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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11963152/looming-kaiser-strike-could-delay-covid-flu-shots\">Tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente health care workers across six states went on strike\u003c/a> this morning — including in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2023/10/kaiser-strike-at-california-hospitals-october/\">Kaiser controls half of California’s private insurance market\u003c/a>, and has more than 9.4 million members across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So if you’re a Kaiser patient, keep reading for what you need to know about the strike, who’s likely to be impacted and which medical services from Kaiser will be affected during this time.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How long would a Kaiser strike last?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Right now, the Kaiser strike in California is anticipated to last at least three days. It began at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 4, and is expected to end at 6 a.m. on Saturday Oct. 7.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Who is on strike at Kaiser?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Nearly 75,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers across six states, including California, went on strike today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The strike impacts nearly 68,000 Kaiser employees in California — 22,650 of which are in the Bay Area, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11963152/looming-kaiser-strike-could-delay-covid-flu-shots\">according to the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union coalition says that jobs affected by the Kaiser strike will include: licensed vocational nurses, emergency department technicians, radiology technicians, ultrasound sonographers, teleservice representatives, respiratory therapists, x-ray technicians, certified nursing assistants, dietary services, behavioral health workers, surgical technicians, pharmacy technicians, transporters, home health aides, phlebotomists, medical assistants, and housekeepers, “among hundreds of other positions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What Kaiser services \u003cem>won’t\u003c/em> be affected by a strike?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Neither the nurses union nor Kaiser’s physicians will be on strike, according to a statement Kaiser emailed to KQED, which also confirms that hospitals and emergency departments will remain open during any strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hospital pharmacies for inpatient care and critical infusion services will remain in operation” as well, according to the statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our facilities will be staffed by our physicians, trained and experienced managers and staff, and in some cases, we will augment with licensed and qualified contract staff,” said the statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You should not let any potential strike delay you from seeking care for a health emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='kaiser-permanente']\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What Kaiser services will be affected by a strike?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>If you already have an appointment with Kaiser …\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser said in its statement to KQED that during the strike, “in consultation with our physicians, we may need to reschedule certain non-urgent appointments and procedures, as long as that is appropriate and safe for the patient.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have an existing appointment that’ll fall during the strike, Kaiser’s statement said the health system will “contact any patient affected by the strike in advance if necessary and work with them to reschedule their appointments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no need for you to call or email your doctor’s office yourself, according to Kaiser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>If you need a laboratory, radiology or optical service …\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of our laboratory, radiology, and optical locations may be temporarily closed or operating with reduced hours during the strike,” said Kaiser. The company advises you to\u003ca href=\"https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/northern-california/front-door\"> schedule an appointment online\u003c/a> or via the KP mobile app.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What if you need lab work, radiology or optical services urgently? In this scenario, Kaiser advises that you call their Appointment and Advice Call Center at 1-866-454-8855 (TTY 711), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a result of the strike, we may experience high call volumes resulting in longer than usual wait times,” notes Kaiser’s statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>If you’re looking for a COVID or flu shot …\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some COVID-19 and flu vaccine services may be affected if a strike occurs,” Kaiser representatives told KQED in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re looking for either a COVID or flu shot ASAP during the strike, you can still find one at a pharmacy near you — but you’ll likely have to pay for it. Usually, if you have health insurance you should be able to give your insurer’s details at a pharmacy vaccination appointment to have the cost of your shot billed to them, but health systems like Kaiser are the exception to this, and so you almost certainly won’t be able to get your new COVID vaccine — or flu shot — at a pharmacy like CVS or Walgreens. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11960630/free-new-covid-vaccine-near-me-2023#kaisernewcovidvaccine\">Read more about finding a new COVID vaccine near you.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11960630]\u003cstrong>If you need a prescription … \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser’s statement said that “some of our outpatient pharmacies” would be closed or operating on reduced hours in the event of a strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What if you have a new, urgent prescription need? Kaiser says that you should use your nearest open Kaiser Permanente Pharmacy for these, and that\u003ca href=\"https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/northern-california/front-door\"> a list of open Kaiser pharmacies will be posted on the health system’s website “Tuesday evening.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our physicians and our Pharmacy representatives at each of our sites and in the Pharmacy Call Center will work with patients to ensure they get the medications they need,” said Kaiser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can also use Kaiser’s mail-order delivery “for most convenient services, which delivers medications in 3 to 5 business days with no shipping fee,” according to the health system’s statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser’s hospital inpatient pharmacies will remain open, according to the health system, but Kaiser will look at “expanding” their network of pharmacies “to include community pharmacies that can serve our members during a strike and mitigate any closure of our outpatient pharmacies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What Kaiser services \u003cem>won’t\u003c/em> be affected by a strike?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Neither the nurses union nor Kaiser’s physicians will be on strike, according to a statement Kaiser emailed to KQED, which also confirms that hospitals and emergency departments will remain open during any strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hospital pharmacies for inpatient care and critical infusion services will remain in operation” as well, according to the statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our facilities will be staffed by our physicians, trained and experienced managers and staff, and in some cases, we will augment with licensed and qualified contract staff,” said the statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You should not let any potential strike delay you from seeking care for a health emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What Kaiser services will be affected by a strike?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>If you already have an appointment with Kaiser …\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser said in its statement to KQED that during the strike, “in consultation with our physicians, we may need to reschedule certain non-urgent appointments and procedures, as long as that is appropriate and safe for the patient.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have an existing appointment that’ll fall during the strike, Kaiser’s statement said the health system will “contact any patient affected by the strike in advance if necessary and work with them to reschedule their appointments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no need for you to call or email your doctor’s office yourself, according to Kaiser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>If you need a laboratory, radiology or optical service …\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of our laboratory, radiology, and optical locations may be temporarily closed or operating with reduced hours during the strike,” said Kaiser. The company advises you to\u003ca href=\"https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/northern-california/front-door\"> schedule an appointment online\u003c/a> or via the KP mobile app.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What if you need lab work, radiology or optical services urgently? In this scenario, Kaiser advises that you call their Appointment and Advice Call Center at 1-866-454-8855 (TTY 711), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a result of the strike, we may experience high call volumes resulting in longer than usual wait times,” notes Kaiser’s statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>If you’re looking for a COVID or flu shot …\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some COVID-19 and flu vaccine services may be affected if a strike occurs,” Kaiser representatives told KQED in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re looking for either a COVID or flu shot ASAP during the strike, you can still find one at a pharmacy near you — but you’ll likely have to pay for it. Usually, if you have health insurance you should be able to give your insurer’s details at a pharmacy vaccination appointment to have the cost of your shot billed to them, but health systems like Kaiser are the exception to this, and so you almost certainly won’t be able to get your new COVID vaccine — or flu shot — at a pharmacy like CVS or Walgreens. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11960630/free-new-covid-vaccine-near-me-2023#kaisernewcovidvaccine\">Read more about finding a new COVID vaccine near you.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cstrong>If you need a prescription … \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser’s statement said that “some of our outpatient pharmacies” would be closed or operating on reduced hours in the event of a strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What if you have a new, urgent prescription need? Kaiser says that you should use your nearest open Kaiser Permanente Pharmacy for these, and that\u003ca href=\"https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/northern-california/front-door\"> a list of open Kaiser pharmacies will be posted on the health system’s website “Tuesday evening.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our physicians and our Pharmacy representatives at each of our sites and in the Pharmacy Call Center will work with patients to ensure they get the medications they need,” said Kaiser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can also use Kaiser’s mail-order delivery “for most convenient services, which delivers medications in 3 to 5 business days with no shipping fee,” according to the health system’s statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser’s hospital inpatient pharmacies will remain open, according to the health system, but Kaiser will look at “expanding” their network of pharmacies “to include community pharmacies that can serve our members during a strike and mitigate any closure of our outpatient pharmacies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Nearly 75,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers across six states, including California, plan to strike beginning Oct. 4 if ongoing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961243/california-kaiser-workers-authorize-strike-as-contract-negotiations-continue\">contract negotiations\u003c/a> don’t result in an agreement very soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The impending strike, which could be the largest health care strike in U.S. history, would impact nearly 68,000 employees in California — ranging from optometrists to emergency room technicians and housekeeping workers — for at least three days. While Kaiser is prepared to continue most health services, a strike could impact some care needs, including COVID vaccines and flu shots, Kaiser representatives told KQED in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s going to be some disruption to care that’s not urgent,” Janet Coffman, professor at the Healthforce Center at UCSF, told KQED. “The bigger issue is how long the strike will be. If it goes beyond three days, then I think we are looking at more disruptions and more difficulties for people to get the COVID-19 vaccine and other care services they need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, employees represented by Kaiser’s coalition of labor unions \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961243/california-kaiser-workers-authorize-strike-as-contract-negotiations-continue\">overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike\u003c/a> if a deal was not reached by Sept. 30, when their contract expired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Savonnda Blaylock, Kaiser pharmacy technician\"]‘We are suffering. We have had a lot of people leave during and after the pandemic. Unfortunately, those physicians have not been replaced and we don’t know if they will ever be replaced.’[/pullquote]The Coalition began bargaining in April. As of Oct. 2, a new contract had not yet been reached and negotiations are ongoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting Wednesday, Kaiser employees plan to picket outside facilities across the Bay Area, including in Antioch, Fremont, Oakland, Richmond, Redwood City, San Francisco, South San Francisco, San José, San Leandro, Santa Clara, Walnut Creek, Vacaville, Manteca, Roseville, Santa Rosa and Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Understaffing and wages are two issues Kaiser workers say they are most concerned about as negotiations continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Savonnda Blaylock, a pharmacy technician at Kaiser in Tracy, helps order flu and COVID vaccines for her facility. But due to staffing shortages, she said patients already face delays in order to receive shots that they need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are suffering. We have had a lot of people leave during and after the pandemic. Unfortunately, those physicians have not been replaced and we don’t know if they will ever be replaced,” Blaylock told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Patients are having very long delays in care where they can’t get the vaccines they need, they can’t come in to see their physicians, because we don’t have physicians for them to be seen. That’s where the lapse in care comes, and where we are not able to accommodate patients,” said Blaylock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another factor impacting vaccine availability, however, is the fact that Kaiser in California just recently received its supply of doses in the last two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since the FDA authorized the updated COVID-19 vaccine, large-scale distribution has been a challenge for vaccine providers nationwide, including Kaiser Permanente,” a spokesperson for Kaiser said in an email. “However, we have now received our supply and expect a consistent supply of the vaccine going forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, the COVID-19 vaccine is available by walk-in at some Kaiser locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless of the looming strike, the slow rollout for the COVID-19 vaccine this year has had many people clamoring to secure vaccine appointments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, other pharmacies are gearing up to take on additional patients who are seeking vaccines if they can’t get them through Kaiser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are committed to ensuring no patient pays and everyone who is eligible and wants a vaccine receives one,” a spokesperson for Walgreens told KQED in an email statement. “We encourage everyone to bring insurance information to their appointment if available but will not turn away those whose insurance does not cover it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside tag=\"kaiser, healthcare, health\" label=\"Related Stories\"]Kaiser is the largest private, nonprofit, health care organization in the U.S., serving more than nine million people in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Based on similar labor disputes and strikes at Kaiser and other health care giants, Coffman of UCSF said it’s possible that elective surgeries like knee and hip replacements and other non-emergency health care services could be impacted if a strike goes beyond this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We call them elective, but often for the people who are getting them, they’ve been in pain for quite some time and further delay just exacerbates that,” Coffman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser workers in California — as well as in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Virginia and Washington, D.C. — are demanding their employer increase staffing. Workers are pushing for a 7% wage increase in the first two years of a new contract, and a 6.25% increase the following two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Employees are also seeking to raise the minimum wage across the board to $26 by 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a recent proposal, Kaiser offered across-the-board wage increases of between 10%–14% over four years, as well as a minimum performance bonus aimed to prevent any employees from receiving no payout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser also recently offered a $23 per hour minimum wage for its employees in California starting in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We lead total compensation in every market where we operate, and our proposals in bargaining would ensure we keep that position,” a spokesperson for Kaiser said in an email. “In some places, a Kaiser Permanente employee leaving for a similar job at another organization would face a 20-plus percent pay cut, and lower benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the California Legislature recently passed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB525\">a state bill\u003c/a> that would boost all California health care workers’ minimum wages to $25 per hour. The bill is now awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature also recently approved a bill providing unemployment insurance benefits to workers on strike — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11963061/newsom-rejects-bill-to-give-unemployment-checks-to-striking-workers\">but Newsom vetoed that bill on Saturday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most recent Kaiser strike comes a year after nearly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11929713/kaiser-mental-health-workers-appove-new-contract-ending-10-week-strike\">2,000 Kaiser mental health care workers in Northern California went on strike last year for 10 weeks\u003c/a> over many of the same staffing and pay issues that workers today are protesting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just want Kaiser to end the short staffing crisis,” said Blaylock, the Kaiser pharmacy technician. “It can happen at the click of the fingers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Nearly 75,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers across six states, including California, plan to strike beginning Oct. 4 if ongoing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961243/california-kaiser-workers-authorize-strike-as-contract-negotiations-continue\">contract negotiations\u003c/a> don’t result in an agreement very soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The impending strike, which could be the largest health care strike in U.S. history, would impact nearly 68,000 employees in California — ranging from optometrists to emergency room technicians and housekeeping workers — for at least three days. While Kaiser is prepared to continue most health services, a strike could impact some care needs, including COVID vaccines and flu shots, Kaiser representatives told KQED in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s going to be some disruption to care that’s not urgent,” Janet Coffman, professor at the Healthforce Center at UCSF, told KQED. “The bigger issue is how long the strike will be. If it goes beyond three days, then I think we are looking at more disruptions and more difficulties for people to get the COVID-19 vaccine and other care services they need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, employees represented by Kaiser’s coalition of labor unions \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961243/california-kaiser-workers-authorize-strike-as-contract-negotiations-continue\">overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike\u003c/a> if a deal was not reached by Sept. 30, when their contract expired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The Coalition began bargaining in April. As of Oct. 2, a new contract had not yet been reached and negotiations are ongoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting Wednesday, Kaiser employees plan to picket outside facilities across the Bay Area, including in Antioch, Fremont, Oakland, Richmond, Redwood City, San Francisco, South San Francisco, San José, San Leandro, Santa Clara, Walnut Creek, Vacaville, Manteca, Roseville, Santa Rosa and Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Understaffing and wages are two issues Kaiser workers say they are most concerned about as negotiations continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Savonnda Blaylock, a pharmacy technician at Kaiser in Tracy, helps order flu and COVID vaccines for her facility. But due to staffing shortages, she said patients already face delays in order to receive shots that they need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are suffering. We have had a lot of people leave during and after the pandemic. Unfortunately, those physicians have not been replaced and we don’t know if they will ever be replaced,” Blaylock told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Patients are having very long delays in care where they can’t get the vaccines they need, they can’t come in to see their physicians, because we don’t have physicians for them to be seen. That’s where the lapse in care comes, and where we are not able to accommodate patients,” said Blaylock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another factor impacting vaccine availability, however, is the fact that Kaiser in California just recently received its supply of doses in the