Kaiser Permanente released the following statement from Greg A. Adams, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kaiser Permanente, as part of the announcement of a settlement agreement with the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) to improve behavioural health care within Kaiser Permanente and throughout the state:
California and the nation have experienced an unprecedented increase in demand for mental health services over the past three years, largely due to the global pandemic and its aftermath. Kaiser Permanente saw a 33% increase in demand during the pandemic and has seen 20% more people seeking care in 2023 than at this time last year. An ongoing shortage of qualified mental health professionals, clinician burnout and turnover, even a 10-week strike by 2,000 mental health clinicians in California last year, have all contributed to making it very difficult to meet this growing need for care.
We at Kaiser Permanente, like every other health care organisation, are coming back from the deep disruption and lingering effects of the pandemic. The timing of the DMHC’s non-routine survey coincided with the staff shortage and strike, the high demand for care, and the lingering effects of the pandemic, but it provides an opportunity for Kaiser Permanente and all health plans to step up in a new way to ensure that we are meeting the mental health needs of our communities.
Kaiser Permanente believes that a person’s physical, mental and social health are interconnected and essential to their overall health. We also believe in the power of our integrated system and the expertise of our physicians and therapists to provide excellent mental health care as an equal and essential part of a person’s overall health care.
Over the past three years, we have recognised the need to expand our mental health services. We have increased our staff and facilities to meet the growing need. Since 2020, we have invested an additional $1.1 billion in mental health care for our members. Hired nearly 600 additional therapists and expanded our networks to include thousands of community therapists. We invested an additional $195 million in new clinical facilities, including 329 mental health provider offices. Nevertheless, we fell short of our members’ and our own expectations during the DMHC survey period.
Our focus on health outcomes, evidence-based care and research builds on our integrated model and guides our continuous improvement. While we have made many improvements to our mental health care system, there is still work to be done to ensure that our interventions and therapies meet our members’ expectations and that we achieve the best patient outcomes. We embrace this opportunity to bring our evidence-based care and new innovative programmes to the rest of the state.
Our agreement with the DMHC takes full responsibility for our performance during the survey period, including our shortcomings, recognizes our work to improve mental health care, and ensures that our ongoing investments not only help Kaiser Permanente members, but also build a stronger mental health foundation in the communities we serve.
We are committed to transforming the quality and outcomes for patients receiving mental health care in California. In partnership with the state, and as part of the $150 million investment over the next 5 years, we will help develop, build and expand evidence-based treatment and care for behavioural health conditions. Examples of this work include programs to address the dramatically increasing mental health needs of adolescents and young adults; digital wellness offerings to provide educational and emotional support for mental wellness and substance abuse; partnerships with schools and universities to address the mental health needs of their students and communities; workforce development programs to grow and train a new cadre of mental health professionals; and initiatives to improve the integration of mental health care into primary and specialty care.
We are proud to work with our Permanente medical groups and network clinicians to provide quality care to our members. Every day, more than 13,000 people in our system receive mental health care. We recognise and support our clinicians, therapists and all those who are committed to providing evidence-based mental health care. As we move forward, we are committed to working together to meet the needs of our members and communities, as well as the new challenges in our society around mental health.
