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DESCRIPTION:On Labor Day Weekend\n\nSTOP The Chatbots/Al in Healthcare\nProtect 
 Healthcare Workers\nSingle Payer NOW!\n\n\nFirst Action At Kaiser San 
 Francisco\nSeptember 4 (Friday). 2026\n12:00 Noon\nAt: Kaiser 
 Hospital\n2425 Geary Bivd, SF\n\nSTOP The Chatbots/Al in 
 Healthcare\nProtect Healthcare Workers\nSingle Payer NOW!\nFirst Action At 
 Kaiser San Francisco\nSeptember 4 (Friday). 2026\n12:00 Noon\nAt: Kaiser 
 Hospital\n2425 Geary Bivd, SF\n\nHospitals chains, HMO’s & the insurance 
 industry throughout the country are introducing chatbots and using AI to 
 eliminate nurses and other healthcare workers. \nAt Kaiser in California, 
 Kaiser is laying off NNU CNA nurses in San Rafael and are eliminating NUHW 
 mental healthcare workers and replacing these workers with chatbots for 
 members who have health problems.\nThis is dangerous for people who need 
 real healthcare workers and not chabots. The politicians are controlled by 
 these insurance companies, HMO’s and big pharma and are allowing the 
 massive introduction of AI and chatbots without any control or regulation. 
 This will injure and kill patients along with destroying large number of 
 healthcare jobs.\nThese companies can no longer be allowed to be in charge 
 of our healthcare system. We need single payer  system in California and 
 nationally that provides healthcare \nfor all instead of the privately run 
 health system that only benefts the billionaires and companies like United 
 Healthcare which is privatizing and destroying Medicare for more profits 
 \nusing Al to deny care.\nMillions of working people in California and 
 nationally are  also losing their healthcare because of cutbacks in 
 medicaid and elimination of subsidies from ACA. We need to protect the 
 health and lives of the people by getting rid of this broken privatized 
 system and getting single payer for all.\nOn Friday September 4, 2026 there 
 will be rallies and actions at US hospitals and clinics to demand an end to 
 chatboxes in our healthcare, defense of workers and also for single payer 
 to end the destruction of our healthcare system.\n\nInitial Endorsers: 
 National Single Payer, California United for Single Payer, \nWork Week, 
 UFCLP,\nFor info: mailto:labormedial@gmail.com\nInitial Endorsers: National 
 Single Payez, California United for Single Payer, WorkWeek, UFCLP,\nFor 
 info: labormedial@gmail.com\n\nNewsom Demos In California  slashing 
 Medi-Cal asset limits by 84%. Here’s who will be affected\nThe 
 modifications were part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to balance the 
 state budgetamid soaring Medi-Cal costs and billions in cuts from the 
 federal government due to the GOP’s tax and spending megabill signed by 
 President Donald Trump in July 
 2025.\nhttps://www.sfchronicle.com/personal-finance/article/medi-cal-medicaid-asset-california-22362049.php\nBy 
 Jessica Roy, \nPersonal Finance Columnist\nAug 1, 2026\n\nClients receive 
 help renewing Medi-Cal coverage at Families Together of Orange County in 
 Tustin in 2023. Beginning in July 2027, some seniors, disabled Californians 
 and people who need long-term care will face sharply lower asset limits to 
 qualify for the program.\nClients receive help renewing Medi-Cal coverage 
 at Families Together of Orange County in Tustin in 2023. Beginning in July 
 2027, some seniors, disabled Californians and people who need long-term 
 care will face sharply lower asset limits to qualify for the program.\nMany 
 seniors and disabled people in California who need long-term care will soon 
 face a dramatic reduction in assets they can keep and still qualify for 
 Medi-Cal.\nStarting in July 2027, the individual limit will fall from 
 $130,000 to $21,000, while the limit for couples will drop from $195,000 to 
 $31,000 when they apply for Medi-Cal — California’s Medicaid program 
 — or renew their coverage. That’s an 84% decrease.\nThe rules will 
 primarily affect people who qualify because of their age, disability or 
 need for nursing-home or other long-term care. \n\nThe change is a 
 turnaround from the approach the state adopted in 2022. Before that year, 
 Medi-Cal assets were very low. Many enrollees could have only $2,000 in 
 countable assets, or $3,000 for a two-person household — numbers that 
 hadn’t been changed or adjusted for inflation since they were implemented 
 in 1989. \nThose limits left people in profound poverty, said Cindy George, 
 the senior personal finance editor for prescription comparison cost website 
 GoodRx.\n“Advocates for seniors and people with disabilities had long 
 pushed for higher Medi-Cal asset limits — or none at all — to allow 
 individuals and families to keep their affordable health insurance without 
 financial insecurity,” George said.\nIn 2022, the limits increased 
 substantially: To $130,000 for an individual plus $65,000 for each 
 additional family member. The asset limit was eliminated entirely in 2024. 