last two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since the FDA authorized the updated COVID-19 vaccine, large-scale distribution has been a challenge for vaccine providers nationwide, including Kaiser Permanente,” a spokesperson for Kaiser said in an email. “However, we have now received our supply and expect a consistent supply of the vaccine going forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, the COVID-19 vaccine is available by walk-in at some Kaiser locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless of the looming strike, the slow rollout for the COVID-19 vaccine this year has had many people clamoring to secure vaccine appointments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, other pharmacies are gearing up to take on additional patients who are seeking vaccines if they can’t get them through Kaiser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are committed to ensuring no patient pays and everyone who is eligible and wants a vaccine receives one,” a spokesperson for Walgreens told KQED in an email statement. “We encourage everyone to bring insurance information to their appointment if available but will not turn away those whose insurance does not cover it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kaiser is the largest private, nonprofit, health care organization in the U.S., serving more than nine million people in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Based on similar labor disputes and strikes at Kaiser and other health care giants, Coffman of UCSF said it’s possible that elective surgeries like knee and hip replacements and other non-emergency health care services could be impacted if a strike goes beyond this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We call them elective, but often for the people who are getting them, they’ve been in pain for quite some time and further delay just exacerbates that,” Coffman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser workers in California — as well as in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Virginia and Washington, D.C. — are demanding their employer increase staffing. Workers are pushing for a 7% wage increase in the first two years of a new contract, and a 6.25% increase the following two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Employees are also seeking to raise the minimum wage across the board to $26 by 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a recent proposal, Kaiser offered across-the-board wage increases of between 10%–14% over four years, as well as a minimum performance bonus aimed to prevent any employees from receiving no payout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser also recently offered a $23 per hour minimum wage for its employees in California starting in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We lead total compensation in every market where we operate, and our proposals in bargaining would ensure we keep that position,” a spokesperson for Kaiser said in an email. “In some places, a Kaiser Permanente employee leaving for a similar job at another organization would face a 20-plus percent pay cut, and lower benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the California Legislature recently passed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB525\">a state bill\u003c/a> that would boost all California health care workers’ minimum wages to $25 per hour. The bill is now awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature also recently approved a bill providing unemployment insurance benefits to workers on strike — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11963061/newsom-rejects-bill-to-give-unemployment-checks-to-striking-workers\">but Newsom vetoed that bill on Saturday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most recent Kaiser strike comes a year after nearly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11929713/kaiser-mental-health-workers-appove-new-contract-ending-10-week-strike\">2,000 Kaiser mental health care workers in Northern California went on strike last year for 10 weeks\u003c/a> over many of the same staffing and pay issues that workers today are protesting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just want Kaiser to end the short staffing crisis,” said Blaylock, the Kaiser pharmacy technician. “It can happen at the click of the fingers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Nearly 60,000 Kaiser Permanente workers, mostly based in California, voted overwhelming in favor of going on strike if a fair contract agreement is not reached by the end of September, setting the stage for what could be the largest health care industry walkout in U.S. history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The strike authorization was supported by 98% of Kaiser workers — ranging from lab technicians to respiratory therapists to cooking staff — who are represented by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, the union announced Thursday. It comes amid ongoing worker demands for significant pay raises and more robust staffing, as Kaiser and other large health care providers continue to struggle with severe understaffing and strained caseloads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Being understaffed and being not appropriately compensated for the amount of work that they put on our plate, we had no choice but to collectively agree to authorize a strike,” said Rashaad Pritchett, who works as housekeeping aide at a Kaiser facility in Richmond, where he cleans and sanitizes operating rooms and other sensitive health space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11957005,news_11947640 label='The Healthcare Staffing Crisis']Born and raised in Richmond, Pritchett says his wages have failed to keep pace with inflation and the rising cost of living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the next four years, we want to make sure that we will have livable wages. At the end of our career we want to make sure that we will be taken care of,” said Pritchett. “We are all fighting for what we believe is right. It’s not a vindictive approach, but it’s like, ‘OK, you have forced our collective bargaining hand.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers argue that staffing levels have sunk dangerously low as many practitioners have left the field because of burnout. Kaiser workers are calling on their employer to increase staffing levels in order to reduce workloads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The workers — some of whom are based in Oregon and Washington — are pushing for a 7% wage increase in the first two years of this next contract, and a 6.25% increase the following two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its proposal, Kaiser offered across-the-board wage increases of between 10–14% over four years, as well as a minimum performance bonus aimed to prevent any employees from receiving no payout. Kaiser also offered a blanket $21 per hour minimum wage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But union leaders last week rejected the company’s most recent offer. They said the new minimum would limit performance bonuses for frontline workers, arguing that will only result in increased turnover, further straining the workforce and diminishing the quality of care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union is also seeking a $25 per hour minimum wage for employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That pay bump would align with \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB525\">a California bill\u003c/a> currently making its way through the Legislature that would increase all California health care workers’ minimum wage to $25 per hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature also recently approved a bill that would provide unemployment insurance benefits to workers on strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Nahid Bokaee, a Kaiser pharmacist\"]‘Our patients expect more from a health care system that reported $3 billion in profits in the first half of this year alone, and so do we.’[/pullquote]“Every one of these proposals from Kaiser will make staffing problems worse and continue to delay care to patients,” Dave Regan, president of SEIU-UHW, said in a press release announcing the vote. “Kaiser has failed to bargain in good faith with the caregivers, who are doing everything they can to protect patient safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser insists that it has continued to bargain in good faith. In an email, Kaiser refuted many of the claims the union made about their proposal. The company also pointed to rising costs for drugs, supplies and labor due to inflation, which has been “driving up the cost of health care as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the impasse, representatives for the Oakland-based health care giant said they are “confident” a deal can be reached by Sept. 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have two more bargaining sessions scheduled for next week. Our priority is to reach an agreement that ensures we can continue to provide market-competitive pay and outstanding benefits,” a spokesperson for Kaiser said in an email to KQED. “We are confident we’ll reach an agreement before the national agreement expires on Sept. 30 that strengthens our position as a best place to work and ensures that the high-quality care our members expect from us remains affordable and easy to access.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.unioncoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2022-04_Report_Staffing-Survey-10.1_DIGITAL.pdf?emci=11db37e0-b5df-ed11-8e8b-00224832eb73&emdi=ea000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&ceid=%7B%7BContactsEmailID%7D%7D\">union-led survey (PDF)\u003c/a> of about 33,000 Kaiser workers, more than 80% of respondents said they were in understaffed departments, and 65% said they had seen care delayed or denied to patients due to those staffing challenges. Nearly half said they regularly have to skip meals or breaks to keep up with their workloads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our patients expect more from a health care system that reported $3 billion in profits in the first half of this year alone, and so do we,” Nahid Bokaee, a Kaiser pharmacist in Sterling, Virginia, said in a recent press release about the looming strike vote. “Kaiser can afford to end this dangerous understaffing, but they choose not to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company claims it has filled 8,700 of the 10,000 positions it has committed to fill by the end of 2023.[aside postID=news_11960517 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/GettyImages-1668439446-1020x683.jpg']The union representing Kaiser employees in California is part of the broader Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which represents about 88,000 employees in seven states, including Colorado, Oregon and Washington, \u003ca href=\"https://www.koin.com/news/union-announces-overwhelming-support-for-kaiser-permanente-strike-authorization/\">where local unions have also recently approved going on strike\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest strike authorization vote comes amid an uptick in labor actions across the country, particularly within the health care industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11929713/kaiser-mental-health-workers-appove-new-contract-ending-10-week-strike\">2,000 Kaiser mental health care workers in Northern California went on strike last year for 10 weeks\u003c/a> over many of the same staffing and pay issues that workers today are protesting. Earlier this month, \u003ca href=\"https://ktla.com/news/california/23-health-care-workers-arrested-after-protesting-outside-kaiser-permanente-in-hollywood/\">23 health care workers were arrested\u003c/a> while protesting outside a Kaiser hospital in Hollywood. Nurses in Minnesota \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minnesota-nurses-strike-vote-2nd-time-2022-minnesota-nurses-association/\">voted twice\u003c/a> but ultimately avoided a strike in 2022, citing low pay and rapid turnover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED reporter Farida Jhabvala Romero contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Nearly 60,000 Kaiser Permanente workers, mostly based in California, voted overwhelming in favor of going on strike if a fair contract agreement is not reached by the end of September, setting the stage for what could be the largest health care industry walkout in U.S. history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The strike authorization was supported by 98% of Kaiser workers — ranging from lab technicians to respiratory therapists to cooking staff — who are represented by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, the union announced Thursday. It comes amid ongoing worker demands for significant pay raises and more robust staffing, as Kaiser and other large health care providers continue to struggle with severe understaffing and strained caseloads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Being understaffed and being not appropriately compensated for the amount of work that they put on our plate, we had no choice but to collectively agree to authorize a strike,” said Rashaad Pritchett, who works as housekeeping aide at a Kaiser facility in Richmond, where he cleans and sanitizes operating rooms and other sensitive health space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Born and raised in Richmond, Pritchett says his wages have failed to keep pace with inflation and the rising cost of living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the next four years, we want to make sure that we will have livable wages. At the end of our career we want to make sure that we will be taken care of,” said Pritchett. “We are all fighting for what we believe is right. It’s not a vindictive approach, but it’s like, ‘OK, you have forced our collective bargaining hand.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers argue that staffing levels have sunk dangerously low as many practitioners have left the field because of burnout. Kaiser workers are calling on their employer to increase staffing levels in order to reduce workloads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The workers — some of whom are based in Oregon and Washington — are pushing for a 7% wage increase in the first two years of this next contract, and a 6.25% increase the following two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its proposal, Kaiser offered across-the-board wage increases of between 10–14% over four years, as well as a minimum performance bonus aimed to prevent any employees from receiving no payout. Kaiser also offered a blanket $21 per hour minimum wage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But union leaders last week rejected the company’s most recent offer. They said the new minimum would limit performance bonuses for frontline workers, arguing that will only result in increased turnover, further straining the workforce and diminishing the quality of care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union is also seeking a $25 per hour minimum wage for employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That pay bump would align with \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB525\">a California bill\u003c/a> currently making its way through the Legislature that would increase all California health care workers’ minimum wage to $25 per hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature also recently approved a bill that would provide unemployment insurance benefits to workers on strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Every one of these proposals from Kaiser will make staffing problems worse and continue to delay care to patients,” Dave Regan, president of SEIU-UHW, said in a press release announcing the vote. “Kaiser has failed to bargain in good faith with the caregivers, who are doing everything they can to protect patient safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser insists that it has continued to bargain in good faith. In an email, Kaiser refuted many of the claims the union made about their proposal. The company also pointed to rising costs for drugs, supplies and labor due to inflation, which has been “driving up the cost of health care as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the impasse, representatives for the Oakland-based health care giant said they are “confident” a deal can be reached by Sept. 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have two more bargaining sessions scheduled for next week. Our priority is to reach an agreement that ensures we can continue to provide market-competitive pay and outstanding benefits,” a spokesperson for Kaiser said in an email to KQED. “We are confident we’ll reach an agreement before the national agreement expires on Sept. 30 that strengthens our position as a best place to work and ensures that the high-quality care our members expect from us remains affordable and easy to access.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.unioncoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2022-04_Report_Staffing-Survey-10.1_DIGITAL.pdf?emci=11db37e0-b5df-ed11-8e8b-00224832eb73&emdi=ea000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&ceid=%7B%7BContactsEmailID%7D%7D\">union-led survey (PDF)\u003c/a> of about 33,000 Kaiser workers, more than 80% of respondents said they were in understaffed departments, and 65% said they had seen care delayed or denied to patients due to those staffing challenges. Nearly half said they regularly have to skip meals or breaks to keep up with their workloads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our patients expect more from a health care system that reported $3 billion in profits in the first half of this year alone, and so do we,” Nahid Bokaee, a Kaiser pharmacist in Sterling, Virginia, said in a recent press release about the looming strike vote. “Kaiser can afford to end this dangerous understaffing, but they choose not to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company claims it has filled 8,700 of the 10,000 positions it has committed to fill by the end of 2023.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The union representing Kaiser employees in California is part of the broader Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which represents about 88,000 employees in seven states, including Colorado, Oregon and Washington, \u003ca href=\"https://www.koin.com/news/union-announces-overwhelming-support-for-kaiser-permanente-strike-authorization/\">where local unions have also recently approved going on strike\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest strike authorization vote comes amid an uptick in labor actions across the country, particularly within the health care industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11929713/kaiser-mental-health-workers-appove-new-contract-ending-10-week-strike\">2,000 Kaiser mental health care workers in Northern California went on strike last year for 10 weeks\u003c/a> over many of the same staffing and pay issues that workers today are protesting. Earlier this month, \u003ca href=\"https://ktla.com/news/california/23-health-care-workers-arrested-after-protesting-outside-kaiser-permanente-in-hollywood/\">23 health care workers were arrested\u003c/a> while protesting outside a Kaiser hospital in Hollywood. Nurses in Minnesota \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minnesota-nurses-strike-vote-2nd-time-2022-minnesota-nurses-association/\">voted twice\u003c/a> but ultimately avoided a strike in 2022, citing low pay and rapid turnover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED reporter Farida Jhabvala Romero contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Kaiser Permanente has agreed to pay $49 million as part of a settlement with California prosecutors who say the health care giant illegally disposed of thousands of private medical records, hazardous materials and medical waste, including blood and body parts, in dumpsters headed to local landfills, authorities said Friday\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors started an investigation in 2015 after undercover trash inspectors found pharmaceutical drugs, and syringes, vials, canisters and other medical devices filled with human blood and other bodily fluids, and body parts removed during surgery inside bins handled by municipal waste haulers. They also found batteries, electronic devices and other hazardous waste in trash cans and bins at 16 Kaiser medical facilities throughout the state, Attorney General Rob Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The items found pose a serious risk to anyone who might come into contact with them from health care providers and patients in the same room as the trash cans to custodians and sanitation workers who directly handle the waste to workers at the landfill,” Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser is California’s largest health care provider and has more than 700 health care facilities that treat about 8.8 million patients in the state, Bonta said.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"California Attorney General Rob Bonta\"]‘As a major health care provider Kaiser has a clear responsibility to know and follow specific laws when it comes to properly disposing of waste and safeguarding patient’s medical information. Their failure to do so is unacceptable, it cannot happen again.’[/pullquote]He said the undercover inspectors also found over 10,000 paper records containing the information of over 7,700 patients, which led to an investigation by prosecutors in San Francisco, Alameda, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, San Mateo, and Yolo counties. County officials later sought the intervention of this office, Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a major health care provider Kaiser has a clear responsibility to know and follow specific laws when it comes to properly disposing of waste and safeguarding patient’s medical information. Their failure to do so is unacceptable, it cannot happen again,” Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser Permanente, based in Oakland, California, said in a statement it takes the matter extremely seriously. It said it has taken full responsibility and is cooperating with the California Attorney General and county district attorneys to correct the way some of its facilities were disposing of hazardous and medical waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“About six years ago we became aware of occasions when, contrary to our rigorous policies and procedures, some facilities’ landfill-bound dumpsters included items that should have been disposed of differently,” the company said. “Upon learning of this issue, we immediately completed an extensive auditing effort of the waste stream at our facilities and established mandatory and ongoing training to address the findings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser said it was not aware of any body part being found at any time during this investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the settlement, the health care provider must also retain for five years an independent third-party auditor approved by the Attorney General’s Office and the district attorneys involved in the complaint. The auditor will check Kaiser’s compliance with California’s laws related to the handling of hazardous and medical waste, and the protection of patients’ health information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a major corporation in Alameda County, Kaiser Permanente has a special obligation to treat its communities with the same bedside manner as its patients,” said Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. “Dumping medical waste and private information are wrong, which they have acknowledged. This action will hold them accountable in such a way that we hope means it doesn’t happen again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/business-health-medicare-566111a018e5e8f3d0224180050cbf0a\">the federal government sued Kaiser Permanente\u003c/a>, alleging the health care giant committed Medicare fraud and pressured doctors to list incorrect diagnoses on medical records in order to receive higher reimbursements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Justice sued the company in 2014 after it delayed notifying its employees about an unencrypted USB drive that contained the records of over 20,000 Kaiser workers. The USB drive was discovered at a Santa Cruz thrift store.