More than 2,000 Kaiser mental health professionals could go on strike Monday

More than 2,000 unionized psychologists, therapists and other mental health professionals at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California are preparing to strike Monday amid complaints that the massive system has failed to address problems with how it provides mental health care.

The planned walkout falls one year after Kaiser reached a sweeping settlement with California regulators, who faulted it for failing to ensure timely access to mental health care. The agreement required the health plan to pay $50 million in penalties and invest $150 million over five years in improvements.

Under the agreement, Kaiser acknowledged it didn’t have enough mental health care providers, which “resulted in excessive wait times” for therapy.

The health care organization says that in recent years, it has invested more than $1 billion in mental health, expanding its Southern California mental health workforce by more than 30% in four years.

But the National Union of Healthcare Workers said Kaiser hasn’t fixed the problems. Union surveys of the Kaiser mental health workers it represents in Southern California found 62% said their departments lacked enough staff to provide timely and appropriate care, while 71% said they regularly had to work beyond normal hours.

At the bargaining table, the union has pushed for better pay and benefits, including raises totaling more than 30% over four years. Doing so, NUHW leaders said, would reduce turnover and help bring their compensation in line with other kinds of Kaiser professionals after pay freezes in the past.

Union members also want more time to handle duties outside of therapy appointments: NUHW said that in Southern California, Kaiser therapists are guaranteed as little as two hours a week to handle responsibilities such as preparing treatment plans or responding to patient emails, much less than in Northern California.

Members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers make signs for a potential strike on Monday.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

“We have voiced our concern about how therapy at Kaiser feels like an assembly line,” said Kassaundra Gutierrez-Thompson, a Los Angeles-based psychiatric counselor who is on the bargaining committee. At its existing level of staffing, “the result is burnt-out therapists and patients who just get the short end of the stick.”

Union officials said that based on Kaiser data, a quarter of mental health professionals hired in recent years in Southern California had left — many of them within just a year. NUHW argued that the revolving door interrupts treatment for Kaiser patients who have built trusting relationships with their therapists.

Kaiser countered that its current attrition was under 10% and “well below the industry average.” The health care organization said wages for such workers were already above market rates, but that it had offered raises at the bargaining table totaling more than 18%, as well as more time for duties outside appointments. In a statement, it accused the NUHW of “slow walking” negotiations.

“We do not feel that a strike is necessary. We don’t think it’s good for our members. And we think that we can reach agreement without a work stoppage,” said Rhonda Chabran, vice president of behavioral health and wellness for Kaiser Permanente in Southern California and Hawaii.

The clash comes two years after Kaiser mental health therapists in Northern California went on strike for 10 weeks. NUHW officials said after that walkout, Northern California clinicians secured more time for duties outside of patient appointments and won other provisions that had improved staffing and services.