 \nCalifornia then revisited that decision, and in January 2026, the 
 $130,000 individual and $195,000 married couple asset limits were put back 
 in place. But that’s changing again beginning on July 1, 2027, to a much 
 lower limit: $21,000 for one person, $31,000 for a couple, and another 
 $1,550 for each additional qualified person who lives in your house.\nThe 
 modifications were part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to balance the 
 state budgetamid soaring Medi-Cal costs and billions in cuts from the 
 federal government due to the GOP’s tax and spending megabill signed by 
 President Donald Trump in July 2025.\nThese changes, along with others at 
 the state and federal level to Medicaid programs, could have broader 
 impacts on all Californians, said Kristof Stremikis, the director of market 
 analysis and insight for the Oakland-based nonprofit philanthropy 
 California Health Care Foundation. A report from the foundation found the 
 policy changes could lead to up to 2 million Californians losing health 
 care coverage.\n“Medi-Cal finances so much of our delivery system here in 
 California,” he said. “I think you’re going to start to see access 
 challenges for Medi-Cal enrollees, but even more broadly, you’re really 
 going to see strain on the system that shows up for everyone in longer 
 waiting times, difficulty finding doctors, that type of thing. We’re in 
 for a rough ride.”\nIf you or a family member is on Medi-Cal, here’s 
 what you need to know about the new eligibility requirements.\nWho is 
 impacted by California’s 2027 Medi-Cal asset limit changes?\nThe new 
 limit doesn’t apply to everyone on Medi-Cal. People who use the program 
 under federal modified adjusted gross income rules, like many children, 
 pregnant people, parents and working-age adults, are not subject to asset 
 tests.\nThese changes will primarily impact people who are enrolled in 
 Medi-Cal outside the federal MAGI rules, including people who are 65 or 
 older, are blind, have a disability, live in a nursing home or receive 
 other long-term care services paid for by Medi-Cal, or who use a Medicare 
 Savings Program. \nWhat’s changing for Medi-Cal asset limits?\nMedi-Cal 
 eligibility is determined in part by your assets. Here’s a list of 
 current asset limits and what they’re changing to in July 2027.\nAsset 
 limits\nWhat’s counted:\nMoney in your bank account\nCash\nSecondary 
 homes\nSecond vehicles\nOther investments or financial resources\nThe 
 current limit for the total value of those assets is $130,000, plus another 
 $65,000 per person who lives in your home for up to 10 people.\nThe new 
 limit will be $21,000 for one person, another $10,000 for a spouse, and 
 then another $1,550 per each additional qualified person in your home, up 
 to 10 people total. Adult children, roommates and some others do not 
 qualify.\nCalifornia has a program called Spousal Impoverishment that can 
 protect some additional assets from being counted toward eligibility for a 
 spouse or domestic partner.\nNon-countable assets\nThere are certain types 
 of assets that typically aren’t counted against Medi-Cal eligibility. 
 These include:\nA primary residence\nOne car\nHousehold goods and personal 
 items in the primary residence\nRetirement funds, like 401(ks) and IRAs, if 
 regular payments are being received from them\nThough primary residences 
 are not counted for eligibility, the state can pursue an estate to recover 
 certain costs after death, said Mark Gilfix, an estate planning and elder 
 law attorney based in Palo Alto. He said a primary home properly titled in 
 a living trust generally keeps it out of probate, shielding it from the 
 estate recovery process.\nWhat do people currently on Medi-Cal need to 
 do?\nNot all enrollees will have their assets tested on July 1 of next 
 year; the asset limits will be reported and assessed on a rolling basis 
 when people renew their coverage.\nTo maintain eligibility for the program, 
 participants will need to transfer or spend down assets to the new limits, 
 Gilfix said, and administrators may review where those assets went to make 
 sure transactions were made appropriately. Giving away or selling assets 
 for less than they’re worth can delay long-term care coverage, according 
 to an FAQ from the state Department of Health Care Services. Working with a 
 qualified financial adviser or elder law attorney may help you protect 
 eligibility.\n\nWho is accountable?’ Kaiser therapists challenge use of 
 AI in mental health screening\nAs the provider and its therapists clash 
 over AI, a new complaint says an algorithm, not a clinician, is deciding 
 patients’ care within 
 seconds.\nhttps://sfstandard.com/2026/07/21/kaiser-ai-mental-health-screening-complaint-nuhw/\nA 
 modern glass and metal building displays the words "KAISER PERMANENTE" near 
 the top, with tree branches framing the left side.\nThe healthcare giant 
 has found itself at the center of a labor dispute over the role of AI. | 
 Source: Getty Images\nA woman with light skin, blue eyes, and brown hair 
