Dive Brief:
- Hundreds of Kaiser Permanente mental health workers, including psychologists, therapists, psychiatric nurses and other workers represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers kicked off what's expected to be the first day of a week-long strike over the adequacy of the hospital's mental-health resources on Tuesday.
- The pickets took place in front of 10 hospitals, including Kaiser's San Diego hospital on Zion Avenue, where strikers chanted, "mental health over corporate wealth" and "Kaiser, Kaiser why the greed? Cut back on your dirty deeds."
- Emergency services were unaffected as a result of the strike, according to a Kaiser spokesperson. The hospital did not release the number of mental-health appointments that had to be changed.
Dive Insight:
The mental health access issue is longstanding: Negotiations between Kaiser and the union for their first contract have been going on for five years. However, state regulators will likely have the final word here. The Department of Managed Care dunned Kaiser with a $4 million fine in 2013 for a failure to provide timely mental-health appointments. The department will be releasing a follow-up report this month to "determine if Kaiser has corrected the deficiencies outlined in the initial report."
Kaiser said in a recent statement that it has hired 39 therapists since 2011, including 17 in 2014. It is also considering a fifth outpatient mental-health clinic in the county, something the union's officials said they have sought for years.