Union says Kaiser is canceling visits illegally prestrike

The health care union organizing an upcoming strike of more than 2,000 Kaiser Permanente mental health workers said Thursday that the health care giant was illegally canceling appointments ahead of the planned labor action.

The National Union of Healthcare Workers filed a complaint with state officials Thursday accusing Kaiser officials of canceling or suspending mental and behavioral health services, citing the workers’ strike — which is set to begin on Monday.

Reasons for strike include worker complaints over high wait times for patients — weeks or even months, according to the union — as well as high workloads and burnout among staff.

According to state law, Kaiser would have to continue providing timely health care to patients, even during the strike: If in-network services are not available, Kaiser must arrange for out-ofnetwork care for its patients at the same cost, according to SB221, a California law passed last year requiring health plans to provide timely access to mental health treatment.

This month, officials with the state department of managed health care sent a letter to Kaiser officials asking how they planned to comply with this law during the strike. In a hearing on Wednesday, the department’s director Mary Watanabe said she did not yet know of Kaiser’s plan to do so. When contacted by email on Friday, Kaiser did not immediately answer whether the company had responded to the state’s letter.

In the complaint, the union alleged that Kaiser “began canceling thousands of enrollees’ access to certain behavioral health services, including intensive services for enrollees recently discharged from psychiatric hospitals and those at risk of hospitalization due to their conditions” without “replacing the canceled services.”

Deb Catsavas, senior vice president of human resources at Kaiser Permanente, disputed that claim, saying that “care will be provided by our mental health clinicians who decide to continue providing care” and “through an expansion of our network of highquality external providers in the community.”

She added that “urgent and emergency care will continue to be prioritized. Some nonurgent appointments may need to be rescheduled for another day or with another clinician,” and that “any patient whose appointment may be affected will be contacted directly prior to the date of the appointment to ensure they receive the care needed.”

Catsavas also criticized the strike, calling it “a bargaining tactic this union has used every time it has bargained a new contract with Kaiser Permanente, over the past 12 years of its existence.”

Kaiser’s mental health care has been under scrutiny in recent months — in May, the state announced that it would be conducting a non-routine audit of Kaiser’s mental health services based on a spike in complaints it received about the company.

In a hearing on Wednesday regarding compliance with SB 221, the timely treatment law, Kaiser came under fire from several speakers for failing to comply. Kaiser representatives, as well as representatives from other health plans, did not attend the hearing.

State Sen. Scott Wiener emphasized at the hearing that the strike did not “in any way” excuse Kaiser from ensuring that patients have timely access to care, “including going out-ofnetwork and paying for that.”

“I am deeply concerned about what is going to happen to patients when the upcoming strike starts,” he said. “We are all going to be watching very closely to make sure that Kaiser complies with the law when this strike happens.”