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Kaiser Permanente has agreed to pay $49 million as part of a settlement with California prosecutors who say the health care giant illegally disposed of thousands of private medical records, hazardous materials and medical waste, including blood and body parts, in dumpsters headed to local landfills, authorities said Friday\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors started an investigation in 2015 after undercover trash inspectors found pharmaceutical drugs, and syringes, vials, canisters and other medical devices filled with human blood and other bodily fluids, and body parts removed during surgery inside bins handled by municipal waste haulers. They also found batteries, electronic devices and other hazardous waste in trash cans and bins at 16 Kaiser medical facilities throughout the state, Attorney General Rob Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The items found pose a serious risk to anyone who might come into contact with them from health care providers and patients in the same room as the trash cans to custodians and sanitation workers who directly handle the waste to workers at the landfill,” Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser is California’s largest health care provider and has more than 700 health care facilities that treat about 8.8 million patients in the state, Bonta said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He said the undercover inspectors also found over 10,000 paper records containing the information of over 7,700 patients, which led to an investigation by prosecutors in San Francisco, Alameda, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, San Mateo, and Yolo counties. County officials later sought the intervention of this office, Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a major health care provider Kaiser has a clear responsibility to know and follow specific laws when it comes to properly disposing of waste and safeguarding patient’s medical information. Their failure to do so is unacceptable, it cannot happen again,” Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser Permanente, based in Oakland, California, said in a statement it takes the matter extremely seriously. It said it has taken full responsibility and is cooperating with the California Attorney General and county district attorneys to correct the way some of its facilities were disposing of hazardous and medical waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“About six years ago we became aware of occasions when, contrary to our rigorous policies and procedures, some facilities’ landfill-bound dumpsters included items that should have been disposed of differently,” the company said. “Upon learning of this issue, we immediately completed an extensive auditing effort of the waste stream at our facilities and established mandatory and ongoing training to address the findings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser said it was not aware of any body part being found at any time during this investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the settlement, the health care provider must also retain for five years an independent third-party auditor approved by the Attorney General’s Office and the district attorneys involved in the complaint. The auditor will check Kaiser’s compliance with California’s laws related to the handling of hazardous and medical waste, and the protection of patients’ health information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a major corporation in Alameda County, Kaiser Permanente has a special obligation to treat its communities with the same bedside manner as its patients,” said Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. “Dumping medical waste and private information are wrong, which they have acknowledged. This action will hold them accountable in such a way that we hope means it doesn’t happen again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/business-health-medicare-566111a018e5e8f3d0224180050cbf0a\">the federal government sued Kaiser Permanente\u003c/a>, alleging the health care giant committed Medicare fraud and pressured doctors to list incorrect diagnoses on medical records in order to receive higher reimbursements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Justice sued the company in 2014 after it delayed notifying its employees about an unencrypted USB drive that contained the records of over 20,000 Kaiser workers. The USB drive was discovered at a Santa Cruz thrift store.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Some 2,000 Kaiser Permanente mental health care employees in Northern California are returning to work after voting almost unanimously to ratify a new contract on Thursday, ending a grueling 10-week standoff over staffing shortages, wages and patient care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The four-year contract gives therapists nearly two hours of additional time per week to respond to patient emails, contact social service agencies and perform other administrative tasks. The deal also includes a commitment from Kaiser to hire more therapists, improve access to treatment for patients and increase initial consultation times for children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It took much longer than it should have to reach this agreement, but, in the end, we succeeded in securing important improvements in patient care that Kaiser negotiators told us across the bargaining table that they’d never agree to,” Jennifer Browning, a Kaiser social worker who served on the bargaining committee, said in a statement.[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"kaiser-strike\"]The hard-fought deal between the Oakland-based health care giant and the National Union of Healthcare Workers — the union representing Kaiser therapists, social workers, chemical dependency counselors and other mental health staffers in the Bay Area and Central Valley — \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/who-we-are/labor-relations/tentative-agreement-reached-with-nuhw-to-end-strike\">was reached earlier this week\u003c/a> after Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg stepped in to mediate. Thursday’s official approval of the agreement ends the longest strike among mental health care workers in U.S. history, according to the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Kaiser officials said they were “very pleased at the outcome” of the vote. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We appreciate our therapists’ confidence in this agreement, which addresses the concerns they expressed, while upholding Kaiser Permanente’s commitment that any agreement must protect and enhance access to mental health for our members,” the statement said. “We are glad to have all our employees back, caring for their patients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11922524/kaiser-mental-health-workers-in-northern-california-begin-open-ended-strike-over-staffing-shortages\">Workers first walked out on August 15\u003c/a>, amid accounts of widespread burnout, retention issues and unsafe therapist-to-client ratios — sometimes resulting in patients having to wait as long as three months to see a therapist, workers said. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early on in the strike, Ilana Marcucci-Morris, a licensed clinical social worker in Kaiser’s psychiatry department in Oakland, said burnout and poor working conditions were contributing to dismal retention rates among employees, and making it difficult for the company to recruit new ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There isn’t a shortage of clinicians. There’s only a shortage of clinicians that want to work for Kaiser,” Marcucci-Morris \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11923034/were-drowning-why-kaiser-mental-health-workers-are-striking\">told KQED’s Forum in August\u003c/a>. “We get into this field to help people, and it’s hard to recruit therapists when Kaiser’s reputation is known to make people wait so long for therapy sessions. It’s really, really not ethical.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pressure mounted on Kaiser to resolve the impasse, as striking workers garnered support from notable state lawmakers, including Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis, state Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The day is going to come where the people of this country … truly have access to behavioral health care and mental health care that they need, that they deserve,” NUHW President Sal Rosselli told striking workers last Friday, speaking from the steps of Kaiser’s downtown Oakland offices, after announcing that Steinberg had agreed to mediate. “And when that day comes, historians are going to point to this strike, this union strike, as the catalyst that made it happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Natalie Rogers, a Kaiser therapist in Santa Rosa, was among scores of employees who breathed a collective sigh of relief on Thursday, after not receiving any compensation for 10 weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we are all happy that we are going back to work. As you could imagine, it was definitely a financial strain, and an emotional strain,” Rogers said. “But I think that we have formed a unity like no other. I think that we now know … what we are capable of doing if we stick together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And because of that, she added, morale will be higher. “We will have the support from one another that we need to help push Kaiser to where we feel our patients will get the best care,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This story includes reporting from KQED’s Lesley McClurg.\u003c/i>\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Some 2,000 Kaiser Permanente mental health care employees in Northern California are returning to work after voting almost unanimously to ratify a new contract on Thursday, ending a grueling 10-week standoff over staffing shortages, wages and patient care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The four-year contract gives therapists nearly two hours of additional time per week to respond to patient emails, contact social service agencies and perform other administrative tasks. The deal also includes a commitment from Kaiser to hire more therapists, improve access to treatment for patients and increase initial consultation times for children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It took much longer than it should have to reach this agreement, but, in the end, we succeeded in securing important improvements in patient care that Kaiser negotiators told us across the bargaining table that they’d never agree to,” Jennifer Browning, a Kaiser social worker who served on the bargaining committee, said in a statement.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The hard-fought deal between the Oakland-based health care giant and the National Union of Healthcare Workers — the union representing Kaiser therapists, social workers, chemical dependency counselors and other mental health staffers in the Bay Area and Central Valley — \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/who-we-are/labor-relations/tentative-agreement-reached-with-nuhw-to-end-strike\">was reached earlier this week\u003c/a> after Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg stepped in to mediate. Thursday’s official approval of the agreement ends the longest strike among mental health care workers in U.S. history, according to the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Kaiser officials said they were “very pleased at the outcome” of the vote. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We appreciate our therapists’ confidence in this agreement, which addresses the concerns they expressed, while upholding Kaiser Permanente’s commitment that any agreement must protect and enhance access to mental health for our members,” the statement said. “We are glad to have all our employees back, caring for their patients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11922524/kaiser-mental-health-workers-in-northern-california-begin-open-ended-strike-over-staffing-shortages\">Workers first walked out on August 15\u003c/a>, amid accounts of widespread burnout, retention issues and unsafe therapist-to-client ratios — sometimes resulting in patients having to wait as long as three months to see a therapist, workers said. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early on in the strike, Ilana Marcucci-Morris, a licensed clinical social worker in Kaiser’s psychiatry department in Oakland, said burnout and poor working conditions were contributing to dismal retention rates among employees, and making it difficult for the company to recruit new ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There isn’t a shortage of clinicians. There’s only a shortage of clinicians that want to work for Kaiser,” Marcucci-Morris \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11923034/were-drowning-why-kaiser-mental-health-workers-are-striking\">told KQED’s Forum in August\u003c/a>. “We get into this field to help people, and it’s hard to recruit therapists when Kaiser’s reputation is known to make people wait so long for therapy sessions. It’s really, really not ethical.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pressure mounted on Kaiser to resolve the impasse, as striking workers garnered support from notable state lawmakers, including Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis, state Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The day is going to come where the people of this country … truly have access to behavioral health care and mental health care that they need, that they deserve,” NUHW President Sal Rosselli told striking workers last Friday, speaking from the steps of Kaiser’s downtown Oakland offices, after announcing that Steinberg had agreed to mediate. “And when that day comes, historians are going to point to this strike, this union strike, as the catalyst that made it happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Natalie Rogers, a Kaiser therapist in Santa Rosa, was among scores of employees who breathed a collective sigh of relief on Thursday, after not receiving any compensation for 10 weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we are all happy that we are going back to work. As you could imagine, it was definitely a financial strain, and an emotional strain,” Rogers said. “But I think that we have formed a unity like no other. I think that we now know … what we are capable of doing if we stick together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And because of that, she added, morale will be higher. “We will have the support from one another that we need to help push Kaiser to where we feel our patients will get the best care,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This story includes reporting from KQED’s Lesley McClurg.\u003c/i>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The union representing Kaiser Permanente mental health care workers in Northern California on Tuesday reached a tentative four-year agreement with the health care giant, potentially ending a two-month strike among thousands of workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"kaiser-strike\"]The tentative agreement would benefit patients and “drive collaborative efforts aimed at improving access to mental health care, while at the same time recognizing and better supporting mental health therapists” in their work, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NUHW/status/1582454798242050053\">joint statement by Kaiser and the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The day is going to come where the people of this country … truly have access to behavioral health care and mental health care that they need, that they deserve,” NUHW President Sal Rosselli told striking workers on Friday, speaking from the steps of Kaiser’s downtown Oakland offices, where he announced that Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg had agreed to mediate negotiations. “And when that day comes, historians are going to point to this strike, this union strike, as the catalyst that made it happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The day is going to come where the term ‘mental health care’ no longer exists — it’s simply ‘health care,’ because of your sacrifice,” Rosselli added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/HeterodoxThis/status/1582471048334671872\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some 2,000 Kaiser Bay Area and Central Valley mental health workers — including therapists, social workers and chemical dependency counselors — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11922524/kaiser-mental-health-workers-in-northern-california-begin-open-ended-strike-over-staffing-shortages\">began their open-ended strike on August 15\u003c/a>, to ask for increased staffing, a wage hike and better health care access for patients. Striking employees described widespread burnout, retention issues and unsafe therapist-to-client ratios that meant patients sometimes had to wait as long as three months to see a therapist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early on in the strike, Ilana Marcucci-Morris, a licensed clinical social worker in Kaiser’s psychiatry department in Oakland, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11923034/were-drowning-why-kaiser-mental-health-workers-are-striking\">told KQED’s Forum\u003c/a> that there were 2,600 patients for every mental health worker in the Northern California Kaiser system. She said burnout and poor working conditions were contributing to dismal retention rates among employees, and making it difficult for the company to recruit new ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There isn’t a shortage of clinicians. There’s only a shortage of clinicians that want to work for Kaiser,” Marcucci-Morris said. “We get into this field to help people, and it’s hard to recruit therapists when Kaiser’s reputation is known to make people wait so long for therapy sessions. It’s really, really not ethical.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union leaders \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11925882/one-month-into-grinding-strike-negotiations-break-down-between-kaiser-permanente-and-mental-health-workers\">rejected a previous contract\u003c/a> offer from Kaiser last month that included wage increases, but did not meet the union’s demands for increased staffing and more time allotted for administrative work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The striking workers garnered support over the last two months from notable state lawmakers including Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis, state Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More details on the tentative agreement are expected to be available after a two-day ratification vote among workers later this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This story includes reporting from KQED’s Emma Silvers and Matthew Green, and Bay City News.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Some 2,000 Kaiser Bay Area and Central Valley mental health workers — including therapists, social workers and chemical dependency counselors — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11922524/kaiser-mental-health-workers-in-northern-california-begin-open-ended-strike-over-staffing-shortages\">began their open-ended strike on August 15\u003c/a>, to ask for increased staffing, a wage hike and better health care access for patients. Striking employees described widespread burnout, retention issues and unsafe therapist-to-client ratios that meant patients sometimes had to wait as long as three months to see a therapist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early on in the strike, Ilana Marcucci-Morris, a licensed clinical social worker in Kaiser’s psychiatry department in Oakland, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11923034/were-drowning-why-kaiser-mental-health-workers-are-striking\">told KQED’s Forum\u003c/a> that there were 2,600 patients for every mental health worker in the Northern California Kaiser system. She said burnout and poor working conditions were contributing to dismal retention rates among employees, and making it difficult for the company to recruit new ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There isn’t a shortage of clinicians. There’s only a shortage of clinicians that want to work for Kaiser,” Marcucci-Morris said. “We get into this field to help people, and it’s hard to recruit therapists when Kaiser’s reputation is known to make people wait so long for therapy sessions. It’s really, really not ethical.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union leaders \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11925882/one-month-into-grinding-strike-negotiations-break-down-between-kaiser-permanente-and-mental-health-workers\">rejected a previous contract\u003c/a> offer from Kaiser last month that included wage increases, but did not meet the union’s demands for increased staffing and more time allotted for administrative work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The striking workers garnered support over the last two months from notable state lawmakers including Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis, state Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More details on the tentative agreement are expected to be available after a two-day ratification vote among workers later this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This story includes reporting from KQED’s Emma Silvers and Matthew Green, and Bay City News.