 styled in an updo wears a black top and has a subtle smile on her face.\nBy 
 Jennifer Wadsworth\nSenior News Editor\nPublished Jul. 21, 
 2026at6:00am\n\nIlana Marcucci-Morris spends less time doing triage these 
 days and more time, as she describes it, cleaning up after robots.\nAs one 
 of the licensed clinicians Kaiser Permanente patients reach when they call 
 seeking mental healthcare, she used to spend 10 to 15 minutes on the phone 
 assessing for evidence of suicide risk, domestic violence, substance use, 
 or homicidal thoughts before deciding what kind of care was needed.\nNow 
 that initial screenings are often handled by phone clerks or an online 
 questionnaire, she increasingly finds herself fixing mistakes made by 
 operators and automated tools.\n“I call it ‘service recovery’ more 
 than official triage,” she said. \nSubtle cues she picks up during 
 assessments — tics, tone, even words left unsaid — are being missed by 
 automated screenings and untrained clerical staff. \nPatients are more 
 likely to arrive at their first appointment intoxicated, in withdrawal, or 
 confused about why they’re seeing a social worker instead of a 
 psychiatrist who can prescribe medication. Others are referred to outside 
 telehealth providers who later decide they’re not equipped to treat them, 
 sending them back to Kaiser weeks later, angrier and worse off. Still 
 others wait weeks for care that once took days.\nWhen people reach out for 
 mental healthcare, that first step can be one of the most crucial to get 
 right. “Our job at the beginning is to instill hope,” Marcucci-Morris 
 said. “You’re not well now, but I want to give you hope that you can 
 get well.” Delays and mistakes at that tenuous early stage risk 
 “reinforcing hopelessness” instead.\n“Even if other things don’t go 
 well in behavioral healthcare,” she added, “most science says you 
 better nail it at the start.”\nAt the center of the dispute is a simple 
 question: When someone seeks mental healthcare, who should decide what 
 happens next? \nKaiser therapists say the system is increasingly allowing 
 software and unlicensed staff to make screening decisions that California 
 law says must be made by licensed clinicians — an allegation at the heart 
 of a new regulatory complaint and a hearing this week at San Francisco City 
 Hall.\nA crowd of protesters in red shirts hold signs saying “Patient 
 Health Not Corporate Wealth” while a person with a megaphone speaks 
 passionately.\nIlana Marcucci-Morris, a licensed clinician, during a 2022 
 protest outside Kaiser’s corporate building in Oakland. | Source: 
 Courtesy NUHW\nA test case for AI in healthcare\n\nThe dispute unfolding at 
 Kaiser, California’s largest private employer(opens in new tab), as it 
 negotiates a contract with the National Union of Healthcare Workers has 
 been described as one of the nation’s first labor fights over AI. \nSo 
 it’s fitting that in San Francisco — the global hub of artificial 
 intelligence — a local lawmaker is convening a special hearing(opens in 
 new tab) Tuesday about contract demands(opens in new tab) that would let 
 the HMO expand the use of automated tools in mental healthcare and lay off 
 the therapists who currently provide it. \nA black briefcase with a clasp 
 is centered inside a shiny black and yellow snow globe on a bright yellow 
 background.\nMore about\nThe Future of Work\nFour people sit or stand 
 separately in individual glass phone booths in a modern office space with 
 blue carpet and bright overhead lighting.\nIn San Francisco’s hot-again 
 office market, you need a glow-up to succeed\nThe torch of the Statue of 
 Liberty is being lit by a large, glowing Nike swoosh in the sky against an 
 orange background.\nIDEAS\nThe American dream is broken. Here’s what it 
 would take to fix it\n\nTech is in flux; tourism is sluggish. SF’s 
 recovery hangs in the balance\nSupervisor Chyanne Chen, who called for the 
 hearing, said she wants to make sure ongoing negotiations between Kaiser 
 and the NUHW protect patients as much as employees. “Every single person, 
 their story is a little different, their circumstances are different, their 
 needs are very different,” she said. That complexity, she added, 
 doesn’t lend itself to the standardization of an algorithm. \nKaiser has 
 repeatedly denied using AI to replace human care.\n“Artificial 
 intelligence holds significant potential to benefit healthcare by 
 supporting better diagnostics, enhancing patient-clinician relationships, 
 optimizing clinicians’ time, and ensuring fairness in care experiences 
 and health outcomes by addressing individual needs,” the company told 
 reporters when its therapists went on strike in the spring. \nBut a 
 complaint from NUHW offers new evidence that the union says shows Kaiser is 
 already leaning on automation to make the kind of clinical calls that are 
 supposed to be handled by licensed providers. The complaint, filed Monday 
 with California’s Department of Managed Health Care and the U.S. 
