No negotiations scheduled this week. Workers to only walk picket lines Monday through Wednesday at 8 a.m. throughout Southern California.
Glendale, Calif – Kaiser Permanente’s written protocols for canceling patient appointments during the ongoing mental health strike in Southern California violates both state law and Kaiser’s own plan for maintaining mental health services for its 4.8 million members from San Diego to Bakersfield.
The protocols obtained by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents the nearly 2,400 striking Kaiser mental health therapists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and psychologists, is used by Kaiser’s clerical staff to call patients about scheduled appointments with therapists who are on strike.
In a complaint filed state regulators, NUHW states that the instructions contradict Kaiser’s contingency plan as well as state law:
- Kaiser’s contingency plan says it will place patients on waitlists for only two weeks. Kaiser’s internal procedures instruct its staff to place patients on waitlists for 30 days even though state law requires medically necessary follow-up appointments within two weeks.
- Kaiser’s contingency plan says clinical staff will perform a risk assessment of every patient following the second week of the strike. Kaiser’s internal procedures made no reference to performing risk assessments.
- Kaiser’s contingency plan says it will make three member outreach attempts to patients whose treatment appointments are being canceled. But, Kaiser’s internal procedures instruct clerical staff to make only two outreach attempts.
- Kaiser’s contingency plan says its clerical staff will perform a “warm transfer to a Kaiser crisis therapist for further assessment and/or escalation to clinical managers for clinically appropriate follow-up care” when Kaiser cannot offer an appointment within California’s timeliness standard. Kaiser’s internal procedures contain no discussion or instructions to clerical staff about warm transfers.
In addition, whistleblowers inside Kaiser are reporting that Kaiser is using the protocols to cancel appointments for patients with serious mental health conditions, who are at high risk of worsening psychiatric symptoms without timely and appropriate treatment.
“Kaiser’s actions are immoral and illegal,” NUHW President Emeritus Sal Rosselli said. “It’s deeply troubling that Kaiser not only has produced an inadequate plan to maintain mental health services during the strike, but is already violating its own procedures, leaving patients without legally mandated care.”
In the complaint filed last week with the California Department of Managed Health Care, NUHW Researcher Fred Seavey documented the violations and asked the agency to “take urgent action to enforce California law and protect the rights of Kaiser enrollees to obtain timely and appropriate behavioral health care.”
During a strike, Kaiser remains legally obligated to provide timely and appropriate care for all of the medically necessary behavioral health services required by its members. If care that normally would have been provided by striking workers must be replaced, and Kaiser cannot replace it in-network, then Kaiser must arrange to replace it with out-of-network care.
The plan Kaiser submitted to state regulators days before the start of the strike last month was barely over a page in length and lacked detailed information about how Kaiser would provide replacement services and how many workers it would find to provide it.
Kaiser’s plan contained far less detail than a plan Kaiser filed during the 10-week strike by mental health therapists in Northern California two years ago, during which Kaiser was cited by state regulators for canceling 111,803 appointments.
There will be no picket lines on Thursday or Friday of this week. Picket lines will begin at 8 a.m. and run through 2 p.m. Monday through Wednesday.
On Monday, workers will picketing be at the following locations:
- Los Angeles Medical Center, 4867 W. Sunset Blvd.
- San Diego Medical Center, 9455 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
- Fontana Medical Center, 9961 Sierra Ave., Fontana
- Anaheim Medical Center, 3440 East La Palma Ave., Anaheim
On Tuesday, workers will be picketing at the following locations:
- Riverside Medical Center, 10800 Magnolia Ave., Riverside
- Woodland Hills Medical Center, 5601 De Soto, Ave. Woodland Hills
- San Diego Medical Center, 9455 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
- Downey Medical Center, 9333 Imperial Highway, Downey
On Wednesday, workers will picketing be at the following locations:
- Alton/Sand Canyon Medical Offices, 6650 Alton Parkway, Irvine
- San Diego Medical Center, 9455 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
- Fontana Medical Center, 9961 Sierra Ave., Fontana
- Lancaster Medical Offices, 43112 15th St. W, Lancaster
- Baldwin Park Medical Center, 1011 Baldwin Park Blvd.
There will be a lunchtime rally with community and elected leaders at all strike locations. Click here for a full list of picket line locations and click here for a fact sheet about the strike.
# # #
The National Union of Healthcare Workers is a member-led movement that represents 19,000 healthcare workers in California and Hawai’i, including more than 4,700 Kaiser mental health professionals.
