About 2,400 Kaiser Permanente mental health professionals were striking Wednesday in Northern California over concerns that the health care giant is replacing therapists with artificial intelligence.
Kaiser says the union claim is false and AI will not replace human assessment or make care decisions for patients. Facilities are open, the company said. The two sides have been negotiating a new contract since last summer.
The mental health professionals were joined in their one-day strike by more than 23,000 Kaiser nurses. The therapists, who include social workers and psychologists, provide mental health and addiction medicine treatment for an estimated 4.6 million patients in the San Francisco Bay Area, central valley and Sacramento regions.
Oakland-based Kaiser does not currently use AI for therapy, but the National Union of Healthcare Workers fears the technology will become good enough to make it an attractive option for the company.
Dr. Emma Olsen, a psychiatrist at Kaiser in Vallejo and a union steward, said the union is also pushing back on management demands to curb time spent on patient notes or answering patient messages.
“They’re trying to take all that time away. They really just want us to be seeing people back to back to back, to be seeing more people for less time with less resources,” she said.
Katy Roemer, a nurse in adult and family medicine, said the California Nurses Association shares concerns raised by mental health professionals and want to ensure that humans provide care for other humans.
“Is AI going to benefit patients? Is AI going to benefit the people that work for Kaiser Permanente? Or is AI going to benefit the bottom line of the corporation?” she said. “So we want AI that’s transparent, that is allowing people to do their jobs.”
In a message sent this week to employees, management said they have hired more mental health workers.
“We see technology — and AI, in particular — as a way to support you in managing your practice and provide you with tools that facilitate greater access to care and connection with patients,” reads the message sent on behalf of Lionel Sims, senior vice president, Human Resources, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, and Priya Smith, chief employee human resources officer, The Permanente Medical Group.
In 2023, Kaiser agreed to a $200 million settlement with the California Department of Managed Health Care over violations of state mental health laws.
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