 Department of Labor, centers on Kaiser’s e-visit tool, an online 
 questionnaire the company directs patients toward when they’re seeking 
 care for anxiety or depression. \nHave thoughts on this story?\n\nStart the 
 conversation\nTo test the tool, the union had four Kaiser members complete 
 it, answering the questions to reflect various levels of symptom severity. 
 Each time, the tool generated a care recommendation —  a referral to 
 virtual therapy, a referral to an outside provider, or simply a suggestion 
 to try a self-care app — within two seconds of the last question being 
 answered, according to screenshots included in the complaint.\nThat’s 
 hard to square with how Kaiser describes the screening to patients. In a 
 December 2025 post(opens in new tab) on its website, the company said that 
 when a member completes an e-visit, “the answers are reviewed by a 
 healthcare professional, and the member receives a response by secure 
 message within four hours, and usually sooner.”\nFor Marcucci-Morris, the 
 instant turnarounds uncovered by the union testing confirmed what she’d 
 suspected for years.\n“That’s 100% of my job,” she said. “But now 
 it’s automated or algorithmic or AI or whatever it is, making decisions 
 that have taken me decades to be able to legally do.”\nFrom advice nurse 
 to algorithm\n\nThe shift began in 2023, when Kaiser introduced One Mental 
 Health, a regional phone line. For years before that, any patient who told 
 their doctor they needed mental healthcare, or called Kaiser directly, 
 first spoke with a licensed clinician like Marcucci-Morris.\n“Any time 
 someone expresses some sort of mental health need to their doctor or any 
 part of the health plan, a referral would be generated to psychiatry,” 
 she said. “But the first step would be to get on the phone with someone 
 like me, a licensed human provider.”\nThat changed with the new phone 
 screening. Patients calling in were routed first to clerical staff who are 
 generally required to have only a high school diploma, according to a 
 complaint(opens in new tab)the union filed last year. Those operators pose 
 a scripted set of questions, loosely modeled on the ones clinicians might 
 ask, and are supposed to escalate a call to a provider only if a patient 
 says something alarming enough to trigger it, according to the union’s 
 complaint. \nBut Kaiser has been tightlipped about exactly when that 
 escalation is supposed to happen. Marcucci-Morris said she often learned 
 the details only after the fact, by piecing together information from 
 patients’ charts.\nAround the same time, Kaiser began steering another 
 set of patients toward a second, newer pathway: online questionnaires 
 called e-visits, which let people seeking care for anxiety or depression 
 screen themselves without speaking to anyone at all.\nA black box\n\nKaiser 
 has never disclosed how the e-visit tool works, despite repeated requests, 
 according to Fred Seavey, NUHW’s research director. That lack of 
 transparency troubles Marcucci-Morris most. If she makes the wrong call, 
 there’s a clear line of accountability.\n“If I commit malpractice, the 
 state can take my license away from me,” she said. “What happens when 
 technology gets it wrong? Who is accountable?”\nRelated\n‘A huge 
 betrayal’: Parents fume as Kaiser ends gender-affirming surgeries for 
 kids(opens in new tab)\n‘Trust nurses, not AI’: Workers protest use of 
 artificial intelligence at Kaiser hospitals(opens in new tab)\nSF’s 
 mental health overhaul wasn’t ‘the big magical pill we’d hoped 
 for’(opens in new tab)\nKaiser’s mental health system has faced 
 repeated regulatory action. In 2023, it agreed to a $200 million 
 settlement(opens in new tab) over failures to provide timely care. A 
 subsequent state survey(opens in new tab)found that it still could not 
 demonstrate adequate suicide-risk screening, and in February it agreed to 
 pay $31.1 million(opens in new tab) to settle a federal investigation into 
 its use of questionnaires to restrict access to care.\nTo Seavey, that 
 history undercuts any assurance Kaiser might offer about the algorithm 
 behind its e-visit tool. “You’ve had to pay out nearly a quarter 
 billion dollars for dozens of violations, and you’re asking us to trust 
 you?” he said. “We want to see it. Why can’t you show us the 
 algorithm?”\nKaiser did not directly address the two-second turnaround 
 times documented in the union’s testing, or Seavey’s request to see the 
 algorithm. \nIn a statement on Tuesday, the company said it “disagree[s] 
 with the union’s characterization” of its behavioral health processes, 
 and said its e-visit tool “does not use AI to diagnose patients, make 
 clinical decisions, or determine medical necessity,” adding that clinical 
 decisions “remain with licensed health care professionals.” \nKaiser 
 also said the tool was developed with input from therapists and NUHW 
 representatives, and that patients can call a phone number listed on every 
 e-visit screen to reach a live person.\nTuesday’s hearing, Chen said, is 
 a chance to get answers before the next contract is signed. 
