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Social Work Perspectives on Kaiser’s Behavioral Health Practices and Patient Care

We are seeking input from social work professionals on the challenges and opportunities shaping behavioral healthcare delivery in California, including Kaiser Permanente’s behavioral health practices, workforce conditions, technology and artificial intelligence (AI), clinical decision-making, and care delivery models.

Your feedback will help NASW-CA better understand how these issues affect social workers, patients, and the delivery of high-quality behavioral healthcare. Responses will inform NASW-CA’s policy discussions and advocacy efforts focused on protecting patient-centered care, supporting the behavioral health workforce, and ensuring that emerging technologies and care models uphold professional standards.
1.OPTIONAL - If you would like to be contacted with follow-up information or updates, please provide the following:
2.Which region of CA are you from?(Required.)
3.What is your primary professional role?(Required.)
4.What is your professional relationship to Kaiser Permanente? (Select all that apply)(Required.)
5.Prior to this survey, were you aware that Kaiser Permanente previously used licensed behavioral health clinicians (such as LCSWs, LMFTs, or psychologists) to conduct behavioral health telephone triage assessments and determine appropriate levels of care using clinical judgment?(Required.)
6.Are you aware that Kaiser Permanente’s current behavioral health telephone triage process uses Telephone Service Representatives (unlicensed behavioral health providers) and AI algorithms to gather information from patients seeking behavioral health services?(Required.)
7.California law requires that non-licensed staff may gather information from patients seeking behavioral health services but may not assess, evaluate, advise, determine a patient's condition, or determine when a patient should be seen by a licensed medical professional (Health & Safety Code § 1367.03(a)(8)(B)(i)(II)(iii)). Additionally, patients seeking behavioral health services must be able to speak directly with a licensed medical professional within 30 minutes during telephone triage (Health & Safety Code § 1367.03(a)(8)(A); § 1367.03(e)(6)).

Based on your knowledge or experience, how confident are you that Kaiser Permanente's Telephone Service Representatives conducting triage assessments consistently meets these standards?(Required.)
8.Have you encountered or become aware of situations in which Kaiser Permanente's Telephone Service Representatives conducting triage assessments may have failed to identify patients with urgent or high-risk behavioral health needs, resulting in delays in evaluation or treatment by a licensed clinician? (Select all that apply.)(Required.)
9.Have you observed situations where Kaiser Permanente's Telephone Service Representatives conducting triage assessments affected patients' continuity of care (for example, being transferred between providers, referred outside the Kaiser system, or experiencing disruptions in an established therapeutic relationship)?(Required.)
10.Based on your knowledge or experience, how quickly are Kaiser Permanente patients typically connected with appropriate behavioral health care after completing the initial telephone triage process?(Required.)
11.Are you aware of NorCal Kaiser Permanente patients being referred to Meru Health, a 12- week program, instead of receiving services directly from a Kaiser behavioral health clinician?(Required.)
12.What role should licensed behavioral health professionals have in decisions regarding the adoption and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) or other automated tools used in patient care?(Required.)
13.What concerns, if any, do you have about the use of AI or automated tools in behavioral healthcare? (Select all that apply.)(Required.)
14.Kaiser Permanente has proposed changes to scheduling practices that would allow greater management discretion over how clinicians’ protected patient care support time is used. Based on your experience, how would changes that reduce dedicated time for essential patient care activities outside of appointments (such as documentation, responding to patient communication, care coordination, preparing for sessions, and collaborating with other providers) affect your ability to provide quality behavioral healthcare? (Select all that apply.)(Required.)
15.In your current practice setting, how often do workload demands limit your ability to complete essential patient care activities outside of appointments (such as documentation, care coordination, responding to patient communication, consultation with other providers, or resource coordination)?(Required.)
16.Following question 15, please describe how workload expectations affect your ability to provide care.(Required.)
17.What are the biggest barriers you currently experience in providing high-quality behavioral healthcare? (Select all that apply.)(Required.)
18.What impact do you believe outsourcing behavioral health services to external providers or platforms may have on patients and clinicians?(Required.)
19.If you have ever experienced situations where workplace policies, administrative requirements, productivity expectations, or organizational practices conflicted with your professional judgment or social work values, please describe your experience (without including patient-identifying information).(Required.)
20.Is there anything else you would like NASW-CA and policymakers, to know about Kaiser Permanente's behavioral health services, workforce practices, use of technology or AI, or other issues affecting patient care that was not addressed in this survey?(Required.)
21.Would you be interested and available to attend the San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting at 3:OO PM on Tuesday, July 21, as part of NASW-CA's advocacy efforts?

Please find more details about the meeting here: https://www.sf.gov/full-board-meeting-072126

If yes, please select "Yes" below. If you have any questions or would like additional information before deciding, please contact NASW-CA's Policy Manager, Bindu Mukkamala, at bmukkamala.naswca@socialworkers.org.(Required.)
Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey!