Kaiser Permanente is retaliating against the whistleblowers who brought much-needed scrutiny to the HMO's severely understaffed mental health services.
Last month, the Oakland-based health care provider fired a respected psychologist, Dr. Alex Wang, who had reported to state regulators a pattern of illegal and unnecessary delays in providing mental health care.
Kaiser is also retaliating more broadly against whistleblowers by withholding from its mental health clinicians the standard annual wage increases it has given to 90,000 other employees.
This week, clinicians have been picketing and leafleting at Kaiser facilities throughout the state to call on Kaiser to reinstate Dr. Wang. They are also calling on Kaiser to settle a contract with its mental health clinicians that addresses the severe understaffing that has caused lengthy and illegal delays for Kaiser patients and that does not punish caregivers for meeting the ethical obligations of their professions and exercising the clinical judgment for which Kaiser hired them.
[For more of this story, written by Sal Rosselli, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...owers_b_7271352.html]
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