State legislators advance two mental health parity bills including legislation to help Kaiser Permanente patients get reimbursed for out-of-pocket mental health expenses
A mediation session was held Monday in the ongoing effort to settle the Southern California Kaiser Permanente Mental Health Strike that is now in its 192nd Day
SACRAMENTO — The Assembly Health Committee on Tuesday voted 12-1 to advance AB 1429, a bill authored by Assemblymember Dr. Jasmeet Bains, D-Delano, that would make it much easier for Kaiser patients to get fully reimbursed for out-of pocket mental health expenses, including therapy and medication, that they couldn’t get directly from Kaiser. The bill now heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
The requirement for Kaiser to streamline reimbursement mental health services provided by non-Kaiser providers or facilities would date back to May 1, 2022 remain in effect until the California Department of Managed Health Care certifies that Kaiser has successfully completed its plan to address numerous deficiencies in its mental health services cited in a 2023 Settlement Agreement that required the HMO to pay a $200 million penalty, including a record $50 million fine.
Because of Kaiser’s well-documented systemic failure to provide adequate behavioral health services, patients would qualify for reimbursement based solely on attesting in writing to Kaiser’s failure to provide necessary services and submitting their receipts and prescriptions for treatment from a non-Kaiser licensed mental health provider.
“This is not about penalizing Kaiser,” Dr. Bains said Tuesday while introducing the bill. “This is about upholding our commitment to mental health parity and ensuring all Californians can access the behavioral health care they need so vitally and deserve.”
Monica Whalen, a Los Angeles school teacher, testified during the hearing that she has spent more than $8,000 on therapy sessions for her child who was self-harming and having suicidal thoughts because Kaiser was only offering therapy appointments every six weeks or longer.
“I’m not alone,” Whalen told the committee members. “I know that other parents and patients have suffered after decades of Kaiser’s citations and fines.”
Kaiser has a long history of violating mental health laws and clinical standards. It was fined $4 million by California regulators in 2014 for denying members timely access to care, and fined $50 million in 2023, the largest fine in state history for violating multiple mental health laws. In agreeing to the fine, which was part of the $200 million Settlement Agreement, Kaiser acknowledged that “it lacks sufficient behavioral health providers” and that “This lack of clinical staff has resulted in excessive wait times for enrollee individual therapy appointments…”
Mediation is continuing in effort to settle strike
AB 1429 is sponsored by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, the union that represents nearly 5,000 Kaiser Permanente behavioral health workers in California and Hawaii. In Southern California, approximately 2,400 NUHW members, who include mental health therapists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and psychologists, have been on strike since October seeking provisions that would help Kaiser attract and retain more mental health workers.
Mediation facilitated by former California Health Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly and former Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg took place in person on Monday. The strike is now in its 192nd day.
State Senate Committee Advances Parity Bill
Also on Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 9-2 to advance another NUHW-sponsored bill, SB 747, that is aimed at advancing parity for mental health care. To get a better handle on the compensation disparity between behavioral health workers and comparable workers who provide medical/surgical care, SB 747 would require large health plans and medical groups to report compensation data for both classes of employees to the California Department of Industrial Relations. The bill, which is authored by State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, previously advanced out of the Senate Labor Committee last week and now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Currently, Kaiser Permanente pays its Southern California non-mental health workers, who have similar educational, licensure and patient care responsibilities, such as occupational therapists and physical therapists, up to 50 percent more than its mental health therapists, even as Kaiser claims there’s a shortage of mental health therapists.
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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.
