{"id":537333,"date":"2026-03-21T20:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T20:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/537333\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T20:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T20:37:08","slug":"thank-god-theyre-still-alive-kaiser-therapists-claim-its-new-screening-system-puts-patients-at-higher-risk-by-delaying-their-care-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/537333\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Thank God they\u2019re still alive\u2019: Kaiser therapists claim its new screening system puts patients at higher risk by delaying their care | Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ilana Marcucci-Morris is worried about the patients she treats and how long it took for them to arrive in her office. At Kaiser Permanente\u2019s psychiatry outpatient clinic in Oakland, California<\/a>, she says she increasingly finds herself assessing people experiencing severe mental health issues who she believes should have been sent to the emergency room weeks earlier. For those who do make it to their appointments, she thinks: \u201cThank God they\u2019re still alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t always this way, according to Marcucci-Morris, a licensed clinical social worker. Licensed professionals used to almost always be the first point of contact for patients with behavioral health issues at Kaiser, she said. She has noticed a change since January 2024, after the healthcare giant introduced a new screening process for first-time patients. The new system introduced clerical workers who are not licensed practitioners, who ask scripted \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno\u201d questions to assess the severity of patients\u2019 conditions and how urgently they need to be seen. Around the same time, Kaiser also rolled out a different way to screen some patients: e-visits, essentially online questionnaires patients take before getting scheduled with a licensed health care professional.<\/p>\n

Marcucci-Morris joined about 2,400 northern California mental health professionals employed by Kaiser and represented by the National Union of Health<\/a> Care Workers (NUHW) on a one-day strike on Wednesday to protest changes to the company\u2019s patient screening processes \u2013 and to raise concerns that Kaiser has plans to use AI to replace licensed therapists for certain kinds of work.<\/p>\n

\u201cHuman work needs to stay with human beings,\u201d Marcucci-Morris said.<\/p>\n

Five licensed Kaiser therapists also said that since the California healthcare giant began rolling out its new patient assessment process, they\u2019ve seen patients with high-risk cases wait longer for care. At the same time, these therapists say lower-risk patients are sometimes being fast-tracked to appointments with clinicians and clogging up an already strained system. Since January 2025, therapists have reported more than 70 examples of Kaiser\u2019s mental health screening system resulting in negative care outcomes, according to an administrative complaint<\/a> with the California Department of Managed Health Care that the NUHW in northern California filed against Kaiser.<\/p>\n

Kaiser Permanente pharmacy and laboratory workers go on strike in front of the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center in California, on 9 February. Photograph: Kayla Bartkowski\/Los Angeles Times\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Kaiser said in an emailed comment that NUHW leadership has made misleading claims about access and care, and that \u201cAI and Clerical staff are not conducting any assessments, making any clinical determinations nor conducting clinical triage.\u201d The statement also noted that clerical staff are trained to escalate cases to clinical staff through an immediate transfer to a crisis therapist. Kaiser has also said it is \u201cgrowing our workforce<\/a>, not shrinking it\u201d, although NUHW representatives say they believe the number of triage therapists has decreased significantly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe AI can be helpful when it supports clinicians \u2013 by reducing administrative work or improving efficiency \u2013 but it does not replace clinical judgment or human assessment,\u201d Kaiser\u2019s statement reads.<\/p>\n

\u2018The writing on the wall\u2019<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s NUHW strike was based, in particular, on the union\u2019s complaint with the California department of managed health care filed last year<\/a> in northern California that alleged Kaiser\u2019s new patient screening system is illegal. A separate, but similar, complaint was also filed by NUHW in southern California<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n

In a 2025 internal survey of Kaiser\u2019s mental health workers in northern California that the Guardian obtained, more than one-third of employees \u201creported that Kaiser has already rolled out AI or other technologies they fear could negatively affect their work or the care patients receive\u201d. Almost half of Kaiser workers said they are \u201csomewhat or very uncomfortable with the introduction of AI tools into their clinical practice\u201d.<\/p>\n

Many were particularly worried about transparency and data retention policies tied to the companies\u2019 use of AI software Abridge for note-taking. A Kaiser representative has said that the company\u2019s staff are not required to use the tool, and that it requires patient consent.<\/p>\n

Kristi Reimer, a licensed psychologist who says she used to do mental health triage assessments in Kaiser\u2019s Walnut Creek facility, said she pre-emptively left her position because she saw \u201cthe writing on the wall\u201d. She says she wouldn\u2019t have left for another department if Kaiser hadn\u2019t changed the nature of its mental health assessment system so drastically.<\/p>\n

