A strike that started Monday involving 2,000 psychological well being clinicians at Kaiser Permanente amenities in Northern California has led to greater than a thousand canceled appointments for behavioral well being providers, in accordance with the union and system.
About 1,600 follow-up remedy appointments have been canceled thus far this week, the well being system confirmed to Healthcare Dive in an e-mail on Wednesday.
Some sufferers have opted out of visits with different therapists if these they’d beforehand had appointments with are on strike and unavailable, the system stated.
Those that walked off the job embrace psychologists, therapists, chemical dependency counselors and social employees who need measures in new contracts that permit for extra manageable caseloads, amongst different objects, in accordance with the Nationwide Union of Healthcare Employees, which represents these employees.
They are saying they’re stretched too skinny and unable to offer ample care to sufferers with psychological well being circumstances, in accordance with the union.
Employees raised the alarm over canceled appointments previous to the strike, citing inner emails and communications in a complaint to state regulators filed Thursday.
Below California law, if well timed entry to psychological well being care service is unavailable from in-network suppliers, well being plans should prepare for care to be supplied out-of-network.
The system stated it’s at the moment reaching out to every affected person with impacted appointments and prioritizing pressing and emergent instances whereas the strike continues. It additionally famous that a number of hundred therapists didn’t find yourself strolling off the job, in accordance with the e-mail assertion.
The strike is open-ended, with no set finish date.
The California Division of Managed Well being Care, which regulates the system, issued a discover Monday that it’s monitoring access to psychological well being providers for sufferers enrolled in Kaiser well being plans that might be impacted by the strike.
The employees and system have been in negotiations for over a yr and had been close to an settlement previous to the deliberate strike date. Though clinicians accepted a wage supply from Kaiser, they had been unable to get provisions round staffing and wait instances, in accordance with the union.
