Is working at Kaiser worth it in 2026 as a psychiatrist?

[the5thelement]

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Can anyone working there chime in ? What is the patient load (outpatient) ? How many evals / patients per day? The quality of the support staff and EMR is also important. Are you satisfied working there as a psychiatrist? Is there a lot of metric /productivity chasing? I heard they give you a nice golden handcuff but also work you to death but not sure if that is accurate.

 

[FlowRate]

The degree of golden handcuffage is dependent on which Kaiser region you're in. The California PMG's have the best pensions.

Each region also differs in varying degrees in terms of the exact structure of your clinic schedule, whether intakes are fixed in your schedule or if you have an open schedule, exact amount of admin time per day/week, panel expectations, metrics/productivity, etc. Support staff varies by clinic. All PMG's do 30 minute f/u's and 60 minute intakes. I think CAP in one region gets 90.

Probably the biggest contrast to FFS work (whether employed or PP) is the orientation toward optimizing for quality and system cost rather than purely quality and profit. This shows up as tolerating longer inter-appointment intervals and greater between-appointment message expectations. Those expectations are offset by typically having more dedicated time for asynchronous care and strong support staff.

I don't know the exact compensation philosophy details in other regions but I think they all use a similar methodology as far as updating pay (up or down) based on market research (for national salary trends and regional COL differential.)

I don't think it's realistic to expect work for any other large healthcare corporation to be substantially better. Actually I think it's the opposite--most employed jobs are going to likely be worse in some way.

The EMR in all regions is Epic and a pretty fully-featured version at that (corporate scale helps.)

Total comp in the PMG's is usually better than it first appears, although not usually dramatically better than other options. But if you're optimizing for comp alone you should not choose a PMG. Even when there are productivity bonuses, there's not nearly the upside that you'd get in a more lucrative FFS/productivity environment or by combining jobs.

The only people "worked to death" in psychiatry in our region are the bottom 10% of efficiency types who write notes 10x longer than necessary. Everyone else generally starts and ends within the scheduled workday without issue.

 

[the5thelement]

It appears I have already asked this question 3 years ago. In case any one is interested, I had the key findings from that thread summarized in jive :

Dig This, Baby! Kaiser Psychiatry: The Real Lowdown 🎷​

The Bread and Butter
The bread is STACKED — $350K base (adult), $365K for child psych in NorCal, pension, free healthcare FOR LIFE, and bonuses droppin' twice a year. That ain't nothin' to sneeze at, daddy-o!


The Catch, Since You Asked
Five days a week of seeing heads will DRAIN your soul faster than a bathtub with no plug. Every cat who works there eventually finesses an admin role just to survive.


The Inbox Situation
Used to be a MESS, but they got ancillary staff trickin' those messages now — MAs, RNs, pharmacists runnin' interference before anything hits your desk. Cool scene, man.


The Therapy Drought
Therapists are scarcer than a parking spot at Crenshaw on a Friday night. They got IOP/PHP to pick up the slack, but it ain't perfect.


The Golden Handcuffs
Real in NorCal with that PENSION — but you gotta ride it 15 years to really get the good stuff. Outside California? More like cubic zirconia cuffs.


The "No Side Hustle" Clause
Some regions got a you better ask somebody policy if you wanna moonlight. That ain't cool for a free spirit, you dig?


Bottom Line
Solid gig if you want stability. Private practice if you want FREEDOM. Choose your own adventure, baby! 🕶️

 

[comp1]

That no outside work thing sounds horrible, but I guess they expect you not to have the energy.

 

[Merovinge]

I'm pretty down on AI given that it's being implemented during late-stage capitalism, but the fact the forum posts can call me daddy-o is making me rethink things a bit...