WEST

OAKLAND, Calif.— The Kaiser Foundation Health Plan was fined $4 million by the state of California for failing to correct violations of mental health laws, including publishing materials that wrongly said the organization could deny long-term mental healthcare services to some plan enrollees. The health plan, part of notfor-profit Kaiser Permanente’s integrated delivery system, also was accused of violating state law by making some patients wait more than 14 days for an initial mental health appointment. And it was accused of keeping data in ways that made it impossible to tell whether the plan was meeting its obligations to offer mental health appointments to patients quickly enough under the law, according to a 23-page deficiency report issued by the California Department of Managed Health Care. The department said in its complaint that the issues surfaced during a routine review of the health plan that began in January 2012. The National Union of Healthcare Workers, however, took credit for triggering the investigation with the publication of a 34-page report on what it called the health plan’s “failure to provide timely and appropriate mental health services.” Kaiser officials said they will contact state officials to discuss the $4 million fine, which the system viewed as “unwarranted and excessive” in light of the system’s ongoing efforts to resolve the issues outlined in the report. “Each of the findings in the 2012 DMHC survey has already been corrected, or is very far along toward resolution,” Kaiser said. “Importantly, the DMHC survey did not identify shortcomings with members’ ability to receive urgent or emergency mental healthcare. Further, the survey did not identify problems with the quality of mental health care that our professionals provide to our members.” —

Joe Carlson