With NUHW sponsoring two mental health parity bills, more than fifty members converged on Sacramento for face-to-face meetings with state lawmakers.
More than fifty NUHW members from across California, including many Kaiser Permanente mental health workers from Southern California who just settled a 196-day strike, gathered in Sacramento on May 14 for NUHW Lobby Day.
The event coincided with Mental Health Matters Day at the state capitol, and NUHW members visited 62 legislators and their staff members to advocate for two NUHW-sponsored bills that would improve conditions for Californians providing and seeking mental health care.
“I feel really proud of the work we’re doing,” said Ligia Pacheco, a therapist for Kaiser in Los Angeles, who’s been back on the job for less than a week since the strike ended. “It’s hard to return to work after being on strike for so long. I’m honored by how many of my patients waited for me to return. I love working with them, but I love having the opportunity to advocate for the fundamental changes we need to establish real parity for mental health care.”
Legislators and mental health advocates showered the Southern California Kaiser workers with praise for their strike. Mental Health America of California Director Heidi Strunk thanked the workers for taking a stand and asked them to join her for a photograph during the official Mental Health Matters Day event at Capitol State Park.
Assemblymember Dr. Jasmeet Bains of Delano, who authored one of NUHW’s sponsored bills, addressed workers at the event, thanking the strikers for “standing your ground.” She added, “Thank you from this physician, and not just me, but from everyone who has suffered from mental illness.”
Bains is the author of AB 1429, an NUHW-sponsored bill that would make it much easier for Kaiser patients to get fully reimbursed for mental health treatment or medication that they couldn’t get directly from Kaiser. The requirement for Kaiser to reimburse members who simply attest in writing that they had to go outside of Kaiser to receive timely, appropriate mental health care or addiction medicine services would remain in effect until Kaiser can show state regulators that it has fixed the deficiencies in its behavioral health services for which it was required to pay a $200 million penalty in 2023.
NUHW’s other sponsored bill is SB 747, authored by State Senator Scott Wiener, of San Francisco. The bill is aimed at providing transparency about the disparity in compensation between behavioral health workers and comparable workers who provide medical/surgical care.
Health plans and large medical groups would have to report compensation data to the Department of Industrial Relations, so analysts can better understand the disparity in pay and consider what might be done to encourage more Californians to enter behavioral health professions. Currently, Kaiser pays occupational and physical therapists 20 to 50 percent more than mental health therapists even though the jobs require similar educational and licensing requirements.
Both bills have already advanced to the appropriations committees of their respective chambers, and legislators were receptive to hearing the first-hand experiences of NUHW-represented therapists.
With respect to helping patients get reimbursed for getting the care they need outside of Kaiser, State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez told therapists she’s heard concerns from Kaiser members about “being pushed into group therapy… when that’s not what the person is searching for.”
After meeting with Senator Pérez, Jessica Duran, a therapist with Kaiser in Los Angeles, said she was happy to be able to continue holding “Kaiser’s feet to the fire” following the strike.
“It’s really important to me that we continue the fight and have support from legislators in changing how Kaiser does business,” Duran said. Our visits were really successful. We got a lot of feedback and a lot of wonderful questions. The lawmakers we talked to were engaged and this should help us advance our bills and force more improvements from Kaiser in the coming year.”
