“Years and years of banging our heads against the wall have finally paid off,” said Ilana Marcucci-Morris, a therapist at Kaiser Permanente’s Oakland Medical Center. “This has the potential to make Kaiser a leader in mental health care, rather than a serial violator of mental health care laws.”
In Northern Virginia, due to a shortage of in-house psychiatrists and psychologists, Kaiser has recently agreed to reimburse at least some patients/families using the services of non-Kaiser providers. In effect, patients through their choices may be constructing the beginnings of a 1980s style PPO.