is one of the newer model of value-based care and this type of care is really moving this year.

[led1958]

First medical practice to average 8 visits per year.  They do labs AFTER they diagnose and prescribe.  My After Visit Summary records my weight at 34kg  and bmi at 5.83.  A drug they prescribed for "restless leg syndrome" (I have neuropathy) should be for my husband who actually has the Parkinson's Disease it treats.   Every person in the reception line was given a 6 week calling card.   Our home hospice reports very sad Oak Street mismanaged cases recently-  one involving instruction to a healthy senior to transition to a nursing home, and the other an overly-drugged senior in a group home without glucose test strips and a cart filled with unnecessary CVS drugs.  She was completely isolated with blood glucose in the 300s until Home Health arrived to assess for adult protective services.  AARP is wrong to endorse a medical practice that meters out care over 8 visits per year and is well connected with opioid distributor CVS.  

[CarolynBI]

In this state (MS) Oak Street doesn't use any of the online electronic medical record systems that any of the hospitals use. This creates a huge problem when providers in other systems need access to your medical records (for example any specialist or your oak street primary care physician with respect to specialist care or hospitalization).

Also be very careful with their offers of free phones and tablets. They came to where I lived (HUD - they market primarily to medicare +Medicaid patients) and offered Lifeline phones and tablets. Unbeknownst to those of us who already had ACP (free internet) they also used our information from the Lifeline phone application to apply for ACP with the same off brand LifeLine carrier (TruConnect) and thus a bunch of us lost the ACP we had already. It took me 3 months and finally a Better Business complaint to get them to stop switching my ACP to TruConnect. I only succeeded in that as the letter they sent to the BBB was uploaded with someone's personal  office phone and email address (their customer support is otherwise in India, this person was in the USA). She finally solved my, and other people's problems. 

Here OakStreet also illegally sells advantage plans on site (they can sell them off site, just not in their clinic). If you go to one of their free food events you have to give them your medicare number, phone, etc. They then give that information to advantage plan insurance agents who call you over and over even when you tell them to stop and that you are on the no call list (it is legal to call you since you gave them the information up until you told them to stop). 

I'd be very, very careful signing up with them.