AN FRANCISCO, May 18 (AP) — Telephone clerks at California's largest health maintenance organization received bonuses for keeping calls with patients brief and limiting the number of doctor visits they schedule.

The company, Kaiser Permanente, offered the bonuses at three Northern California call centers from January 2000 to December 2001, a company spokesman, Jim Anderson, said on Friday.

"At the end of the year they looked at, `Were we doing a better job for members than when we started it?' The thought was no," Mr. Anderson said. "The whole purpose of this was designed to help serve members better."

The California Nurses Association, the union representing Kaiser's registered nurses, called the program deceitful and harmful.

Cash bonuses were paid to those who made appointments for fewer than 35 percent of callers and spent less than an average of three minutes, 45 seconds on the phone with each patient.

State regulators recently opened an investigation into the bonus program, said Steven Fisher, deputy director of the state Department of Managed Health Care.