Kaiser Permanente requires Grow Therapy providers to administer specific clinical outcome measures as a condition of their national contract. These measures enable Kaiser to track client progress and support evidence-informed care across its network.

Starting April 30, 2026, new measures will be automatically sent to Kaiser Permanente National clients before their appointments. Providers do not need to enable or configure anything, as these measures will be sent automatically.

In addition, two additional measure updates will apply to all Grow providers, not just those at Kaiser Permanente:
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1. The Quality of Life (QOL) and Therapeutic Alliance (TA) measures will now be sent to clients aged 8 and older when enabled.
2. Providers can initiate the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) at any time during a Grow Telehealth session, regardless of PHQ-9 scores.

Starting April 30, the following measures will be required for all Kaiser National clients based on their age and appointment type.

Note on PROMIS scores: PROMIS measures use a T-score format, which is different from the scoring you may be used to with PHQ-9 and GAD-7. A score of 50 represents the population average. A score of 65 or higher indicates clinically elevated symptoms and will trigger a risk alert.

Because measures are automatically sent to clients before appointments, you do not need to send them manually or change any settings. Your responsibility is to respond to any risk alert banners that appear during your telehealth session.
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If you have a net-new adult Kaiser client at intake, you will see a banner in your telehealth meeting room prompting you to administer the C-SSRS:
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"Please administer a baseline Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale. This is a requirement for Kaiser."
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This requirement takes effect on April 30 and is applicable only to new Kaiser clients; it does not apply retroactively to existing clients.

The measures outlined in the chart above will be automatically sent at the indicated cadences. These notifications will be sent to the email and phone number of the parent or guardian on file. Parents are expected to assist their child in completing the forms before the session.

The C-SSRS (adult version) remains triggered by a score of 0 or greater on Question 9 of the PHQ-9, as before.

Before each appointment, PROMIS measures for Depression, Anxiety, and Anger will be sent out along with the QOL and TA. These notifications will be sent to the email and phone number of the parent or guardian on file. Parents are expected to assist their child in completing the forms before the session.

If a child scores 65 or higher on PROMIS Depression or Anxiety, you will see a risk alert in your telehealth session and a prompt to administer the Child C-SSRS. The banner will specify which score triggered it (for example, “severe depression symptoms”). You may also administer the Child C-SSRS at any point during a session if you deem it clinically appropriate, regardless of whether it was auto-triggered. Note that PROMIS Anger does not trigger a risk alert.

Completed measure results are available in your client's Treatment tab in their chart and in the Client Information panel during your telehealth session. For more on navigating these views, see Measure client progress with recurring measures & check-ins.
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​Note on progress graphs: Trend graphs and table views for the new measures will not be available on April 30th. Score data for each completed measure is visible from day one. Graph views will be available in a future update.

Am I penalized if my clients don't complete these measures? No. There is no penalty for providers if clients don't complete measures. Grow is obligated to send them on the required cadences as part of the Kaiser contract, but measure completion is not tied to any payment, bonus, or corrective action for providers at this time.
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Why are there new measures being added? Kaiser Permanente's national contract requires Grow to send specific clinical outcome measures to Kaiser clients on defined cadences. These measures are part of Kaiser's clinical quality program and are standard across all providers in its network. This is a contractual requirement from Kaiser — not a Grow policy decision.
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Does this apply to all my Kaiser clients or just new ones? The new measures will be sent to all Kaiser National clients going forward based on their age and appointment type. The one exception is the C-SSRS at intake — that requirement applies to net-new adult Kaiser clients only and is not retroactive for existing clients.
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That's a lot of measures. Do my clients have to complete all of them every time? Grow is contractually obligated to send them on the required cadences. Completion is encouraged, but there is no penalty for providers if clients don't complete them. Not every measure needs to be discussed in depth every session — prioritize the results that are most clinically relevant for your client.
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My clients are already feeling fatigued by measures. What do I tell them? Start by validating their feelings — acknowledging that completing multiple assessments can feel like a lot is appropriate and builds trust. You can explain that their insurance plan requires these measures as part of its clinical quality program, much as a primary care provider tracks vital signs at every visit. Where it’s clinically relevant, connecting a specific measure to their treatment goals can also help: for example, if a client with anxiety is working on sleep, you can tie their GAD-7 responses directly to that goal. Reminding clients that completion is encouraged, not penalized, may also help ease the pressure.
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Read more about this in Strategies to address client resistance in completing measures by Grow's Clinical team.
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Can I turn off the new measures for my Kaiser clients? No. These measures are payor-required for Kaiser National clients and cannot be turned off. They are automatically sent based on the client's age and appointment type.
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Can I enable the new measures for my non-Kaiser clients? Yes. The new measures will appear in your Settings > Client Check-In page. They are set to "payor required only" by default for non-Kaiser clients, but you can change the setting to "all clients" or send them to a specific client if clinically appropriate.

​Where do I manage my measure settings? In your provider portal, go to Settings > Client Check-In, as seen below.
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