Harimandir Khalsa, who does triage for Kaiser in Walnut Creek, California, said that her team of nine staff has been reduced by two-thirds over the last two years.<\/p>\n

She still can\u2019t imagine leaving her role. She loves using her decades of research and clinical experience to help a large number of people at such a vulnerable juncture in their lives.<\/p>\n

As she watches her department\u2019s triage staff dwindle around her, she can\u2019t help but feel anxious about her future. She worries that clerical staff and questionnaires are already doing a part of her job \u2013 even if she thinks they\u2019re not doing it well. She can\u2019t help but wonder: \u201cAm I next?\u201d \u201cWhat is my future?\u201d<\/p>\n

Why a licensed therapist make a difference<\/p>\n

A patient\u2019s initial point of contact when seeking mental help can determine whether they see a licensed clinician at all, as well as the type of appointments they receive, according to the NUHW.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the union is so concerned about Kaiser\u2019s recent patient assessment changes, and is pushing for more information on how the company uses tech in initial assessments.<\/p>\n

In the NUHW\u2019s southern California complaint<\/a> with the California department of managed health care from last year, the union says that clerical staffers ask patients questions about suicidal and homicidal thoughts, before entering information into a software tool. This tool\u2019s algorithm then generates a score and suggested response to guide the staffer in scheduling the person for further care, according to the union. Kaiser is using an algorithm to make triage decisions, in violation of state law, the administrative complaint alleges; the company denies that this screening counts as triage and said its clerical staff are not making assessments or clinical determinations. It\u2019s currently unclear whether an algorithm is also used in northern California, although the union suspects it is, and Kaiser did not clarify.<\/p>\n

Healthcare workers walk a picket line outside Kaiser Permanence Los Angeles Medical Center, in California, on 4 October 2023. Photograph: Caroline Brehman\/EPA<\/p>\n

Kaiser has already faced state and federal scrutiny over providing timely access to mental health services. In 2023, Kaiser agreed to a $200m settlement<\/a> with California to resolve investigations over these delays. Just last month, the US Department of Labor announced a $31m settlement<\/a> with Kaiser over similar allegations. The labor department claimed that Kaiser \u201cused patient responses to questionnaires to improperly prevent patients from receiving care\u201d. Kaiser also agreed to reforms, in the labor department investigation, that would reduce appointment wait times and expand access to quality care.<\/p>\n

But Kaiser employees question that commitment. They pointed out the many ways that questionnaires and clerical workers can fall short.<\/p>\n

For one, triage is complicated. Relying on workers who are not licensed practitioners who stick to limited scripts has major limitations. Therapists often need to draw on their expertise to suss out the \u201creal\u201d meaning behind a patients\u2019 statements. If a caller brings up suicidal thoughts, a healthcare worker wants to know: are those thoughts active or passive? Have they already thought of a method? If they say they aren\u2019t sure about what they\u2019re going to do, what are they referring to? The answer to those questions is rarely straightforward, Khalsa, a Kaiser therapist, said.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, patients may self-diagnose in a way that exaggerates their symptoms and takes key resources away from those who need them more urgently.<\/p>\n

Therapist Carolyn Staehle started in the intake and assessment department at Kaiser, in Pleasanton, California, in May 2023. After the new system rolled out, Staehle \u2013 whose role at the time was supposed to focus on non-emergency cases coming out of triage \u2013 recalled meeting many more people having dangerous delusions and serious suicidal thoughts. \u201cThey needed me to call an ambulance for them because they could not guarantee their safety or work on a safety plan,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

More recently, Staehle has been working on a crisis team intended for higher severity cases. They keep receiving \u201cpeople who don\u2019t need [them],\u201d she says. \u201cThat gums up and slows down the work, so that people who are in immediate, desperate need might not get through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaiser says that it delivers \u201ctimely, high-quality care to meet members\u2019 needs\u201d. It claims that its members receive non-urgent mental health appointments, on average, faster than the state requires.<\/p>\n

Staehle is worried for other staff, who, despite Kaiser\u2019s claims, fear being replaced by AI, and overwhelmed patients, who she says sometimes don\u2019t get the timely and empathetic care they need, especially in the triage process. \u201cIt\u2019s not the same level of care as being assessed by a licensed therapist,\u201d says Staehle. \u201cIt takes longer for each patient to find out whether they are going to be a danger to themselves or a danger to others, or is this an emergency or not? We actually have to waste time taking care of some of this fundamental stuff that used to be done by triage.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, she and other workers are focused on ratifying a new contract \u2013 and getting Kaiser to commit to not replacing licensed social workers like herself with AI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilana Marcucci-Morris is worried about the patients she treats and how long it took for them to arrive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-537333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}