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Negotiations between Kaiser Permanente and the union representing its mental health care workers collapsed Wednesday night, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11922524/kaiser-mental-health-workers-in-northern-california-begin-open-ended-strike-over-staffing-shortages\">one month into a strike\u003c/a> that still has no end in sight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents some 2,000 Kaiser psychologists, therapists, social workers and chemical dependency counselors in Northern California, said in a statement that Kaiser refused to consider proposals to increase staffing and provide therapists with additional time to complete crucial administrative work. The union has also demanded the company cap caseloads if therapists are unable to see patients as quickly as state law requires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser declined to schedule future bargaining sessions, leaving workers and their many thousands of patients in an ongoing state of limbo, union officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s so frustrating to be on the front lines of a mental health crisis only to have your employer be in complete denial about it,” Matt Hannon, a Kaiser psychologist in South San Francisco, and a member of the union’s bargaining committee, said in a statement. “Kaiser officials showed once again that they have no interest in providing timely mental health care that complies with state law or meets the needs of patients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser said in a statement that it has already made extensive compromises, including concessions on pay, and that the union is essentially pushing for its workers to spend less time with patients in need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"kaiser-permanente\"]“Frustratingly, NUHW leadership continued to refuse to resolve any remaining issues or acknowledge how far Kaiser Permanente has already moved for the sake of reaching agreement,” a spokesperson for the Oakland-based company said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the union emphasizes that the ongoing fight is about staffing resources, not compensation, noting that it already agreed to Kaiser’s wage-increase offer. It argues that Kaiser has failed to meaningfully address the severe mental health staffing shortages at its facilities that have resulted in massive turnover rates among workers and excessive wait times for patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union has also accused the company of not providing its mental health patients timely access to services during the strike, in violation of state law, a claim currently under investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Managed Health Care said in a statement that it is “concerned about the potential for immediate harm to enrollees based on the very serious nature of allegations that the plan is not providing timely appointments to enrollees required by the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of their investigation, state regulators are assessing whether Kaiser made sufficient arrangements to provide out-of-network services to patients in anticipation of the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the investigation was announced, the health care giant said it was in the process of reaching agreements with hundreds of community-based mental health care providers to partially fill the void left by striking workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser also said it is aggressively working to recruit and hire more therapists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Fred Seavey, a NUHW research director, told KQED last month that Kaiser has a history of failing to provide timely care, even though it has the resources to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Members are paying their premiums. They deserve to receive the care that they need and they paid for,” Seavey said. “If an HMO doesn’t have enough providers available, then it must arrange for members to get care from out-of-network providers at no additional cost to the member.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union members say they are determined to keep striking until Kaiser makes more concessions, but as the strike enters its second month, and workers remain unpaid, many are feeling the financial impact of not receiving their paychecks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been a hard month, but going without a paycheck is nothing compared to what our patients have endured for years at Kaiser waiting months between therapy sessions,” Kimberly Hollingsworth-Hornor, a Kaiser therapist in Fresno and bargaining committee member, said in a statement. “We are going to keep striking until Kaiser stops gambling with patient lives and works with therapists to create a system that provides patients the care they need to get better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>KQED’s Sara Hossaini contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Negotiations between Kaiser Permanente and the union representing its mental health care workers collapsed Wednesday night, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11922524/kaiser-mental-health-workers-in-northern-california-begin-open-ended-strike-over-staffing-shortages\">one month into a strike\u003c/a> that still has no end in sight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents some 2,000 Kaiser psychologists, therapists, social workers and chemical dependency counselors in Northern California, said in a statement that Kaiser refused to consider proposals to increase staffing and provide therapists with additional time to complete crucial administrative work. The union has also demanded the company cap caseloads if therapists are unable to see patients as quickly as state law requires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser declined to schedule future bargaining sessions, leaving workers and their many thousands of patients in an ongoing state of limbo, union officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s so frustrating to be on the front lines of a mental health crisis only to have your employer be in complete denial about it,” Matt Hannon, a Kaiser psychologist in South San Francisco, and a member of the union’s bargaining committee, said in a statement. “Kaiser officials showed once again that they have no interest in providing timely mental health care that complies with state law or meets the needs of patients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser said in a statement that it has already made extensive compromises, including concessions on pay, and that the union is essentially pushing for its workers to spend less time with patients in need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Frustratingly, NUHW leadership continued to refuse to resolve any remaining issues or acknowledge how far Kaiser Permanente has already moved for the sake of reaching agreement,” a spokesperson for the Oakland-based company said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the union emphasizes that the ongoing fight is about staffing resources, not compensation, noting that it already agreed to Kaiser’s wage-increase offer. It argues that Kaiser has failed to meaningfully address the severe mental health staffing shortages at its facilities that have resulted in massive turnover rates among workers and excessive wait times for patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union has also accused the company of not providing its mental health patients timely access to services during the strike, in violation of state law, a claim currently under investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Managed Health Care said in a statement that it is “concerned about the potential for immediate harm to enrollees based on the very serious nature of allegations that the plan is not providing timely appointments to enrollees required by the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of their investigation, state regulators are assessing whether Kaiser made sufficient arrangements to provide out-of-network services to patients in anticipation of the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the investigation was announced, the health care giant said it was in the process of reaching agreements with hundreds of community-based mental health care providers to partially fill the void left by striking workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser also said it is aggressively working to recruit and hire more therapists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Fred Seavey, a NUHW research director, told KQED last month that Kaiser has a history of failing to provide timely care, even though it has the resources to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Members are paying their premiums. They deserve to receive the care that they need and they paid for,” Seavey said. “If an HMO doesn’t have enough providers available, then it must arrange for members to get care from out-of-network providers at no additional cost to the member.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union members say they are determined to keep striking until Kaiser makes more concessions, but as the strike enters its second month, and workers remain unpaid, many are feeling the financial impact of not receiving their paychecks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been a hard month, but going without a paycheck is nothing compared to what our patients have endured for years at Kaiser waiting months between therapy sessions,” Kimberly Hollingsworth-Hornor, a Kaiser therapist in Fresno and bargaining committee member, said in a statement. “We are going to keep striking until Kaiser stops gambling with patient lives and works with therapists to create a system that provides patients the care they need to get better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>KQED’s Sara Hossaini contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>On Friday, the fifth day of an open-ended strike by Kaiser Permanente mental health workers across Northern California, some 200 employees and supporters marched to the health care giant’s Oakland headquarters, demanding that management increase staffing and resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They were among the roughly 2,000 Kaiser therapists, social workers and other mental health care staffers across Northern California — represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers — who formed picket lines outside Kaiser facilities this week, after negotiations with management ended without resolution last weekend. Those striking said employee morale is dangerously low and patient care has become substandard due to long wait times for treatment. [aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11922524,news_11922748,news_11921580\"] Kaiser officials have called the strike unethical to patients and counterproductive, pointing to the shortage of mental health professionals nationwide. A company representative declined to participate in an interview, citing ongoing negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But in a statement issued Friday, Deb Catsavas, senior vice president of human resources at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, reiterated the company’s stance that the strike and “disruption to patient care” were unnecessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“While [the National Union of Healthcare Workers] claims it is fighting for increased access to care, its primary demand is for union members to spend less time seeing patients,” said Catsavas. “Our patients cannot afford a proposal that significantly reduces the time available to care for our patients and their mental health needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The strike comes amid what the White House has described as an unprecedented mental health crisis among Americans of all ages.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why are Kaiser mental health care workers striking?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“We’re striking because it’s demoralizing to work for a company that actively does things to capitalize on burnout,” Naomi Johnson, an associate clinical social worker for Kaiser, told KQED Forum. “We’re really working very hard as clinicians to try to see patients as frequently as we can, and to provide the care that we’re trained [for] and good at providing. And we’re not supported in doing that by the company.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser tells patients that “if you have any sort of concerns or you want to come to therapy, please reach out,” added Johnson. “And then as providers, we’re told, ‘Only treat people who meet medical necessity.’ So it’s really difficult because we have this huge influx of people trying to seek services, but there aren’t enough of us to actually meet the demand, so we’re just completely overwhelmed. … We’re drowning, as clinicians.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11923078\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11923078\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"a protest\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers rally before a march from Oakland Kaiser Medical Center to Kaiser’s corporate headquarters on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, the fifth day of an open-ended strike. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>How does understaffing affect patients seeking treatment?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“There are currently 2,600 Kaiser patients for every mental health worker in (the) Northern California Kaiser system,” Ilana Marcucci-Morris, a licensed clinical social worker in Kaiser’s psychiatry department in Oakland, told Forum. That means the average Kaiser therapist sees between seven and 12 patients per day, while someone in private practice might see between three and six. After a series of initial intake calls, the majority of Kaiser patients calling with a “nonurgent” need wait between two and three months to see a therapist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Union of Healthcare Workers points to \u003ca href=\"https://nuhw.org/more-than-2000-kaiser-permanente-mental-health-clinicians-to-start-open-ended-strike-august-15/\">internal Kaiser documents illustrating\u003c/a> that “patients who received an initial mental health assessment on June 13 weren’t scheduled for follow-up appointments for a month in San Francisco, more than two months in Sacramento and three months or more in other parts of Northern California.” That length of time, experts say, does a disservice to those who have already taken the often-difficult first step of seeking support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The goal is to help people get better and terminate,” said Marcucci-Morris. “But the system within Kaiser does not allow for that. It’s the opposite. People are waiting longer, and deteriorating to where they either give up and pay [for therapy] out of pocket, which sets up a system for folks who have those resources to pay a private practice therapist and get better.” She said people who can’t afford private therapy and insurance premiums aren’t able to get better. “They get worse and they stay in Kaiser and they just stay sick,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11923083\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11923083\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"protestors reflected in a bus window\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers and supporters hold signs on the picket line outside Oakland Kaiser Medical Center. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>What is causing the understaffing?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kaiser administrators point to what they describe as a nationwide staffing shortage. “Across the country, there are not enough mental health care professionals to meet the increased demand for care,” said Kaiser’s Catsavas in an Aug. 15 statement. “This has created challenges for Kaiser Permanente and mental health care providers everywhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Company administrators say they have worked to combat the shortage by hiring new mental health clinicians, including nearly 200 new clinicians since January 2021; improving mental health care access through virtual care; and launching a $500,000 initiative to recruit new employees.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Ilana Marcucci-Morris, Kaiser psychiatrist\"]‘There isn’t a shortage of clinicians. There’s only a shortage of clinicians that want to work for Kaiser.’[/pullquote]But those on strike said the severity of the shortage is specific to Kaiser, and that burnout and poor working conditions are contributing to low retention of existing employees, and making it difficult for the company to recruit new ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There isn’t a shortage of clinicians. There’s only a shortage of clinicians that want to work for Kaiser,” said Marcucci-Morris. “We get into this field to help people, and it’s hard to recruit therapists when Kaiser’s reputation is known to make people wait so long for therapy sessions. It’s really, really not ethical. And I personally have a handful of colleagues and friends who are therapists with time in their schedules who I’ve tried to recruit for Kaiser. But the reputation is just so poor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s more appealing, said those striking, for qualified therapists to work for a private practice. “Workers just don’t want to work for Kaiser anymore, and that’s the real crisis we’re facing,” said Marcucci-Morris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union said the rate at which mental health clinicians are leaving Kaiser nearly doubled in the past year, with 668 clinicians leaving between June 2021 and May 2022, compared to 335 clinicians the previous year. In a union survey of 200 of those departing clinicians, 85% said they were leaving because their workload was unsustainable or because they felt they did not have enough time to complete the work, and 76% said they were unable to “treat patients in line with standards of care and medical necessity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to grow the mental health workforce, there’s no doubt about that,” California state Senator Scott Wiener told KQED Forum. “It is also the case that the shortage is not as severe right now as the health plans say … health plans can take steps to expand their workforce, including paying better, providing better reimbursements to private providers, and those are investments that they should be making that they have not made.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think it’s the case that they can just throw up their hands and say, we have some challenges with the workforce, and so therefore, we’re going to make people wait three months,” he added. “We have real shortages of physical health care providers, but we don’t tolerate around physical health what we have long tolerated around mental health, which is effectively denying people access to lifesaving care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11923080\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11923080\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"a baby in a stroller as part of a protest \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers carry signs on the picket line outside Oakland Kaiser Medical Center on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, the fifth day of an open-ended strike. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Has California passed any recent laws to address this shortage?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://openstates.org/ca/bills/20212022/SB221/\">Senate Bill 221\u003c/a>, which passed in 2021 and went into effect July 1, 2022, said that “health plans, including Kaiser, must provide timely access to mental health and addiction treatment,” Senator Wiener told Forum. “And that means a prompt first visit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law codifies existing regulations from the Department of Managed Health Care and the Department of Insurance that require a health care service plan or an insurer to ensure that “for an enrollee requesting a non-urgent appointment with a non-physician mental health care provider … appointments are offered within 10 business days of the request for an appointment.” Follow-up visits have to happen within two weeks, added Wiener.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB858\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Senate Bill 858\u003c/a>, which recently passed on the California State Assembly floor and will now move to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, would update the way health insurance companies are fined for violations, something that hasn’t been updated or even adjusted for inflation since the 1970s, said Wiener. Currently, the maximum fine possible stands at $2,500 per violation; the bill, if passed, would increase that amount to $25,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We think that will create a much larger incentive to actually follow the law and provide people with timely and appropriate access to health care,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What exactly are the strikers asking for? What’s the current status of negotiations?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In negotiations that led up to the strike, the National Union of Healthcare Workers accepted Kaiser’s wage-increase offer. But the union held fast on its demand that nine hours per week — up from the current six hours — be allotted for administrative work. Kaiser rejected that demand, arguing it would not leave adequate time to see patients. The company’s counteroffer, of an additional 1.2 hours for that work, was flatly rejected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wouldn’t be striking right now if money was the primary [issue],” said Marcucci-Morris, pointing to burnout, retention issues and poor morale — as well as what the union describes as the lack of a clear plan for how the company is going to meet the requirements laid out by SB 221.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not going to fix the problems to buy the therapists out and pay us more,” she said. “What good is more pay when you’re drowning and can’t come up for air?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How is the strike affecting patients in need of care?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kaiser is legally obligated to continue providing care for its members during a labor strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Beginning this week, our patients will receive care from those mental health clinicians who choose patient needs over the strike, as well as from our psychiatrists, clinical managers, and other licensed professionals,” said Catsavas in a statement on the first day of the strike, while noting that “some nonurgent appointments may need to be rescheduled” and that patients whose appointments might be affected “will be directly contacted prior to the date of the appointment to ensure they receive the care they need.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "On the fifth day of an open-ended strike, Kaiser mental health workers gathered in Oakland to protest outside the health care giant's corporate headquarters. Here's what they're marching for.",
