As Kaiser Permanente CEO Greg Adams prepared to address tech leaders and Trump Administration officials at the nation’s foremost health innovation conference earlier this month, Kaiser therapists were outside letting everyone know about the HMO’s long history of underfunding and understaffing behavioral health care.
More than a dozen therapists from California trekked to Las Vegas on October 21 to hand out leaflets and protest Adams’ remarks at the HLTH Conference inside the Venetian Expo Center.
It was the first in a series of actions in the fight to win good contracts in Northern California and Hawaii and to make Kaiser honor the terms of its recent contract for mental health professionals in Southern California, which came after a nearly seven-month strike.
“I can’t stand silently while Greg Adams allows Kaiser’s mental health services to be understaffed and under-resourced,” said Robynn Thomas, a therapist in Vacaville who participated in the protest. “If this is how he will listen, we will show up every time to support our colleagues and our patients.”
The therapists handed out hundreds of leaflets to conference attendees, and when security came to demand they leave, another group of therapists, as planned, dropped hundreds more from the second level of the hotel, fluttering down onto the main lobby.
The protest was one of the most ambitious actions taken by NUHW members at Kaiser, and it comes at a critical moment when the HMO is threatening to violate NUHW’s contract in Southern California and set the stage for layoffs in Northern California.
In Southern California, Kaiser is already preparing to violate a key provision of the contract, which provides full-time therapists with five fully protected hours to perform critical patient care duties that can’t be done during face-to-face appointments.
With the five hours of protected time slated to go into effect on November 3, Kaiser is imposing an unrealistic productivity measure that could only be reached if fewer than two patients per week canceled their therapy sessions. Therapists who fail to meet the metric could face punishment, even termination.
Kaiser’s goal is to pressure therapists to book patients into their protected time as a workaround to the contract it agreed to just months ago.
“What Kaiser is trying to do is dishonest and deceitful,” said Ligia Pacheco, a Kaiser therapist in Los Angeles. “We fought for that time because we need it to make sure patients get the spectrum of care they need from us, and we have the time we need to get our work done, and be fully present for our patients instead of just going from appointment to appointment.”
On October 25, therapists visited the Pasadena neighborhood of Dawn Gillam, Kaiser’s top mental health executive in Southern California, handing out leaflets with the headline “Dawn of the Dead,” warning that Kaiser would rather have zombie therapists with no time for breaks between therapy sessions than quality patient care.
There is even more at stake in Northern California, where therapists have started tabling outside their clinics to talk to patients about Kaiser’s proposals in contract bargaining that could potentially lead to further outsourcing of mental health care and replacing therapists with artificial intelligence.
- In previous contracts, Kaiser had agreed that contracting with outside therapists would “not result in the elimination” of jobs held by Kaiser therapists. However, Kaiser is now proposing that using non-Kaiser therapists may result in laying off Kaiser therapists and even details the severance packages for any therapists who are laid off.
- In the recent Southern California contract, Kaiser agreed that the use of new technologies, including artificial intelligence, “is not to replace but to assist bargaining unit employees in providing safe therapeutic and effective patient care and support.” However, Kaiser, which is investing millions in AI mental health initiatives, is now proposing to eliminate the language about new technology not replacing workers for the Northern California contract.
“These proposals would open the door for Kaiser to lay off therapists, push patients into AI-based protocols, and further outsource care,” said Jennifer Browning, a social worker for Kaiser in the Sacramento region and a member of the union’s bargaining team.
Browning continued: “We asked Kaiser point blank about removing language that new technology won’t replace workers, and they said they wanted to maintain ‘flexibility.’ As therapists, we want the flexibility to treat Kaiser patients in a way that best meets their needs, but Kaiser wants the flexibility to lay off its therapists.”
That’s not all Kaiser is proposing. Kaiser has proposals that would undo patient care safeguards that therapists secured in previous contracts, including:
- Sufficient time to respond to patients and coordinate care.
- Ratios that help existing patients get timely follow-up therapy appointments.
- Model of Care committees where therapists and managers have worked together to improve patient care.
“I love my patients, and it makes me so upset to see them lied to and disrespected,” said Hilary Foster, a Kaiser therapist who also participated in the Las Vegas protest. “Kaiser pretends to put patients first, but actions speak louder than words. It’s inhumane to put patients at risk in order to make more money.”
