Mental health clinicians reached a tentative agreement Thursday with Kaiser Permanente on a three-year contract, bringing the nearly six-month strike to a conclusion.
The strike, which lasted 172 days, was the longest work stoppage by mental health care workers in U.S. history.
The approximately 50 Kaiser Permanente psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and chemical dependency counselors represented by by the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) in Hawaii will review the tentative agreement and participate in a ratification vote, after which details of the agreement will be made available.
Therapists will return to work on Tuesday, and picket lines ended Friday, the health care organization said in a statement.
Laura Lott, Senior Director of Communications and Public Relations, said Kaiser Permanente operates 20 facilities across the state with three on the Big Island.
She said fewer than 8% of Kaiser Permanente Hawaii’s 265,000+ members seek mental health services in a given year based on internal data from 2020 and 2021.
“The approximately 50 mental health clinicians represented by NUHW are just one part of our Kaiser Permanente Hawaii mental health care team, along with psychiatrists and additional behavioral health care staff,” she said. “More than half of our behavioral health patients receive their care from practitioners such as our contracted mental health providers in the community, who are not involved with the strike.”
Lott said despite the strike, more than 50% of their dedicated mental health staff on a given day remained on the job caring for members.
“In addition, our Kaiser Permanente psychiatrists, clinical managers, and other licensed clinicians have stepped in to meet with people needing care,” she said.
She said they have also been working diligently to find community providers with new or additional capacity to see patients.
“We have contracted and credentialed 65 additional external providers since the strike began and have several dozen existing contracted providers opening additional appointments for Kaiser Permanente members. In addition, we have contracts with six large national therapy vendors to expand our capacity to refer patients externally. Currently, there are more than 100 Kaiser Permanente contracted mental health providers accepting new patients,” said Lott.
Kaiser Permanente in a prepared statement said it has the “deepest appreciation and gratitude for our mental health professionals and the extraordinary care they provide to our members, so we are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with NUHW. Our mental health staff represented by NUHW will now vote on the new agreement and we look forward to hearing from the union regarding ratifications status.”