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"title": "'We're Drowning': Why Kaiser Mental Health Workers Are Striking | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On Friday, the fifth day of an open-ended strike by Kaiser Permanente mental health workers across Northern California, some 200 employees and supporters marched to the health care giant’s Oakland headquarters, demanding that management increase staffing and resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They were among the roughly 2,000 Kaiser therapists, social workers and other mental health care staffers across Northern California — represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers — who formed picket lines outside Kaiser facilities this week, after negotiations with management ended without resolution last weekend. Those striking said employee morale is dangerously low and patient care has become substandard due to long wait times for treatment. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> Kaiser officials have called the strike unethical to patients and counterproductive, pointing to the shortage of mental health professionals nationwide. A company representative declined to participate in an interview, citing ongoing negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But in a statement issued Friday, Deb Catsavas, senior vice president of human resources at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, reiterated the company’s stance that the strike and “disruption to patient care” were unnecessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“While [the National Union of Healthcare Workers] claims it is fighting for increased access to care, its primary demand is for union members to spend less time seeing patients,” said Catsavas. “Our patients cannot afford a proposal that significantly reduces the time available to care for our patients and their mental health needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The strike comes amid what the White House has described as an unprecedented mental health crisis among Americans of all ages.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why are Kaiser mental health care workers striking?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“We’re striking because it’s demoralizing to work for a company that actively does things to capitalize on burnout,” Naomi Johnson, an associate clinical social worker for Kaiser, told KQED Forum. “We’re really working very hard as clinicians to try to see patients as frequently as we can, and to provide the care that we’re trained [for] and good at providing. And we’re not supported in doing that by the company.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser tells patients that “if you have any sort of concerns or you want to come to therapy, please reach out,” added Johnson. “And then as providers, we’re told, ‘Only treat people who meet medical necessity.’ So it’s really difficult because we have this huge influx of people trying to seek services, but there aren’t enough of us to actually meet the demand, so we’re just completely overwhelmed. … We’re drowning, as clinicians.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11923078\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11923078\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"a protest\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers rally before a march from Oakland Kaiser Medical Center to Kaiser’s corporate headquarters on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, the fifth day of an open-ended strike. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>How does understaffing affect patients seeking treatment?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“There are currently 2,600 Kaiser patients for every mental health worker in (the) Northern California Kaiser system,” Ilana Marcucci-Morris, a licensed clinical social worker in Kaiser’s psychiatry department in Oakland, told Forum. That means the average Kaiser therapist sees between seven and 12 patients per day, while someone in private practice might see between three and six. After a series of initial intake calls, the majority of Kaiser patients calling with a “nonurgent” need wait between two and three months to see a therapist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Union of Healthcare Workers points to \u003ca href=\"https://nuhw.org/more-than-2000-kaiser-permanente-mental-health-clinicians-to-start-open-ended-strike-august-15/\">internal Kaiser documents illustrating\u003c/a> that “patients who received an initial mental health assessment on June 13 weren’t scheduled for follow-up appointments for a month in San Francisco, more than two months in Sacramento and three months or more in other parts of Northern California.” That length of time, experts say, does a disservice to those who have already taken the often-difficult first step of seeking support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The goal is to help people get better and terminate,” said Marcucci-Morris. “But the system within Kaiser does not allow for that. It’s the opposite. People are waiting longer, and deteriorating to where they either give up and pay [for therapy] out of pocket, which sets up a system for folks who have those resources to pay a private practice therapist and get better.” She said people who can’t afford private therapy and insurance premiums aren’t able to get better. “They get worse and they stay in Kaiser and they just stay sick,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11923083\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11923083\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"protestors reflected in a bus window\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers and supporters hold signs on the picket line outside Oakland Kaiser Medical Center. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>What is causing the understaffing?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kaiser administrators point to what they describe as a nationwide staffing shortage. “Across the country, there are not enough mental health care professionals to meet the increased demand for care,” said Kaiser’s Catsavas in an Aug. 15 statement. “This has created challenges for Kaiser Permanente and mental health care providers everywhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Company administrators say they have worked to combat the shortage by hiring new mental health clinicians, including nearly 200 new clinicians since January 2021; improving mental health care access through virtual care; and launching a $500,000 initiative to recruit new employees.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘There isn’t a shortage of clinicians. There’s only a shortage of clinicians that want to work for Kaiser.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But those on strike said the severity of the shortage is specific to Kaiser, and that burnout and poor working conditions are contributing to low retention of existing employees, and making it difficult for the company to recruit new ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There isn’t a shortage of clinicians. There’s only a shortage of clinicians that want to work for Kaiser,” said Marcucci-Morris. “We get into this field to help people, and it’s hard to recruit therapists when Kaiser’s reputation is known to make people wait so long for therapy sessions. It’s really, really not ethical. And I personally have a handful of colleagues and friends who are therapists with time in their schedules who I’ve tried to recruit for Kaiser. But the reputation is just so poor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s more appealing, said those striking, for qualified therapists to work for a private practice. “Workers just don’t want to work for Kaiser anymore, and that’s the real crisis we’re facing,” said Marcucci-Morris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union said the rate at which mental health clinicians are leaving Kaiser nearly doubled in the past year, with 668 clinicians leaving between June 2021 and May 2022, compared to 335 clinicians the previous year. In a union survey of 200 of those departing clinicians, 85% said they were leaving because their workload was unsustainable or because they felt they did not have enough time to complete the work, and 76% said they were unable to “treat patients in line with standards of care and medical necessity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to grow the mental health workforce, there’s no doubt about that,” California state Senator Scott Wiener told KQED Forum. “It is also the case that the shortage is not as severe right now as the health plans say … health plans can take steps to expand their workforce, including paying better, providing better reimbursements to private providers, and those are investments that they should be making that they have not made.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think it’s the case that they can just throw up their hands and say, we have some challenges with the workforce, and so therefore, we’re going to make people wait three months,” he added. “We have real shortages of physical health care providers, but we don’t tolerate around physical health what we have long tolerated around mental health, which is effectively denying people access to lifesaving care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11923080\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11923080\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"a baby in a stroller as part of a protest \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers carry signs on the picket line outside Oakland Kaiser Medical Center on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, the fifth day of an open-ended strike. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Has California passed any recent laws to address this shortage?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://openstates.org/ca/bills/20212022/SB221/\">Senate Bill 221\u003c/a>, which passed in 2021 and went into effect July 1, 2022, said that “health plans, including Kaiser, must provide timely access to mental health and addiction treatment,” Senator Wiener told Forum. “And that means a prompt first visit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law codifies existing regulations from the Department of Managed Health Care and the Department of Insurance that require a health care service plan or an insurer to ensure that “for an enrollee requesting a non-urgent appointment with a non-physician mental health care provider … appointments are offered within 10 business days of the request for an appointment.” Follow-up visits have to happen within two weeks, added Wiener.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB858\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Senate Bill 858\u003c/a>, which recently passed on the California State Assembly floor and will now move to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, would update the way health insurance companies are fined for violations, something that hasn’t been updated or even adjusted for inflation since the 1970s, said Wiener. Currently, the maximum fine possible stands at $2,500 per violation; the bill, if passed, would increase that amount to $25,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We think that will create a much larger incentive to actually follow the law and provide people with timely and appropriate access to health care,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What exactly are the strikers asking for? What’s the current status of negotiations?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In negotiations that led up to the strike, the National Union of Healthcare Workers accepted Kaiser’s wage-increase offer. But the union held fast on its demand that nine hours per week — up from the current six hours — be allotted for administrative work. Kaiser rejected that demand, arguing it would not leave adequate time to see patients. The company’s counteroffer, of an additional 1.2 hours for that work, was flatly rejected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wouldn’t be striking right now if money was the primary [issue],” said Marcucci-Morris, pointing to burnout, retention issues and poor morale — as well as what the union describes as the lack of a clear plan for how the company is going to meet the requirements laid out by SB 221.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not going to fix the problems to buy the therapists out and pay us more,” she said. “What good is more pay when you’re drowning and can’t come up for air?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How is the strike affecting patients in need of care?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kaiser is legally obligated to continue providing care for its members during a labor strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Beginning this week, our patients will receive care from those mental health clinicians who choose patient needs over the strike, as well as from our psychiatrists, clinical managers, and other licensed professionals,” said Catsavas in a statement on the first day of the strike, while noting that “some nonurgent appointments may need to be rescheduled” and that patients whose appointments might be affected “will be directly contacted prior to the date of the appointment to ensure they receive the care they need.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Thousands of mental health care workers maintained picket lines Wednesday in front of Kaiser Permanente facilities in the Bay Area and Central Valley, the third day of an open-ended strike to demand the health care giant increase mental health staffing and wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This strike is a long time coming,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, among a growing number of state legislative leaders backing the workers. “There have been major issues at Kaiser in terms of providing people with timely access or any access to mental health and addiction treatment and the workers have been advocating for years to have more staffing and compliance with the law and that hasn’t happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jason Lechner, a therapist focused on addiction services for youth, was among a throng of protesters outside a Kaiser Oakland facility on Tuesday, where workers chanted, “What do we want? Patient care. When do we want it? Now!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lechner said Kaiser doesn’t offer him enough time to carry out essential tasks like answering phone calls and emails, or referring patients to other experts, forcing him and his colleagues to regularly work extra hours in order to complete crucial administrative tasks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I need to communicate with your primary care physician about what substances you’re abusing, where’s my time to do that?” he said.[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11922524,forum_2010101884368,stateofhealth_21358\"]The National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents Kaiser psychologists, therapists, social workers and chemical dependency counselors in Northern California, is in the thick of negotiating a new contract with Kaiser, and demanding the company hire more mental health workers to ease the burden placed on current staff. The union said negotiations with management this weekend ended without resolution, with Kaiser rejecting the union’s “proposals to increase staffing and end dangerously long waits for mental health therapy appointments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nicole Riddle, a labor and delivery nurse, said she has experienced the consequences of staffing shortages, not only as a health care worker, but also as a Kaiser member who has tried to access mental health services for herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve had my own experiences, both trying to advocate for myself throughout really traumatic birth experiences, postpartum depression, and then for my own child,” she said. “And I feel like Kaiser kind of banks on people being burnt out enough to not keep escalating and advocating for themselves. And then those who are privileged enough to do so pay out of pocket.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We deserve a better situation,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/who-we-are/labor-relations/committed-to-reaching-a-fair-and-equitable-agreement\">In a statement\u003c/a> issued Sunday, after negotiations stalled, Deb Catsavas, Kaiser’s regional senior vice president of human resources, said the Oakland-based company has “the deepest appreciation and gratitude for our mental health professionals and the extraordinary care they provide to our members.” But, she noted, “there are not enough mental health care professionals to meet the increased demand for care,” both locally and nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company has hired “nearly 200 new clinicians since January 2021” and launched a $500,000 initiative to recruit new mental health practitioners, Catsavas added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Despite the union’s harmful tactics, we remain committed to bargaining in good faith to reach a fair and equitable agreement that is good for our therapists and our patients,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In negotiations, the union accepted Kaiser’s wage-increase offer, but held fast on its demand that nine hours per week — up from the current six hours — be allotted for administrative work. Kaiser, however, rejected that demand, arguing it would not leave adequate time to see patients. Its counteroffer, of an additional 1.2 hours for that work, was flatly rejected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California law requires health care providers like Kaiser to offer patients timely care even during labor strikes, and state regulators say they are closely monitoring consumer complaints about the company’s compliance. Kaiser has said it will prioritize urgent mental health situations, but may have to reschedule some ongoing appointments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb, who joined Oakland staffers on the picket line on Tuesday, said mental health care has been undervalued for far too long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mental health care is health care. And (it) needs to stop being seen as the stepchild of health care,” Kalb said, pointing to the longstanding demand for services that has only further escalated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Kaiser should be ashamed of themselves for not staffing up the mental health care clinicians that they need and not paying them a fair wage. It’s inexcusable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalb called for “unanimous support” for mental health workers, not just at Kaiser, but in all health care settings “to make sure that there are enough health care workers everywhere to meet the needs that people have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Matthew Green contributed reporting.\u003c/em> [ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Thousands of mental health care workers maintained picket lines Wednesday in front of Kaiser Permanente facilities in the Bay Area and Central Valley, the third day of an open-ended strike to demand the health care giant increase mental health staffing and wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This strike is a long time coming,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, among a growing number of state legislative leaders backing the workers. “There have been major issues at Kaiser in terms of providing people with timely access or any access to mental health and addiction treatment and the workers have been advocating for years to have more staffing and compliance with the law and that hasn’t happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jason Lechner, a therapist focused on addiction services for youth, was among a throng of protesters outside a Kaiser Oakland facility on Tuesday, where workers chanted, “What do we want? Patient care. When do we want it? Now!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lechner said Kaiser doesn’t offer him enough time to carry out essential tasks like answering phone calls and emails, or referring patients to other experts, forcing him and his colleagues to regularly work extra hours in order to complete crucial administrative tasks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I need to communicate with your primary care physician about what substances you’re abusing, where’s my time to do that?” he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents Kaiser psychologists, therapists, social workers and chemical dependency counselors in Northern California, is in the thick of negotiating a new contract with Kaiser, and demanding the company hire more mental health workers to ease the burden placed on current staff. The union said negotiations with management this weekend ended without resolution, with Kaiser rejecting the union’s “proposals to increase staffing and end dangerously long waits for mental health therapy appointments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nicole Riddle, a labor and delivery nurse, said she has experienced the consequences of staffing shortages, not only as a health care worker, but also as a Kaiser member who has tried to access mental health services for herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve had my own experiences, both trying to advocate for myself throughout really traumatic birth experiences, postpartum depression, and then for my own child,” she said. “And I feel like Kaiser kind of banks on people being burnt out enough to not keep escalating and advocating for themselves. And then those who are privileged enough to do so pay out of pocket.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We deserve a better situation,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/who-we-are/labor-relations/committed-to-reaching-a-fair-and-equitable-agreement\">In a statement\u003c/a> issued Sunday, after negotiations stalled, Deb Catsavas, Kaiser’s regional senior vice president of human resources, said the Oakland-based company has “the deepest appreciation and gratitude for our mental health professionals and the extraordinary care they provide to our members.” But, she noted, “there are not enough mental health care professionals to meet the increased demand for care,” both locally and nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company has hired “nearly 200 new clinicians since January 2021” and launched a $500,000 initiative to recruit new mental health practitioners, Catsavas added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Despite the union’s harmful tactics, we remain committed to bargaining in good faith to reach a fair and equitable agreement that is good for our therapists and our patients,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In negotiations, the union accepted Kaiser’s wage-increase offer, but held fast on its demand that nine hours per week — up from the current six hours — be allotted for administrative work. Kaiser, however, rejected that demand, arguing it would not leave adequate time to see patients. Its counteroffer, of an additional 1.2 hours for that work, was flatly rejected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California law requires health care providers like Kaiser to offer patients timely care even during labor strikes, and state regulators say they are closely monitoring consumer complaints about the company’s compliance. Kaiser has said it will prioritize urgent mental health situations, but may have to reschedule some ongoing appointments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb, who joined Oakland staffers on the picket line on Tuesday, said mental health care has been undervalued for far too long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mental health care is health care. And (it) needs to stop being seen as the stepchild of health care,” Kalb said, pointing to the longstanding demand for services that has only further escalated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Kaiser should be ashamed of themselves for not staffing up the mental health care clinicians that they need and not paying them a fair wage. It’s inexcusable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalb called for “unanimous support” for mental health workers, not just at Kaiser, but in all health care settings “to make sure that there are enough health care workers everywhere to meet the needs that people have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Matthew Green contributed reporting.