We continue to deliver high-quality health care during strike

On October 21, NUHW began an open-ended strike at Kaiser Permanente facilities across Southern California. We are grateful to our dedicated care teams, mental health leaders, and our extensive external network of highly qualified, licensed therapists who have ensured we continue to deliver on our promise of high-quality health care. 

We also acknowledge the hundreds of mental health professionals who are choosing not to walk away from their patients during this strike. Their decision has helped us to ensure our patients have continued access to high-quality mental health and addiction medicine care.

We reached out to all our patients with appointments this week — connecting with all but the 3% who did not return calls or texts — and provided appointments to everyone who wanted one.

Most of our patients currently work with a provider who is not participating in the strike. For those members who usually receive care from a NUHW-represented therapist, we have been proactively reaching out to them to offer alternative options to meet their needs. 

This open-ended strike is the union’s unproductive bargaining tactic. The union has been slow-walking negotiations and creating theatrical disruptions, despite the strong proposals Kaiser Permanente has put on the table. We ask NUHW to engage productively at the bargaining table to reach an agreement. 

Across the board, Kaiser Permanente is a leader in pay and benefits. Our philosophy is to pay wages that are at or up to 10% above market. Today, our Southern California therapists make on average 18% more than their peers earn in other organizations. We are offering across the board wage increases that total an additional 18% increase in pay for therapists over the next four years. NUHW is asking for a 28% wage increase over 3 years, increasing therapist pay to nearly 40% above market. Our offer enhances the comprehensive benefits our mental health professionals enjoy — including health care coverage that costs virtually nothing with no deductibles and low co-pays, a generous retirement savings plan, and funds to cover medical costs after they retire. 

Amidst a mental health crisis, the union is proposing its members spend significantly less time with patients. A key issue in our negotiations with NUHW is the amount of time our therapists spend caring for patients. Currently, our therapists have about 25% of their work time available for record keeping, planning, administrative tasks, and meetings. NUHW is proposing that full-time therapists decrease time spent seeing patients and increase their time away from direct patient care by nearly 50% or at least 19 hours a week. This would reduce critically needed patient appointments by 15,000 every month. This is unacceptable for our patients. 

We remain open to continuing negotiations. We understand give and take. We are committed to negotiating in good faith until a deal is done. We ask the same of NUHW.

Highlights of our proposal include:

• Wages: An 18% wage increase over the 4 years of the contract: a 5% increase in year 1, a 5% increase in year 2, a 4% increase in year 3, and a 4% increase in year 4. We also added a longevity step of 2% at 25 years. And union members continue to be eligible for an annual incentive bonus of up to $5,000.
• Protected time for planning and preparation: Our proposal provides up to 6 hours per week for activities such as planning, preparation, and coordination, with 4 hours of it designated as protected time, which helps to ensure sufficient access for our patients and members to be seen. These 6 hours are in addition to 2 hours set aside for meetings and another 5 hours of administrative time that is already built into appointment schedules. In contrast, the union’s proposal could result in a full-time therapist spending nearly half of their time — potentially 19 hours a week — not seeing patients.
• Retirement medical benefits: Most large companies do not cover retiree medical health benefits. We provide a fully subsidized Retiree Medical Plan and have offered enhancements to this plan, adding even more value.
  • HRA (Health Reimbursement Account) in the amount of $2,500 per year of service for retirees after January 1, 2025 (up from $2,000)
  • HRA Supplement of $15,000 at age 85 for retirees after January 1, 2025 (up from $10,000)
• Retirement income: We offer an industry-competitive defined contribution plan that includes an employer contribution of up to 9%: a 6% contribution from Kaiser Permanente whether or not eligible employees contribute, plus an additional 3% match. This is very competitive in the market for a retirement income plan.
• Tuition reimbursement and student loan assistance: We also offer our mental health professionals $3,000 in tuition reimbursement on top of the amount offered to all Kaiser Permanente employees, as well as assistance to help pay down student loans.

Care during the strike 

Kaiser Permanente medical centers and medical offices remain open, including our hospitals, emergency departments, urgent care departments, primary and specialty care departments, pharmacies, and laboratories. We have worked to minimize potential disruptions the strike may have caused. Our urgent and crisis services are always available. 

In Southern California, we currently provide mental health and addiction care services through our employed Kaiser Permanente professionals and an external network of contracted providers. This allows us to continue delivering care. It’s important to note that approximately 60% of our patients who are receiving mental health and addiction medicine care currently receive their care from providers who are not participating in the strike. 

We are grateful to our employees who chose to put their patients’ needs first and continue to deliver care today.

Addendum: November 12, 2024
Delivering on our promise

As part of its important regulatory role, the Department of Managed Health Care will continue to review the effectiveness of our plans to deliver care during the open-ended NUHW strike. We discussed our plans with the DMHC well before the strike started and continue to have regular discussions with the department. Our plans are thorough, well thought-out, and well executed.

As part of the DMHC’s continued oversight during NUHW’s unnecessary and counterproductive strike, the department has already conducted a site visit of our operations. We will continue to fully cooperate with the DMHC through the strike.

While we’re disappointed with the NUHW’s decision to strike, we are pleased with how well our strike continuity plan is working, as we continue to deliver on our promise of timely, high-quality mental health and addiction care. We are confident that patients, who come to Kaiser Permanente for healing, are continuing to get the exceptional care they have come to expect. And we are grateful to the thousands of physicians and employees who are making this happen day in and day out.