 \nMarcucci-Morris plans to be there.\n“I have never felt better because a 
 chatbot gave me a reassuring statement,” Marcucci-Morris said. “We heal 
 through empathy. That is not something technology can give 
 people.”\n\n‘Who is accountable?’ Kaiser therapists challenge use of 
 AI in mental health screening\nAs the provider and its therapists clash 
 over AI, a new complaint says an algorithm, not a clinician, is deciding 
 patients’ care within 
 seconds.\nhttps://sfstandard.com/2026/07/21/kaiser-ai-mental-health-screening-complaint-nuhw/\nA 
 modern glass and metal building displays the words "KAISER PERMANENTE" near 
 the top, with tree branches framing the left side.\nThe healthcare giant 
 has found itself at the center of a labor dispute over the role of AI. | 
 Source: Getty Images\nA woman with light skin, blue eyes, and brown hair 
 styled in an updo wears a black top and has a subtle smile on her face.\nBy 
 Jennifer Wadsworth\nSenior News Editor\nPublished Jul. 21, 
 2026at6:00am\n\nIlana Marcucci-Morris spends less time doing triage these 
 days and more time, as she describes it, cleaning up after robots.\nAs one 
 of the licensed clinicians Kaiser Permanente patients reach when they call 
 seeking mental healthcare, she used to spend 10 to 15 minutes on the phone 
 assessing for evidence of suicide risk, domestic violence, substance use, 
 or homicidal thoughts before deciding what kind of care was needed.\nNow 
 that initial screenings are often handled by phone clerks or an online 
 questionnaire, she increasingly finds herself fixing mistakes made by 
 operators and automated tools.\nADVERTISEMENT\nSubscribe.jpeg\n“I call it 
 ‘service recovery’ more than official triage,” she said. \nSubtle 
 cues she picks up during assessments — tics, tone, even words left unsaid 
 — are being missed by automated screenings and untrained clerical staff. 
 \nPatients are more likely to arrive at their first appointment 
 intoxicated, in withdrawal, or confused about why they’re seeing a social 
 worker instead of a psychiatrist who can prescribe medication. Others are 
 referred to outside telehealth providers who later decide they’re not 
 equipped to treat them, sending them back to Kaiser weeks later, angrier 
 and worse off. Still others wait weeks for care that once took days.\nWhen 
 people reach out for mental healthcare, that first step can be one of the 
 most crucial to get right. “Our job at the beginning is to instill 
 hope,” Marcucci-Morris said. “You’re not well now, but I want to give 
 you hope that you can get well.” Delays and mistakes at that tenuous 
 early stage risk “reinforcing hopelessness” instead.\n“Even if other 
 things don’t go well in behavioral healthcare,” she added, “most 
 science says you better nail it at the start.”\nAt the center of the 
 dispute is a simple question: When someone seeks mental healthcare, who 
 should decide what happens next? \nKaiser therapists say the system is 
 increasingly allowing software and unlicensed staff to make screening 
 decisions that California law says must be made by licensed clinicians — 
 an allegation at the heart of a new regulatory complaint and a hearing this 
 week at San Francisco City Hall.\nA crowd of protesters in red shirts hold 
 signs saying “Patient Health Not Corporate Wealth” while a person with 
 a megaphone speaks passionately.\nIlana Marcucci-Morris, a licensed 
 clinician, during a 2022 protest outside Kaiser’s corporate building in 
 Oakland. | Source: Courtesy NUHW\nA test case for AI in healthcare\n\nThe 
 dispute unfolding at Kaiser, California’s largest private employer(opens 
 in new tab), as it negotiates a contract with the National Union of 
 Healthcare Workers has been described as one of the nation’s first labor 
 fights over AI. \nSo it’s fitting that in San Francisco — the global 
 hub of artificial intelligence — a local lawmaker is convening a special 
 hearing(opens in new tab) Tuesday about contract demands(opens in new tab) 
 that would let the HMO expand the use of automated tools in mental 
 healthcare and lay off the therapists who currently provide it. \nA black 
 briefcase with a clasp is centered inside a shiny black and yellow snow 
 globe on a bright yellow background.\nMore about\nThe Future of Work\nFour 
 people sit or stand separately in individual glass phone booths in a modern 
 office space with blue carpet and bright overhead lighting.\nIn San 
 Francisco’s hot-again office market, you need a glow-up to succeed\nThe 
 torch of the Statue of Liberty is being lit by a large, glowing Nike swoosh 
 in the sky against an orange background.\nIDEAS\nThe American dream is 
 broken. Here’s what it would take to fix it\n\nTech is in flux; tourism 
 is sluggish. SF’s recovery hangs in the balance\nSupervisor Chyanne Chen, 
 who called for the hearing, said she wants to make sure ongoing 
 negotiations between Kaiser and the NUHW protect patients as much as 
 employees. “Every single person, their story is a little different, their 
 circumstances are different, their needs are very different,” she said. 