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Some 2,000 Kaiser Permanente psychologists, therapists, social workers and chemical dependency counselors in Northern California began what they called an “open-ended” strike Monday over staffing shortages that their union said have overwhelmed workers and resulted in patients waiting months to get help. Workers formed picket lines at Kaiser facilities in San Francisco, San José, Fresno and Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents the workers, is negotiating a new contract with the Oakland-based health care giant, and demanding the company hire more mental health workers to ease the burden placed on current staff. The union said negotiations with management ended without resolution this weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser rejected “union proposals to increase staffing and end dangerously long waits for mental health therapy appointments,” organizers said in a statement Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been telling Kaiser executives since Day One that this isn’t about money,” said Jennifer Browning, a Kaiser social worker in Roseville, and part of the union’s bargaining team, noting that organizers did accept Kaiser’s wage-increase offer. “It’s about our professional integrity and our ability to provide care that will help patients get better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a picket line outside a Kaiser center in San Francisco on Monday, employees held signs that read “patients over profits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeffery Chen-Harding, a clinical social worker with Kaiser who was picketing there, said his patients are having to wait longer and longer for care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11921580\" hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS40555_KAISER-MENTAL-HEALTH-CASES-photo-qut-1020x680.jpg']“We have people waiting six to eight weeks to get an appointment,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Petaluma clinical psychologist Alexis Petrakis, also picketing in San Francisco, echoed Chen-Harding’s comments about the wait times, describing her caseloads as unrelenting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I meet somebody new, they tell me their story, and maybe they even are honest about trauma that they’ve experienced,” she said. “I try to find a 30-minute phone call just to check in, but it’s not the care that I know that they deserve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deb Catsavas, Kaiser’s senior vice president of human resources in Northern California, said in a statement Sunday that \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/who-we-are/labor-relations/committed-to-reaching-a-fair-and-equitable-agreement\">the company has hired hundreds of new mental health workers\u003c/a>, including 200 since January 2021. She also pointed out that the shortage in mental health care professionals is happening nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are two main issues, Catsavas noted. “One is wage increases and the other is the union’s demand to increase the time therapists spend on tasks other than seeing patients,” she said. “The primary role — and essential need — for our therapists is to provide mental health care and treat our patients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union is demanding that nine hours per week be allotted for administrative work, which would leave only 31 hours to see patients, the company said. It said it proposed increasing the time for administrative tasks from 6 to 7.2 hours, leaving 32.8 hours to see patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our patients cannot afford a proposal that significantly reduces the time available to care for them and their mental health needs,” Catsavas said. “In recognition of our therapists’ concerns and priorities, we have proposed an increase in the scheduled time allocated to administrative tasks, but the union is demanding still more administrative time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Chen-Harding argued that the time in question is actually important work related to patient care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What they’re calling administrative time, it’s actually time when I am calling people who are in a crisis. It may be time when I am learning about the patient that I’m about to meet with,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A shortage in mental health clinicians has been a sticking point between the company and the union for years. In December 2019, Kaiser mental health care workers held a five-day strike over staffing shortages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Catsavas said Kaiser recently reached an agreement with the same union in Southern California, representing about 1,900 mental health professionals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser said some clinicians will remain on the job during the strike. It also has expanded its network of “high-quality community providers and will continue to prioritize urgent and emergency care” through the duration of the strike, it said, adding that some nonurgent appointments may need to be rescheduled and patients whose appointments may be affected will be contacted directly prior to the date of the appointment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union said state law requires Kaiser to pay for out-of-network services if it’s unable to provide urgent mental health appointments within 48 hours, and nonurgent appointments within 10 business days, unless the therapist determines that a longer wait would not be detrimental to the patient’s health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No date has been set for further negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story includes reporting from The Associated Press, Bay City News and KQED’s Lesley McClurg.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Some 2,000 Kaiser Permanente psychologists, therapists, social workers and chemical dependency counselors in Northern California began what they called an “open-ended” strike Monday over staffing shortages that their union said have overwhelmed workers and resulted in patients waiting months to get help. Workers formed picket lines at Kaiser facilities in San Francisco, San José, Fresno and Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents the workers, is negotiating a new contract with the Oakland-based health care giant, and demanding the company hire more mental health workers to ease the burden placed on current staff. The union said negotiations with management ended without resolution this weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser rejected “union proposals to increase staffing and end dangerously long waits for mental health therapy appointments,” organizers said in a statement Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been telling Kaiser executives since Day One that this isn’t about money,” said Jennifer Browning, a Kaiser social worker in Roseville, and part of the union’s bargaining team, noting that organizers did accept Kaiser’s wage-increase offer. “It’s about our professional integrity and our ability to provide care that will help patients get better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a picket line outside a Kaiser center in San Francisco on Monday, employees held signs that read “patients over profits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We have people waiting six to eight weeks to get an appointment,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Petaluma clinical psychologist Alexis Petrakis, also picketing in San Francisco, echoed Chen-Harding’s comments about the wait times, describing her caseloads as unrelenting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I meet somebody new, they tell me their story, and maybe they even are honest about trauma that they’ve experienced,” she said. “I try to find a 30-minute phone call just to check in, but it’s not the care that I know that they deserve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deb Catsavas, Kaiser’s senior vice president of human resources in Northern California, said in a statement Sunday that \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/who-we-are/labor-relations/committed-to-reaching-a-fair-and-equitable-agreement\">the company has hired hundreds of new mental health workers\u003c/a>, including 200 since January 2021. She also pointed out that the shortage in mental health care professionals is happening nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are two main issues, Catsavas noted. “One is wage increases and the other is the union’s demand to increase the time therapists spend on tasks other than seeing patients,” she said. “The primary role — and essential need — for our therapists is to provide mental health care and treat our patients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union is demanding that nine hours per week be allotted for administrative work, which would leave only 31 hours to see patients, the company said. It said it proposed increasing the time for administrative tasks from 6 to 7.2 hours, leaving 32.8 hours to see patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our patients cannot afford a proposal that significantly reduces the time available to care for them and their mental health needs,” Catsavas said. “In recognition of our therapists’ concerns and priorities, we have proposed an increase in the scheduled time allocated to administrative tasks, but the union is demanding still more administrative time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Chen-Harding argued that the time in question is actually important work related to patient care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What they’re calling administrative time, it’s actually time when I am calling people who are in a crisis. It may be time when I am learning about the patient that I’m about to meet with,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A shortage in mental health clinicians has been a sticking point between the company and the union for years. In December 2019, Kaiser mental health care workers held a five-day strike over staffing shortages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Catsavas said Kaiser recently reached an agreement with the same union in Southern California, representing about 1,900 mental health professionals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser said some clinicians will remain on the job during the strike. It also has expanded its network of “high-quality community providers and will continue to prioritize urgent and emergency care” through the duration of the strike, it said, adding that some nonurgent appointments may need to be rescheduled and patients whose appointments may be affected will be contacted directly prior to the date of the appointment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union said state law requires Kaiser to pay for out-of-network services if it’s unable to provide urgent mental health appointments within 48 hours, and nonurgent appointments within 10 business days, unless the therapist determines that a longer wait would not be detrimental to the patient’s health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No date has been set for further negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story includes reporting from The Associated Press, Bay City News and KQED’s Lesley McClurg.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Keana Reece always makes sure she is last in line when she drops off her 4-year-old son, Tyran, at preschool, so she can minimize the trauma of handing him off to his teacher. As she leads him in by the hand, she gives him the pep talk.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Remember: My name is Tyran. I am loved. I am worthy. And I'm highly intelligent. Got it?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tyran has nonverbal autism, so Reece has come to intuit his every gesture and sound. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Early signs of autism can appear in children during their first two years of life, with\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/autism-spectrum-disorder-communication-problems-children\"> some children becoming verbal as they grow older\u003c/a>. Reece is wearing her “I Love Someone With Autism” T-shirt as she walks up to the classroom door. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You know the drill. Big boys on one side of the door, mommies on the other,” Reece tells him. Tyran starts to cry as he’s led in, and Reece turns away. \"This is the hardest part of my day,\" she admits.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reece brings her son here in the afternoons to a special education preschool at the Hayward Unified School District’s Student Information and Assessment Center (SIAC). But she often feels like it's hard to get the school to respond to what she knows is best for her son. \u003c/span>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Keana Reece, parent\"]'It's a ton of work, but it's either do the work or let him fall under the bridge. It's the educational system.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I talk to the teacher maybe two minutes a week. They take him in. They bring him out. I don't know what he's learning. I don't know anything,” Reece said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the Hayward school district seemed to give her the runaround on buying a new electronic PECS board — a speech tablet that would make it easier for Tyran to communicate — she saved up and sacrificed to buy one herself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When she learned the preschool wouldn’t do inclusion, where Tyran could be with children who did not have disabilities, she began looking for one that would. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It's disheartening because I know who he is, I know what he's capable of. When I look at him, I see greatness,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It's a ton of work, but it's either do the work or let him fall under the bridge. It's the educational system. I just don't know how to navigate the system, and it's overwhelming.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That kind of stress can take a toll.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I was so involved in Tyran and making sure our time was together and making sure the house was together, making sure my husband was together. That Keana was falling by the wayside, and some days it was four or five o'clock and I realized I hadn't eaten anything all day,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11909837\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11909837\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Four children are climbing on a playground structure outside.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kids play at The Primary School East Bay on Oct. 13, 2021. Children with health care needs are seen by Kaiser medical staff who coordinate solutions with teachers and parents. \u003ccite>(Julia McEvoy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Parenting during the pandemic has been rough on a lot of families. According to research done by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.626456/full\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Frontiers in Psychiatry\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, parents reported increased stress due to difficulty in parenting, with 1 in 5 reporting high stress over the course of the pandemic. Children's resulting social and emotional issues have been showing up inside school classrooms. But while \u003ca class=\"c-link\" href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11908813/california-to-funnel-billions-into-mental-health-resources-for-young-people-but-will-it-come-soon-enough\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11908813/california-to-funnel-billions-into-mental-health-resources-for-young-people-but-will-it-come-soon-enough\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" data-remove-tab-index=\"true\">billions in pandemic tax dollars\u003c/a> have been allocated to help schools with kids’ mental health, little has been done for parents.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It took Reece finding a new preschool to get the help she needed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reece has a trusting relationship with her pediatrician at the Kaiser Hayward-Sleepy Hollow medical clinic. So when she got an email from him about a new public preschool that Kaiser physicians were helping design, she was intrigued.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What she found was a place where she would get to be part of Tyran’s education, and where school staff would treat her as an equal partner. They would also give her a personal coach who would check in with her biweekly.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If there's something at school that I just can't talk to the teacher about or I don't know who to go to, I can call Diane,” said Reece. “‘Hey, this is my problem, what do I do?’ And if it's something that I just can't bring up, she'll say, ‘I'll talk to them.’ So by the time they come to me, the issue was already brought out and the awkwardness of the situation has been taken away. It is pretty amazing.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The publicly funded preschool, called The Primary School East Bay, costs Reece nothing. The school prioritizes families who qualify based on income and enrolls them on a rolling basis when spots are available. Reece can also still keep Tyran in the traditional public school special education class in the afternoons, giving her full-day preschool. This allows her to keep her payroll job at the city of Oakland, though it means shuttling Tyran between schools during her lunch hour.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was something else about this new school that appealed to her: It would have Kaiser medical staff on campus twice a week.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Inside the school, Dr. Paul Espinas points out two medical assistants and a nurse, all Kaiser staff, working outside at tables in the school’s grassy playground. Espinas is a Kaiser pediatrician and medical director at the preschool, which means he meets weekly with school staff to coordinate care for kids and their families.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We should honor the work that school nurses have done in the area. We should honor the work that our school-based health clinics have done. But I feel like a lot of families are still trapped, trapped ping-ponging between different organizations within their community,” said Espinas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Espinas had seen parents struggling to navigate the health care system, describing times when he’d screen a child for a developmental issue and make a referral, and the parent wouldn’t follow up.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“And if they don't make it, and I see them a year later still needing speech therapy or the speech, the speech problems are worse. Like, I feel like that's a systems fail on our part,” said Espinas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Espinas says the clinic’s doctors work directly with teachers at the school to help parents schedule appointments, make sure families bring kids in for vaccines, or get the asthma medication they need. He said the teachers’ role in helping reach out to parents is pivotal, and called the intensive team effort unique.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If we get this model right, other systems hopefully will replicate it. Other Kaisers, other big health systems,” said Espinas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reece says the coordination takes stress off her. “I don't have a medical background and I don't have an educational background, either,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When teachers at Hayward’s district-run preschool sends her to Tyran’s pediatrician to get more information about what Tyran needs, by the time she gets back to the school with the information, she has it confused. She said, \"I have answers, but I'm sure they're not as accurate as my Kaiser physician saying, 'I'll let the school know.'\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because Kaiser staff communicate directly with The Primary School East Bay, now when Reece shows up at the school, teachers already have information her doctor has sent them, and she can sit down with staff to discuss next steps to best assist Tyran.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Teachers are also benefiting. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Remember last year during COVID? I didn't necessarily have to come up with a health plan. Our on-site doctor did,” explained Denise Laney, lead teacher at the school.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“As a teacher, I have had students come into my classroom with not the appropriate attire for the weather. I've had students that come in complaining of hunger. I've had families say, 'Hey, I know that my student needs glasses, but I can't afford it.' I know that someone's been complaining, their tooth hurting, but I'm not sure what to do, and we have resources for all of that.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Having health care staff on site also allows these early childhood educators to remain focused on teaching and creating a respectful way of including and engaging parents in how to best support their kids.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So that we really are able to learn to not just assume things, but to ask a lot of open-ended questions,” said Natasha Hall-Sevilla, manager of parent wellness coaching. “To really learn and understand what our families are going through so that we can change ourselves, and change how we show up for families.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All this can mean extra hours for teachers. But Laney says teachers like her are getting paid more than the norm for early childhood educators who have long complained about being undervalued. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are only 48 children enrolled in The Primary School East Bay — three classrooms each with two teachers and a total staff of 15. So far, the estimated cost of the state-funded preschool is about $20,000 per child, with some of that coming from philanthropy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While there are other schools nationwide educators cite as the models they used to develop The Primary School East Bay, including the privately funded The Primary School in East Palo Alto, the East Bay school operates using state tax dollars. As it adds grades, it hopes to prove this kind of intensive wraparound support for families with public funding.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11909836\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11909836\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Children and adults sit on the floor in a classroom.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Children gather around an instructor while Tyran is cradled by his applied behavior analysis therapist, to be part of a regular preschool class at The Primary School East Bay. \u003ccite>(Julia McEvoy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California is investing a historic $3 billion over the next five years to expand the community schools model. The goal is to make high-poverty schools into one-stop shops, serving students' social and emotional needs and, by extension, the needs of their families. The state is investing an additional $1 billion to help schools provide mental health services through partnerships with community health organizations. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Courtney Garcia oversees both The Primary School locations, and says public systems are not currently set up for different agencies to coordinate seamlessly and in a family-centered way, which complicates caregivers’ lives.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Parents really express, many of them, isolation, overwhelm and so many stressors that can make it really difficult for them to reach out and seek help, can make it difficult for them to overcome barriers to accessing resources that are there to serve their child and to serve their family in many cases,” Garcia said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Garcia points out that for children and families in Alameda who qualify for Medi-Cal, only 43% of children are having their annual preventive checkups. At The Primary School East Bay, 100% of students have had those checkups in the past year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kaiser Permanente calls this integrated care between its medical staff and the school staff promising, though it wouldn’t say what share of the costs it was carrying. If Kaiser Permanente, one of California’s largest health care providers, were to supply medical staff to public schools, it could be a game changer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This kind of coordination between her local health clinic and her school does take some stress out of Reece’s life, but not all of it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When things get overwhelming, she turns to the parent coach hired by the school to focus on her well-being. The coach works with 40 to 50 parents. Hall-Sevilla, the parent coach coordinator, says coaches work on parent wellness, nutrition and stress management.