Week Six of our strike is off to a festive start. We had a lot of fun with our Where’s Waldo/Where’s Kaiser theme. Someone on the San Diego line even put a Greg Adams nametag on the fat cat. Check out more photos below.
In other picket line news, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria made his first visit on Friday. Telemundo sent a reporter to the Fontana line, where earlier in the day a Kaiser patient spoke in support of the strike. And supporters with the California Alliance for Retired Americans visited the Anaheim line and pledged to blast out information about the hardship fund to its members.
State investigation underway
A story last week by KPBS about the complaint we filed over Kaiser violating Medicare regulations by severely understaffing medical social workers in its hospice services appears to have fast-tracked an investigation. Initially, representatives with the California Department of Public Health said it would take a couple weeks to get inspectors to conduct an investigation, but after the report came out, inspectors arrived last week in Fontana and should be in San Diego shortly.
Another complaint drawing news interest
We issued a press release today about Kaiser protocols we obtained for cancelling appointments during the strike. The script for the clerical workers not only violates state law, it violates the inadequate contingency plan Kaiser submitted to state regulators for maintaining services during the strike.
Here are some lowlights:
- Kaiser’s contingency plan says it will place patients on waitlists for only two weeks. Kaiser’s internal procedures instruct its staff to place them 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 make no reference to performing risk assessments.
- 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 the timeliness standard. Kaiser’s internal procedures contain no discussion or instructions to clerical staff about warm transfers.
In the complaint, we asked the Department of Managed Health Care to “take urgent action to enforce California law and protect the rights of Kaiser enrollees to obtain timely and appropriate behavioral health care.”
News and Reminders
- No Picket lines this Thursday or Friday.
- The San Diego Labor Council has donated $10,000 to our hardship fund.
- Hardship fund applications are due by Friday at 11:59 p.m. for disbursement on the following Friday. You can find the official rules for disbursement here and the application form here.
Picket line photos
See the gallery of photos below, and see more on NUHW’s social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