 That complexity, she added, doesn’t lend itself to the standardization of 
 an algorithm. \nKaiser has repeatedly denied using AI to replace human 
 care.\n“Artificial intelligence holds significant potential to benefit 
 healthcare by supporting better diagnostics, enhancing patient-clinician 
 relationships, optimizing clinicians’ time, and ensuring fairness in care 
 experiences and health outcomes by addressing individual needs,” the 
 company told reporters when its therapists went on strike in the spring. 
 \nBut a complaint from NUHW offers new evidence that the union says shows 
 Kaiser is already leaning on automation to make the kind of clinical calls 
 that are supposed to be handled by licensed providers. The complaint, filed 
 Monday with California’s Department of Managed Health Care and the U.S. 
 Department of Labor, centers on Kaiser’s e-visit tool, an online 
 questionnaire the company directs patients toward when they’re seeking 
 care for anxiety or depression. \nHave thoughts on this story?\n\n\nStart 
 the conversation\nTo test the tool, the union had four Kaiser members 
 complete it, answering the questions to reflect various levels of symptom 
 severity. Each time, the tool generated a care recommendation —  a 
 referral to virtual therapy, a referral to an outside provider, or simply a 
 suggestion to try a self-care app — within two seconds of the last 
 question being answered, according to screenshots included in the 
 complaint.\nThat’s hard to square with how Kaiser describes the screening 
 to patients. In a December 2025 post(opens in new tab) on its website, the 
 company said that when a member completes an e-visit, “the answers are 
 reviewed by a healthcare professional, and the member receives a response 
 by secure message within four hours, and usually sooner.”\nFor 
 Marcucci-Morris, the instant turnarounds uncovered by the union testing 
 confirmed what she’d suspected for years.\n“That’s 100% of my job,” 
 she said. “But now it’s automated or algorithmic or AI or whatever it 
 is, making decisions that have taken me decades to be able to legally 
 do.”\nFrom advice nurse to algorithm\n\nThe shift began in 2023, when 
 Kaiser introduced One Mental Health, a regional phone line. For years 
 before that, any patient who told their doctor they needed mental 
 healthcare, or called Kaiser directly, first spoke with a licensed 
 clinician like Marcucci-Morris.\n“Any time someone expresses some sort of 
 mental health need to their doctor or any part of the health plan, a 
 referral would be generated to psychiatry,” she said. “But the first 
 step would be to get on the phone with someone like me, a licensed human 
 provider.”\nThat changed with the new phone screening. Patients calling 
 in were routed first to clerical staff who are generally required to have 
 only a high school diploma, according to a complaint(opens in new tab)the 
 union filed last year. Those operators pose a scripted set of questions, 
 loosely modeled on the ones clinicians might ask, and are supposed to 
 escalate a call to a provider only if a patient says something alarming 
 enough to trigger it, according to the union’s complaint. \nBut Kaiser 
 has been tightlipped about exactly when that escalation is supposed to 
 happen. Marcucci-Morris said she often learned the details only after the 
 fact, by piecing together information from patients’ charts.\nAround the 
 same time, Kaiser began steering another set of patients toward a second, 
 newer pathway: online questionnaires called e-visits, which let people 
 seeking care for anxiety or depression screen themselves without speaking 
 to anyone at all.\nA black box\n\nKaiser has never disclosed how the 
 e-visit tool works, despite repeated requests, according to Fred Seavey, 
 NUHW’s research director. That lack of transparency troubles 
 Marcucci-Morris most. If she makes the wrong call, there’s a clear line 
 of accountability.\n“If I commit malpractice, the state can take my 
 license away from me,” she said. “What happens when technology gets it 
 wrong? Who is accountable?”\nRelated\n‘A huge betrayal’: Parents fume 
 as Kaiser ends gender-affirming surgeries for kids(opens in new 
 tab)\n‘Trust nurses, not AI’: Workers protest use of artificial 
 intelligence at Kaiser hospitals(opens in new tab)\nSF’s mental health 
 overhaul wasn’t ‘the big magical pill we’d hoped for’(opens in new 
 tab)\nKaiser’s mental health system has faced repeated regulatory action. 