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“And I'll say, 'Oh, my gosh, it sounds like you are really stressed out. I can hear and sense the stress in your voice. Would you be OK to take a breath with me?' And so we stop and we take a deep breath, and then they're able to continue on,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Coaches also guide parents and guardians toward reaching their own goals, checking in every two weeks. Reece and other parents also are part of a monthly wellness group of parents who support one another.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before they found The Primary School East Bay, Reece and her husband talked about her homeschooling Tyran, even though it would have meant giving up her job. They both decided Tyran’s needs have to come first.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In my mind now, I don’t care if he's autistic, he's still going to grow up, he's still going to get married, he's still going to have kids … he's still, you know, he's still going to be a force to reckon with in this world,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reece has worked hard to get Tyran into the right preschool where she believes he can thrive. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now she just has to find the right place for him to go to kindergarten.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Keana Reece always makes sure she is last in line when she drops off her 4-year-old son, Tyran, at preschool, so she can minimize the trauma of handing him off to his teacher. As she leads him in by the hand, she gives him the pep talk.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Remember: My name is Tyran. I am loved. I am worthy. And I'm highly intelligent. Got it?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tyran has nonverbal autism, so Reece has come to intuit his every gesture and sound. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Early signs of autism can appear in children during their first two years of life, with\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/autism-spectrum-disorder-communication-problems-children\"> some children becoming verbal as they grow older\u003c/a>. Reece is wearing her “I Love Someone With Autism” T-shirt as she walks up to the classroom door. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You know the drill. Big boys on one side of the door, mommies on the other,” Reece tells him. Tyran starts to cry as he’s led in, and Reece turns away. \"This is the hardest part of my day,\" she admits.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reece brings her son here in the afternoons to a special education preschool at the Hayward Unified School District’s Student Information and Assessment Center (SIAC). But she often feels like it's hard to get the school to respond to what she knows is best for her son. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I talk to the teacher maybe two minutes a week. They take him in. They bring him out. I don't know what he's learning. I don't know anything,” Reece said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the Hayward school district seemed to give her the runaround on buying a new electronic PECS board — a speech tablet that would make it easier for Tyran to communicate — she saved up and sacrificed to buy one herself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When she learned the preschool wouldn’t do inclusion, where Tyran could be with children who did not have disabilities, she began looking for one that would. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It's disheartening because I know who he is, I know what he's capable of. When I look at him, I see greatness,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It's a ton of work, but it's either do the work or let him fall under the bridge. It's the educational system. I just don't know how to navigate the system, and it's overwhelming.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That kind of stress can take a toll.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I was so involved in Tyran and making sure our time was together and making sure the house was together, making sure my husband was together. That Keana was falling by the wayside, and some days it was four or five o'clock and I realized I hadn't eaten anything all day,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11909837\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11909837\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Four children are climbing on a playground structure outside.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6352-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kids play at The Primary School East Bay on Oct. 13, 2021. Children with health care needs are seen by Kaiser medical staff who coordinate solutions with teachers and parents. \u003ccite>(Julia McEvoy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Parenting during the pandemic has been rough on a lot of families. According to research done by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.626456/full\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Frontiers in Psychiatry\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, parents reported increased stress due to difficulty in parenting, with 1 in 5 reporting high stress over the course of the pandemic. Children's resulting social and emotional issues have been showing up inside school classrooms. But while \u003ca class=\"c-link\" href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11908813/california-to-funnel-billions-into-mental-health-resources-for-young-people-but-will-it-come-soon-enough\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11908813/california-to-funnel-billions-into-mental-health-resources-for-young-people-but-will-it-come-soon-enough\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" data-remove-tab-index=\"true\">billions in pandemic tax dollars\u003c/a> have been allocated to help schools with kids’ mental health, little has been done for parents.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It took Reece finding a new preschool to get the help she needed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reece has a trusting relationship with her pediatrician at the Kaiser Hayward-Sleepy Hollow medical clinic. So when she got an email from him about a new public preschool that Kaiser physicians were helping design, she was intrigued.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What she found was a place where she would get to be part of Tyran’s education, and where school staff would treat her as an equal partner. They would also give her a personal coach who would check in with her biweekly.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If there's something at school that I just can't talk to the teacher about or I don't know who to go to, I can call Diane,” said Reece. “‘Hey, this is my problem, what do I do?’ And if it's something that I just can't bring up, she'll say, ‘I'll talk to them.’ So by the time they come to me, the issue was already brought out and the awkwardness of the situation has been taken away. It is pretty amazing.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The publicly funded preschool, called The Primary School East Bay, costs Reece nothing. The school prioritizes families who qualify based on income and enrolls them on a rolling basis when spots are available. Reece can also still keep Tyran in the traditional public school special education class in the afternoons, giving her full-day preschool. This allows her to keep her payroll job at the city of Oakland, though it means shuttling Tyran between schools during her lunch hour.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was something else about this new school that appealed to her: It would have Kaiser medical staff on campus twice a week.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Inside the school, Dr. Paul Espinas points out two medical assistants and a nurse, all Kaiser staff, working outside at tables in the school’s grassy playground. Espinas is a Kaiser pediatrician and medical director at the preschool, which means he meets weekly with school staff to coordinate care for kids and their families.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We should honor the work that school nurses have done in the area. We should honor the work that our school-based health clinics have done. But I feel like a lot of families are still trapped, trapped ping-ponging between different organizations within their community,” said Espinas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Espinas had seen parents struggling to navigate the health care system, describing times when he’d screen a child for a developmental issue and make a referral, and the parent wouldn’t follow up.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“And if they don't make it, and I see them a year later still needing speech therapy or the speech, the speech problems are worse. Like, I feel like that's a systems fail on our part,” said Espinas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Espinas says the clinic’s doctors work directly with teachers at the school to help parents schedule appointments, make sure families bring kids in for vaccines, or get the asthma medication they need. He said the teachers’ role in helping reach out to parents is pivotal, and called the intensive team effort unique.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If we get this model right, other systems hopefully will replicate it. Other Kaisers, other big health systems,” said Espinas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reece says the coordination takes stress off her. “I don't have a medical background and I don't have an educational background, either,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When teachers at Hayward’s district-run preschool sends her to Tyran’s pediatrician to get more information about what Tyran needs, by the time she gets back to the school with the information, she has it confused. She said, \"I have answers, but I'm sure they're not as accurate as my Kaiser physician saying, 'I'll let the school know.'\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because Kaiser staff communicate directly with The Primary School East Bay, now when Reece shows up at the school, teachers already have information her doctor has sent them, and she can sit down with staff to discuss next steps to best assist Tyran.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Teachers are also benefiting. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Remember last year during COVID? I didn't necessarily have to come up with a health plan. Our on-site doctor did,” explained Denise Laney, lead teacher at the school.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“As a teacher, I have had students come into my classroom with not the appropriate attire for the weather. I've had students that come in complaining of hunger. I've had families say, 'Hey, I know that my student needs glasses, but I can't afford it.' I know that someone's been complaining, their tooth hurting, but I'm not sure what to do, and we have resources for all of that.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Having health care staff on site also allows these early childhood educators to remain focused on teaching and creating a respectful way of including and engaging parents in how to best support their kids.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So that we really are able to learn to not just assume things, but to ask a lot of open-ended questions,” said Natasha Hall-Sevilla, manager of parent wellness coaching. “To really learn and understand what our families are going through so that we can change ourselves, and change how we show up for families.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All this can mean extra hours for teachers. But Laney says teachers like her are getting paid more than the norm for early childhood educators who have long complained about being undervalued. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are only 48 children enrolled in The Primary School East Bay — three classrooms each with two teachers and a total staff of 15. So far, the estimated cost of the state-funded preschool is about $20,000 per child, with some of that coming from philanthropy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While there are other schools nationwide educators cite as the models they used to develop The Primary School East Bay, including the privately funded The Primary School in East Palo Alto, the East Bay school operates using state tax dollars. As it adds grades, it hopes to prove this kind of intensive wraparound support for families with public funding.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11909836\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11909836\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Children and adults sit on the floor in a classroom.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_6346-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Children gather around an instructor while Tyran is cradled by his applied behavior analysis therapist, to be part of a regular preschool class at The Primary School East Bay. \u003ccite>(Julia McEvoy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California is investing a historic $3 billion over the next five years to expand the community schools model. The goal is to make high-poverty schools into one-stop shops, serving students' social and emotional needs and, by extension, the needs of their families. The state is investing an additional $1 billion to help schools provide mental health services through partnerships with community health organizations. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Courtney Garcia oversees both The Primary School locations, and says public systems are not currently set up for different agencies to coordinate seamlessly and in a family-centered way, which complicates caregivers’ lives.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Parents really express, many of them, isolation, overwhelm and so many stressors that can make it really difficult for them to reach out and seek help, can make it difficult for them to overcome barriers to accessing resources that are there to serve their child and to serve their family in many cases,” Garcia said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Garcia points out that for children and families in Alameda who qualify for Medi-Cal, only 43% of children are having their annual preventive checkups. At The Primary School East Bay, 100% of students have had those checkups in the past year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kaiser Permanente calls this integrated care between its medical staff and the school staff promising, though it wouldn’t say what share of the costs it was carrying. If Kaiser Permanente, one of California’s largest health care providers, were to supply medical staff to public schools, it could be a game changer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This kind of coordination between her local health clinic and her school does take some stress out of Reece’s life, but not all of it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When things get overwhelming, she turns to the parent coach hired by the school to focus on her well-being. The coach works with 40 to 50 parents. Hall-Sevilla, the parent coach coordinator, says coaches work on parent wellness, nutrition and stress management.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“And I'll say, 'Oh, my gosh, it sounds like you are really stressed out. I can hear and sense the stress in your voice. Would you be OK to take a breath with me?' And so we stop and we take a deep breath, and then they're able to continue on,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Coaches also guide parents and guardians toward reaching their own goals, checking in every two weeks. Reece and other parents also are part of a monthly wellness group of parents who support one another.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before they found The Primary School East Bay, Reece and her husband talked about her homeschooling Tyran, even though it would have meant giving up her job. They both decided Tyran’s needs have to come first.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In my mind now, I don’t care if he's autistic, he's still going to grow up, he's still going to get married, he's still going to have kids … he's still, you know, he's still going to be a force to reckon with in this world,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reece has worked hard to get Tyran into the right preschool where she believes he can thrive. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now she just has to find the right place for him to go to kindergarten.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "california-inks-sweetheart-deal-with-kaiser-permanente-jeopardizing-medicaid-reforms",
"title": "California Inks Sweetheart Deal With Kaiser Permanente, Jeopardizing Medicaid Reforms",
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"headTitle": "California Inks Sweetheart Deal With Kaiser Permanente, Jeopardizing Medicaid Reforms | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s note: KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has negotiated a secret deal to give Kaiser Permanente a special Medicaid contract that would allow the health care behemoth to expand its reach in California and largely continue selecting the enrollees it wants, which other health care plans say leaves them with a disproportionate share of the program’s sickest and costliest patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deal, hammered out behind closed doors between Kaiser Permanente and senior officials in Newsom’s office, could complicate a long-planned and expensive transformation of Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, which covers roughly 14 million lower-income Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It has infuriated executives of other managed-care insurance plans in Medi-Cal, who say they stand to lose hundreds of thousands of patients and millions of dollars a year. The deal allows KP to limit enrollment primarily to its previous enrollees, except in the case of kids in foster care and people who are eligible for both Medicare and Medi-Cal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jarrod McNaughton, CEO, Inland Empire Health Plan\"]‘[This deal] has caused a massive amount of frenzy.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has caused a massive amount of frenzy,” said Jarrod McNaughton, CEO of the Inland Empire Health Plan, which covers about 1.5 million Medi-Cal enrollees in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. “All of us are doing our best to implement the most transformational Medi-Cal initiative in state history, and to put all this together without a public process is very disconcerting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Linnea Koopmans, CEO of the Local Health Plans of California, echoed McNaughton’s concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Insurance plans got wind of the backroom talks when broad outlines of the deal were leaked days before the state briefed their executives Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Bechara Choucair, Kaiser Permanente’s chief health officer, argued \u003ca href=\"https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kaiser-Permanente-response-to-KHN-inquiry.pdf\">in a prepared written response\u003c/a> on behalf of KP that because it operates both as a health insurer and a health care provider, KP should be treated differently from other commercial health care plans that participate in Medi-Cal. Doing business directly with the state will eliminate complexity and improve the quality of care for the Medi-Cal patients it serves, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are not seeking to turn a profit off Medi-Cal enrollment,” Choucair said. “Kaiser Permanente participates in Medi-Cal because it is part of our mission to improve the health of the communities we serve. We participate in Medi-Cal despite incurring losses every year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His statement cited nearly $1.8 billion in losses in the program in 2020 and said KP had donated $402 million to help care for uninsured people that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser Permanente, the state’s largest managed-care organization, is one of Newsom’s most generous supporters and close political allies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new, five-year contract, confirmed to KHN by administration officials and expected to be announced publicly Friday, will take effect in 2024 pending approval from the Legislature — and will make KP the only insurer with a statewide Medi-Cal contract. It allows KP to solidify its position before California’s other commercial Medi-Cal plans participate in a \u003ca href=\"https://californiahealthline.org/news/article/californias-reboot-of-troubled-medi-cal-puts-pressure-on-health-plans/\">statewide bidding process\u003c/a> — and after those plans have spent many months and considerable resources developing their bidding strategies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11902149 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53217_034_Richmond_LifelongCOVIDClinic_01192022-qut-1020x680.jpg']Other health care plans fear the contract could also muddle a massive and expensive initiative called \u003ca href=\"https://californiahealthline.org/news/article/california-medicaid-makeover-calaim-homeless-whole-body-care/\">CalAIM\u003c/a> that seeks to provide social services to the state’s most vulnerable patients, including home-delivered meals, housing aid for unhoused people, and \u003ca href=\"https://californiahealthline.org/news/article/mattresses-and-mold-removal-medi-cal-to-offer-unconventional-treatments-to-asthma-patients/\">mold removal\u003c/a> from homes. Under its new contract, KP must provide some of those services. But some executives at other health care plans say KP will not have to enroll a large number of sick patients who need such services because of how it limits enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics of the deal noted Newsom’s close relationship with KP, which has given nearly $100 million in charitable funding and grant money to boost Newsom’s efforts against homelessness, COVID response and wildfire relief since 2019, according to state records and KP news releases. The health care giant was also one of two hospital systems awarded a no-bid contract from the state to run a \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/our-story/news/announcements/innovative-partnership-creates-los-angeles-surge-hospital\">field hospital in Los Angeles\u003c/a> during the early days of the COVID pandemic, and it got \u003ca href=\"https://khn.org/news/article/blue-shield-spent-years-cultivating-a-relationship-with-newsom-it-got-the-state-vaccine-contract/\">a special agreement\u003c/a> from the Newsom administration to help vaccinate Californians last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jim DeBoo, Newsom’s executive secretary, \u003ca href=\"https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Lobbying/Firms/Detail.aspx?id=1364764&session=2019\">used to lobby for KP\u003c/a> before joining the administration. Toby Douglas, a former director of the state Department of Health Care Services, which runs Medi-Cal, is now Kaiser Permanente’s vice president for national Medicaid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/Paul_Erskine/status/1218294697593933825?s=20&t=VHrby3saI4V4EOHIQJNoWg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, many critics agree that Kaiser Permanente is a linchpin of the state’s health care system, with its strong focus on preventive care and high marks for quality of care. Many of the public insurance plans upset by the deal subcontract with KP for patient care and acknowledge that their overall quality scores will likely decline when KP goes its own way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michelle Baass, director of the state Department of Health Care Services, said Medi-Cal had risked losing KP’s “high quality” and “clinical expertise” altogether had it been required to accept all enrollees, as the other health plans must. But she said KP will have to comply with all other conditions that other plans must meet, including tightened requirements on access, quality, consumer satisfaction and health equity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state will also have greater oversight over patient care, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This proposal is a way to help ensure Kaiser treats more low-income patients, and that more low-income patients have access to Kaiser’s high-quality services,” Baass said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Kaiser Permanente has 9 million enrollees, close to a quarter of all Californians, only about 900,000 of them are Medi-Cal members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the current system, 12 of the 24 other managed care insurance plans that participate in Medi-Cal subcontract with KP to care for a subset of their patients, keeping a small slice of the Medi-Cal dollars earmarked for those patients. Under the new contract, KP can take those patients away and keep all the money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its subcontracts, and in counties where it enrolls patients directly, KP accepts only people who are recent Kaiser Permanente members and, in some cases, their family members. It is the only health plan that can limit its Medi-Cal enrollment in this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new contract allows KP to continue this practice, but it also requires Kaiser Permanente to take on more children in foster care and complex, expensive patients who are eligible for both Medi-Cal and Medicare. It allows KP to expand its geographic reach in Medi-Cal to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baass said the state expects KP’s Medi-Cal enrollment to increase 25% over the life of the contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KP defended the practice of limiting enrollment primarily to its previous members, arguing that it provides “continuity of care when members transition into and out of Medi-Cal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More Health Coverage' tag='health']The state has long pushed for a larger KP footprint in Medi-Cal, citing its high quality ratings, its strong integrated network, and its huge role on the broader health care landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Kaiser Permanente historically has not played a very big role in Medi-Cal, and the state has long recognized that we would benefit from having them more engaged because they get better health outcomes and focus on prevention,” said Daniel Zingale, a former Newsom administration official and health insurance regulator who now advises a lobbying firm that has Kaiser Permanente as a client.