December 6, 2024
We remain focused on providing care
When NUHW is ready to reengage meaningfully at the table, we will be ready.
Kaiser Permanente continues to meet, and most often exceed, all of the standards and steps we outlined in our NUHW strike contingency plans. We track every appointment daily and our data shows that members seeking mental health services during the strike are getting the timely, high-quality mental health and addiction medicine care they need. We also communicate regularly with the Department of Managed Health Care to validate our work.
Any member who needs an appointment can get one thanks to our extensive external network of more than 13,000 highly qualified providers, and the hundreds of NUHW-represented employees who have prioritized their patients by returning to work. We are pleased that since this strike started more than 6 weeks ago, we have scheduled more than 235,000 appointments for our members.
Some of our members are opting to wait for their provider to return from striking. We still check in with those members, and each member who chooses to wait is provided a direct appointment line number to call should they change their mind. Our members who are identified as high-risk are regularly monitored by our clinical team to ensure their needs are being met. We contact these members within 10 days to check their well-being and again offer a rescheduled appointment with an external therapist. Importantly, they also have the crisis line number if they experience a more acute need at any time. Crisis clinicians are available 24/7 to all patients with urgent needs, and urgent follow-up appointments are scheduled within 48 hours, if appropriate.
Additionally, we remain focused on the continuity of care of our patients in our specialized and intensive mental health and addiction medicine programs. These programs operate uninterrupted for our most vulnerable patients. This includes the 24/7 crisis care hotline and staffing in our emergency rooms and hospitals with required and appropriate social workers and mental health professionals.
This strike by NUHW is entirely unnecessary. We have a generous offer on the table with raises totaling 18% over the next 4 years, and we are offering our therapists the time they need to care for our patients. In contrast, the union is proposing therapists spend up to 50% of their time not seeing patients. This would reduce critically needed patient appointments by 15,000 every month. This is unacceptable for our patients, especially in this time of high need. At the same time, the union is demanding raises that would put therapist’s pay nearly 40% above their peers. These demands are not in the best interests of our patients.
When the union is ready to come to the bargaining table with an interest in reaching a mutually beneficial agreement, we will be ready to engage. Until then — and always — we are focused on providing care.
Any member needing a mental health care appointment can call 1-833-KP-WITH-U (1-833-579-4848), or access care through our member portal at kp.org or through our Kaiser Permanente app.
Please view our latest offer.