 In 2023, it agreed to a $200 million settlement(opens in new tab) over 
 failures to provide timely care. A subsequent state survey(opens in new 
 tab)found that it still could not demonstrate adequate suicide-risk 
 screening, and in February it agreed to pay $31.1 million(opens in new tab) 
 to settle a federal investigation into its use of questionnaires to 
 restrict access to care.\nTo Seavey, that history undercuts any assurance 
 Kaiser might offer about the algorithm behind its e-visit tool. “You’ve 
 had to pay out nearly a quarter billion dollars for dozens of violations, 
 and you’re asking us to trust you?” he said. “We want to see it. Why 
 can’t you show us the algorithm?”\nKaiser did not directly address the 
 two-second turnaround times documented in the union’s testing, or 
 Seavey’s request to see the algorithm. \nIn a statement on Tuesday, the 
 company said it “disagree[s] with the union’s characterization” of 
 its behavioral health processes, and said its e-visit tool “does not use 
 AI to diagnose patients, make clinical decisions, or determine medical 
 necessity,” adding that clinical decisions “remain with licensed health 
 care professionals.” \nKaiser also said the tool was developed with input 
 from therapists and NUHW representatives, and that patients can call a 
 phone number listed on every e-visit screen to reach a live 
 person.\nTuesday’s hearing, Chen said, is a chance to get answers before 
 the next contract is signed. \nMarcucci-Morris plans to be there.\n“I 
 have never felt better because a chatbot gave me a reassuring statement,” 
 Marcucci-Morris said. “We heal through empathy. That is not something 
 technology can give people.”\n\nKaiser nurses say AI surveillance is 
 squeezing compassion out of patient 
 calls\nhttps://northeasttimes.com/2026/07/18/kaiser-nurses-say-ai-surveillance-is-squeezing-compassion-out-of-patient-calls/\nBY 
 Maya Brooks\nCULTURE & TRENDS WRITER\nPUBLISHED\nJuly 18, 2026\n\nIf you 
 call a Kaiser Permanente advice line because you just got a devastating 
 diagnosis or you’re worried a loved one is in crisis, a registered nurse 
 picks up. But that nurse may be watching a clock, aware that spending more 
 than 15 minutes with you could land them in a performance evaluation 
 meeting.\n\nThat is the picture painted by seven current and former Kaiser 
 call center nurses who spoke to CalMatters and The Markup in an 
 investigation published this month. The nurses described a workplace where 
 software tracks call length, predicts daily productivity, and, for a 
 stretch last year, used artificial intelligence to grade the empathy and 
 tone in their voices. Their accounts arrive as the California Nurses 
 Association begins negotiating a new contract with Kaiser this summer, with 
 AI expected to be a central issue.\n\nKaiser Permanente is the largest 
 private employer in California, providing healthcare to more than 12 
 million people nationwide, according to CalMatters. How the company deploys 
 AI to manage its workforce could set precedents that ripple across the 
 healthcare industry and into the lives of patients far beyond California, 
 including anyone who relies on a phone triage line as a first point of 
 contact with a provider.\n\nFifteen minutes on the clock\n\nNurses told 
 CalMatters that exceeding 15 minutes on a call routinely draws criticism 
 from management or triggers a performance evaluation meeting. Call time 
 factors into monthly performance scores, they said.\n\nRaquel Alvarez 
 Sanchez, a Kaiser advice nurse in Vallejo since 2010 and a union steward, 
 described staying on the line for more than an hour last year with a 
 patient who was suicidal, waiting for police to arrive. She said she was 
 aware the call would throw off her average handle time for weeks.\n\n“I 
 think at some point all of the nurses have been talked to about their 
 average handle time. The only thing I can think of is they’re doing it 
 for profit.”\n\nSanchez said she has accompanied colleagues to evaluation 
 meetings where they were found to have done everything right on a call 
 except keeping it under 15 minutes, according to CalMatters. She said she 
 has not seen nurses fired for long calls, but fears the pressure can push 
 them to quit or retire early.\n\nAnother nurse, speaking anonymously due to 
 fear of retribution, described cutting short a call with an elderly woman 
 who had just received a terminal cancer diagnosis. The nurse said the woman 
 was not suicidal but was in shock and needed someone to talk to. The nurse 
 held back from offering comfort because she feared it would hurt her 
 monthly score, CalMatters reported.\n\nAn AI tool that graded empathy and 
 tone\n\nIn summer 2024, Kaiser began testing an AI tool that attempted to 
 assess empathy and tone in the voices of both nurses and patients, 
 according to nurses who spoke with CalMatters. Nurses circulated a petition 
 calling for patient privacy protections, more transparency, and the right 
 to exercise professional judgment. The campaign used the slogan “Trust 
 nurses, not AI,” the same phrase nurses had carried at protests outside 