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But by accepting primarily people who have been KP members in the recent past, the health care system has been able to limit its share of high-need, expensive patients, say rival health plan executives and former state health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The executives fear the deal could saddle them with even more of these patients in the future, including unhoused people and those with mental illnesses — and make it harder to provide adequate care for them. Many of those patients will join Medi-Cal for the first time under the CalAIM initiative, and KP will not be required to accept many of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Awarding a no-bid Medi-Cal contract to a statewide commercial plan with a track record of ‘cherry picking’ members and offering only limited behavioral health and community support benefits not only conflicts with the intent and goals of CalAIM but undermines publicly organized health care,” according to an internal document prepared by the Inland Empire Health Plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan said it stands to lose the roughly 144,000 Medi-Cal members it delegates to KP and about $10 million in annual revenue. LA Care, the nation’s largest Medicaid health plan, with 2.4 million enrollees in Los Angeles County, will lose its 244,000 KP members, based on data shared by the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state had been scheduled on Wednesday to release final details and instructions for the commercial plans that are submitting bids for new contracts starting in 2024. But it delayed the release a week to make the KP deal public beforehand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baass said the state agreed to exempt KP from the bidding process because the standardized contract expected to result from it would have required the insurer to accept all enrollees, which Kaiser Permanente does not have the capacity to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not surprising to me that the state will go to extraordinary means to make sure that Kaiser is in the mix, given it has been in the vanguard of our health care delivery system,” Zingale said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having a direct statewide Medi-Cal contract will greatly reduce the administrative workload for KP, which will now deal with only one agency on reporting and oversight, rather than the 12 public plans it currently subcontracts with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the new contract will give it an even closer relationship with Newsom and state health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/community-health/news/25m-pledge-to-california-governors-housing-fund\">KP gave $25 million to one of Newsom’s key initiatives\u003c/a>, a state homelessness fund to move people off the streets and into hotel rooms, according to a KHN analysis of charitable payments filed with the California \u003ca href=\"https://www.fppc.ca.gov/transparency/behested-payments.html\">Fair Political Practices Commission\u003c/a>. The same year, it donated $9.75 million to a state COVID relief fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In summer 2020, when local and state public health departments struggled to contain COVID spread, the health care giant pledged \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/community-health/news/kaiser-permanente-commits-63m-to-support-contact-tracing-in-california\">$63 million in grant funding to help contract-tracing efforts\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KP’s influence extends beyond its massive charitable giving. Its CEO, Greg Adams, landed an appointment on the governor’s economic recovery task force early in the pandemic, and Newsom has showcased KP hospitals at vaccine media events throughout the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/KPSCALnews/status/1338603794062438400?s=20&t=4dpVkiilzowe4ESRlCyPOg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In California and across the U.S., the campaign contributions and the organizing, the lobbying, all of that stuff is important,” said Andrew Kelly, an assistant professor of health policy at California State University, East Bay. “But there’s a different type of power that comes from your ability to have this privileged position within public programs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by \u003ca href=\"https://khn.org/\">KHN\u003c/a>, which publishes \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiahealthline.org/\">California Healthline\u003c/a>, an editorially independent service of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.chcf.org/\">California Health Care Foundation\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The deal, hammered out behind closed doors between Kaiser Permanente and senior officials in Gov. Newsom's office, could complicate a long-planned transformation of Medi-Cal, which covers roughly 14 million lower-income Californians.",
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"title": "California Inks Sweetheart Deal With Kaiser Permanente, Jeopardizing Medicaid Reforms | KQED",
"description": "The deal, hammered out behind closed doors between Kaiser Permanente and senior officials in Gov. Newsom's office, could complicate a long-planned transformation of Medi-Cal, which covers roughly 14 million lower-income Californians.",
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"headline": "California Inks Sweetheart Deal With Kaiser Permanente, Jeopardizing Medicaid Reforms",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://khn.org/news/author/bernard-j-wolfson/\">Bernard J. Wolfson\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://khn.org/news/author/angela-hart/\">Angela Hart\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://khn.org/news/author/samantha-young/\">Samantha Young\u003c/a>",
"subhead": "The backroom deal with politically connected Kaiser Permanente, which infuriated executives of other Medi-Cal health plans, allows the health care giant to continue selecting the enrollees it wants.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s note: KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has negotiated a secret deal to give Kaiser Permanente a special Medicaid contract that would allow the health care behemoth to expand its reach in California and largely continue selecting the enrollees it wants, which other health care plans say leaves them with a disproportionate share of the program’s sickest and costliest patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deal, hammered out behind closed doors between Kaiser Permanente and senior officials in Newsom’s office, could complicate a long-planned and expensive transformation of Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, which covers roughly 14 million lower-income Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It has infuriated executives of other managed-care insurance plans in Medi-Cal, who say they stand to lose hundreds of thousands of patients and millions of dollars a year. The deal allows KP to limit enrollment primarily to its previous enrollees, except in the case of kids in foster care and people who are eligible for both Medicare and Medi-Cal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘[This deal] has caused a massive amount of frenzy.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has caused a massive amount of frenzy,” said Jarrod McNaughton, CEO of the Inland Empire Health Plan, which covers about 1.5 million Medi-Cal enrollees in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. “All of us are doing our best to implement the most transformational Medi-Cal initiative in state history, and to put all this together without a public process is very disconcerting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Linnea Koopmans, CEO of the Local Health Plans of California, echoed McNaughton’s concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Insurance plans got wind of the backroom talks when broad outlines of the deal were leaked days before the state briefed their executives Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Bechara Choucair, Kaiser Permanente’s chief health officer, argued \u003ca href=\"https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kaiser-Permanente-response-to-KHN-inquiry.pdf\">in a prepared written response\u003c/a> on behalf of KP that because it operates both as a health insurer and a health care provider, KP should be treated differently from other commercial health care plans that participate in Medi-Cal. Doing business directly with the state will eliminate complexity and improve the quality of care for the Medi-Cal patients it serves, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are not seeking to turn a profit off Medi-Cal enrollment,” Choucair said. “Kaiser Permanente participates in Medi-Cal because it is part of our mission to improve the health of the communities we serve. We participate in Medi-Cal despite incurring losses every year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His statement cited nearly $1.8 billion in losses in the program in 2020 and said KP had donated $402 million to help care for uninsured people that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser Permanente, the state’s largest managed-care organization, is one of Newsom’s most generous supporters and close political allies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new, five-year contract, confirmed to KHN by administration officials and expected to be announced publicly Friday, will take effect in 2024 pending approval from the Legislature — and will make KP the only insurer with a statewide Medi-Cal contract. It allows KP to solidify its position before California’s other commercial Medi-Cal plans participate in a \u003ca href=\"https://californiahealthline.org/news/article/californias-reboot-of-troubled-medi-cal-puts-pressure-on-health-plans/\">statewide bidding process\u003c/a> — and after those plans have spent many months and considerable resources developing their bidding strategies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Other health care plans fear the contract could also muddle a massive and expensive initiative called \u003ca href=\"https://californiahealthline.org/news/article/california-medicaid-makeover-calaim-homeless-whole-body-care/\">CalAIM\u003c/a> that seeks to provide social services to the state’s most vulnerable patients, including home-delivered meals, housing aid for unhoused people, and \u003ca href=\"https://californiahealthline.org/news/article/mattresses-and-mold-removal-medi-cal-to-offer-unconventional-treatments-to-asthma-patients/\">mold removal\u003c/a> from homes. Under its new contract, KP must provide some of those services. But some executives at other health care plans say KP will not have to enroll a large number of sick patients who need such services because of how it limits enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics of the deal noted Newsom’s close relationship with KP, which has given nearly $100 million in charitable funding and grant money to boost Newsom’s efforts against homelessness, COVID response and wildfire relief since 2019, according to state records and KP news releases. The health care giant was also one of two hospital systems awarded a no-bid contract from the state to run a \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/our-story/news/announcements/innovative-partnership-creates-los-angeles-surge-hospital\">field hospital in Los Angeles\u003c/a> during the early days of the COVID pandemic, and it got \u003ca href=\"https://khn.org/news/article/blue-shield-spent-years-cultivating-a-relationship-with-newsom-it-got-the-state-vaccine-contract/\">a special agreement\u003c/a> from the Newsom administration to help vaccinate Californians last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jim DeBoo, Newsom’s executive secretary, \u003ca href=\"https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Lobbying/Firms/Detail.aspx?id=1364764&session=2019\">used to lobby for KP\u003c/a> before joining the administration. Toby Douglas, a former director of the state Department of Health Care Services, which runs Medi-Cal, is now Kaiser Permanente’s vice president for national Medicaid.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Still, many critics agree that Kaiser Permanente is a linchpin of the state’s health care system, with its strong focus on preventive care and high marks for quality of care. Many of the public insurance plans upset by the deal subcontract with KP for patient care and acknowledge that their overall quality scores will likely decline when KP goes its own way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michelle Baass, director of the state Department of Health Care Services, said Medi-Cal had risked losing KP’s “high quality” and “clinical expertise” altogether had it been required to accept all enrollees, as the other health plans must. But she said KP will have to comply with all other conditions that other plans must meet, including tightened requirements on access, quality, consumer satisfaction and health equity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state will also have greater oversight over patient care, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This proposal is a way to help ensure Kaiser treats more low-income patients, and that more low-income patients have access to Kaiser’s high-quality services,” Baass said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Kaiser Permanente has 9 million enrollees, close to a quarter of all Californians, only about 900,000 of them are Medi-Cal members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the current system, 12 of the 24 other managed care insurance plans that participate in Medi-Cal subcontract with KP to care for a subset of their patients, keeping a small slice of the Medi-Cal dollars earmarked for those patients. Under the new contract, KP can take those patients away and keep all the money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its subcontracts, and in counties where it enrolls patients directly, KP accepts only people who are recent Kaiser Permanente members and, in some cases, their family members. It is the only health plan that can limit its Medi-Cal enrollment in this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new contract allows KP to continue this practice, but it also requires Kaiser Permanente to take on more children in foster care and complex, expensive patients who are eligible for both Medi-Cal and Medicare. It allows KP to expand its geographic reach in Medi-Cal to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baass said the state expects KP’s Medi-Cal enrollment to increase 25% over the life of the contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KP defended the practice of limiting enrollment primarily to its previous members, arguing that it provides “continuity of care when members transition into and out of Medi-Cal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The state has long pushed for a larger KP footprint in Medi-Cal, citing its high quality ratings, its strong integrated network, and its huge role on the broader health care landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Kaiser Permanente historically has not played a very big role in Medi-Cal, and the state has long recognized that we would benefit from having them more engaged because they get better health outcomes and focus on prevention,” said Daniel Zingale, a former Newsom administration official and health insurance regulator who now advises a lobbying firm that has Kaiser Permanente as a client.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But by accepting primarily people who have been KP members in the recent past, the health care system has been able to limit its share of high-need, expensive patients, say rival health plan executives and former state health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The executives fear the deal could saddle them with even more of these patients in the future, including unhoused people and those with mental illnesses — and make it harder to provide adequate care for them. Many of those patients will join Medi-Cal for the first time under the CalAIM initiative, and KP will not be required to accept many of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Awarding a no-bid Medi-Cal contract to a statewide commercial plan with a track record of ‘cherry picking’ members and offering only limited behavioral health and community support benefits not only conflicts with the intent and goals of CalAIM but undermines publicly organized health care,” according to an internal document prepared by the Inland Empire Health Plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan said it stands to lose the roughly 144,000 Medi-Cal members it delegates to KP and about $10 million in annual revenue. LA Care, the nation’s largest Medicaid health plan, with 2.4 million enrollees in Los Angeles County, will lose its 244,000 KP members, based on data shared by the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state had been scheduled on Wednesday to release final details and instructions for the commercial plans that are submitting bids for new contracts starting in 2024. But it delayed the release a week to make the KP deal public beforehand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baass said the state agreed to exempt KP from the bidding process because the standardized contract expected to result from it would have required the insurer to accept all enrollees, which Kaiser Permanente does not have the capacity to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not surprising to me that the state will go to extraordinary means to make sure that Kaiser is in the mix, given it has been in the vanguard of our health care delivery system,” Zingale said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having a direct statewide Medi-Cal contract will greatly reduce the administrative workload for KP, which will now deal with only one agency on reporting and oversight, rather than the 12 public plans it currently subcontracts with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the new contract will give it an even closer relationship with Newsom and state health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/community-health/news/25m-pledge-to-california-governors-housing-fund\">KP gave $25 million to one of Newsom’s key initiatives\u003c/a>, a state homelessness fund to move people off the streets and into hotel rooms, according to a KHN analysis of charitable payments filed with the California \u003ca href=\"https://www.fppc.ca.gov/transparency/behested-payments.html\">Fair Political Practices Commission\u003c/a>. The same year, it donated $9.75 million to a state COVID relief fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In summer 2020, when local and state public health departments struggled to contain COVID spread, the health care giant pledged \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/community-health/news/kaiser-permanente-commits-63m-to-support-contact-tracing-in-california\">$63 million in grant funding to help contract-tracing efforts\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KP’s influence extends beyond its massive charitable giving. Its CEO, Greg Adams, landed an appointment on the governor’s economic recovery task force early in the pandemic, and Newsom has showcased KP hospitals at vaccine media events throughout the state.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>“In California and across the U.S., the campaign contributions and the organizing, the lobbying, all of that stuff is important,” said Andrew Kelly, an assistant professor of health policy at California State University, East Bay. “But there’s a different type of power that comes from your ability to have this privileged position within public programs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by \u003ca href=\"https://khn.org/\">KHN\u003c/a>, which publishes \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiahealthline.org/\">California Healthline\u003c/a>, an editorially independent service of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.chcf.org/\">California Health Care Foundation\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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