 San Francisco hospitals earlier that year.\n\nThe AI tests ended in 
 November 2024, but union representatives were told managers may bring the 
 program back, CalMatters reported.\n\n“AI did not understand our job and 
 would grade us wrong all the time.”\n\nThat was the assessment of one 
 nurse who spoke on condition of anonymity. Sanchez said existing 
 surveillance already felt oppressive, “and that was intensified when they 
 said we’re going to use AI to evaluate our calls and grade us.”\n\nA 
 Kaiser spokesperson declined to answer questions about the AI tool or its 
 use in call centers, according to CalMatters.\n\nKaiser disputes the 
 nurses’ account\n\nKaiser Permanente said its performance evaluations 
 help improve patient outcomes. A company spokesperson told CalMatters, 
 “Kaiser Permanente does not use Average Handle Time to assess agent 
 performance or enforce call time metrics. Any tools used in contact center 
 settings support our quality assurance efforts and have human review and 
 oversight.”\n\nSpokesperson Vincent Staupe added that Kaiser uses AI 
 responsibly, with human oversight, and by “prioritizing patient safety, 
 privacy, and equity.” But he said the company does not share details 
 about internal technology systems “for security and operational 
 reasons,” according to CalMatters.\n\nThirty seconds between a suicidal 
 caller and the next ring\n\nNurses also described shrinking time between 
 calls. In years past, they said, they got roughly 10 minutes after a call 
 to finish chart notes or collect themselves after a difficult conversation. 
 Now they typically get 30 seconds or less when lines are busy, though more 
 time is available during slow periods or with a manager’s permission 
 after an especially hard call, CalMatters reported.\n\nCharlotte Capulong, 
 a 22-year call center nurse veteran who helped organize against the AI tone 
 tool, said nurses felt harassed in evaluation meetings even when they had 
 performed all other duties correctly.\n\n“You aren’t calling Comcast. 
 We’re dealing with life here.”\n\nNurses said they are instructed to 
 stick to a script and give no more than two to three pieces of advice per 
 call, according to CalMatters. That means they may sometimes have to choose 
 between withholding guidance and facing a performance hearing.\n\nConsumer 
 Watchdog patient advocate Michele Ramos told CalMatters the time pressures 
 may fit a broader pattern. Kaiser was hit with a record $50 million fine as 
 part of a settlement over findings that it delayed behavioral health 
 appointments and pushed patients into group therapy instead of individual 
 sessions, according to the California Department of Managed Health Care. 
 Kaiser also settled with the U.S. Department of Labor over investigations 
 into its substance use and mental health services.\n\n“Kaiser’s been 
 known through the years to manage dollars over managing care, and I think 
 this would be a contributor to that, which is only going to fail 
 patients.”\n\nContract talks and California legislation loom\n\nThe 
 California Nurses Association is bargaining on behalf of 25,000 Kaiser 
 nurses, including about 1,000 in call centers, according to CalMatters. 
 Kaiser nurses went on strike against AI for one day in March and picketed 
 against AI last fall. CNA representatives declined to discuss specific 
 contract provisions they plan to seek ahead of summer talks.\n\nAt the same 
 time, California lawmakers are considering several bills regulating AI in 
 the workplace, including one that would protect doctors and nurses from 
 retaliation if they override automated care recommendations, CalMatters 
 reported.\n\nVirginia Dolleghast, a Cornell University researcher who has 
 studied surveillance technology in call centers for more than a decade, 
 told CalMatters that what Kaiser nurses describe is part of a broader trend 
 across industries.\n\n“Stress and burnout can lead to more mistakes 
 across a range of areas, and in the healthcare setting that is much higher 
 risk because you’re dealing with people’s lives and their 
 health.”\n\nA 2023 academic survey of call centers in four countries 
 found that nearly half of respondents said AI monitoring tools made their 
 jobs more stressful, according to CalMatters. Half of more than 2,000 
 nurses in a 2024 National Nurses United survey said their employers use 
 algorithmic systems to analyze health records.\n\nA 2024 public records 
 request by CalMatters to the California Department of Managed Health Care 
 found no patient complaints against Kaiser related to call times. But the 
 nurses say the risk is real, even if they cannot track outcomes once they 
 hang up the phone.\n\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2026/08/18/18888086.php
SUMMARY:Rally To Stop Chatbots Replacing Workers At Kaiser, Defend Healthcare Workers & Single Pay
LOCATION:San Francisco Kaiser Hospital\n2645 Geary Blvd\nSan Francisco
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2026/08/18/18888086.php
DTSTART:20260904T190000Z
DTEND:20260904T203000Z
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR