(RNS) — One of many largest Catholic well being care programs within the U.S. will doubtless need to pay 33,000 of its Washington state workers greater than $200 million after a Seattle jury discovered on April 18 that the system had illegally underpaid staff for years by rounding down their compensated hours and denying meal breaks that had been nonetheless deducted from their time sheets.
The decision, the newest in a collection of authorized troubles for Windfall Well being & Providers, is a part of a broader sample of Catholic hospitals being accused of undermining their mission by shortchanging sufferers and employees.
Two lead plaintiffs, a licensed nursing assistant and an ultrasound tech, filed the class-action suit in 2021 towards Windfall, which operates 51 hospitals all through the western U.S.
The jury awarded Windfall hourly workers in Washington about $98 million in damages, however King County Superior Courtroom Choose Averil Rothrock, discovering that the violations had been willful, doubled the entire, following state regulation, with curiosity.
Windfall didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark by Faith Information Service, however in an emailed assertion to The Seattle Times and Fierce Healthcare, the well being system indicated that it intends to enchantment the choice.
Monsignor Robert Siler, the episcopal vicar and chancellor within the Diocese of Yakima, advised RNS by e mail that the diocese was limiting its feedback as a consequence of Windfall’s enchantment however mentioned that “general we imagine Windfall cares deeply for its workers” and famous that Windfall’s workers profit from “strong union illustration.”
“Given the numerous challenges going through Catholic well being care, we pray for a simply consequence, and a continued focus by each labor and administration on Windfall’s mission to serve everybody, particularly the poor and susceptible,” Siler wrote.
The Archdiocese of Seattle and the Diocese of Spokane didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.
The president of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW, a union representing 8,000 well being care staff at Swedish Windfall, Kadlec Regional Medical Middle and Windfall St. Peter Hospital, advised RNS in an emailed assertion that the union is “elated by the authorized victory achieved by these staff.”
Whereas the union was not concerned in bringing the class-action swimsuit, Jane Hopkins, the president and a registered nurse, mentioned that the union has fought for latest legal guidelines on time beyond regulation, breaks and staffing as a result of “we’ve watched multibillion-dollar healthcare companies like Windfall prioritize earnings above the well-being of their staff.”
Hopkins mentioned the class-action swimsuit “demonstrates the necessity for persistent enforcement.”
Windfall has additionally confronted scrutiny from attorneys basic in Washington and Oregon round its charity care practices.
In February, the system agreed to repay or forgive about $158 million in medical payments to just about 100,000 sufferers who doubtless certified without spending a dime or reduced-cost charity care. Washington Legal professional Basic Bob Ferguson had filed the swimsuit two years in the past alleging that “Windfall educated employees to aggressively ask for cost from sufferers who had been doubtless eligible for monetary help, or just billed them with out figuring out in the event that they certified.”
Ferguson additionally mentioned that “In 1000’s of instances, Windfall knowingly despatched low-income sufferers — together with Medicaid enrollees — to debt collectors.”
In September 2022, The New York Occasions found that Windfall had relied on consulting agency McKinsey & Co. to create an aggressive technique to press sufferers, even these with very low incomes who must have certified for monetary assist, to pay their medical payments, typically asking them to pay on the bedside and sending repeated payments earlier than sending the instances to collections, leading to drastic monetary penalties similar to depriving the sufferers of warmth of their houses.
In Oregon, the place Legal professional Basic Ellen Rosenblum is investigating the well being system’s charity care practices, she requested a state choose to power Windfall to show over paperwork in her investigation, which the well being care system has referred to as “extremely burdensome.”
Shortly after final week’s wage violation verdict, about 500 technicians represented by the United Meals and Business Staff Worldwide Union 3000 at Windfall Sacred Coronary heart Medical Middle in Spokane started a strike scheduled to final greater than per week due to what the union says are unfair labor practices throughout contract negotiations.
“Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services,” a doc created by the U.S. Catholic bishops with “authoritative steering” for Catholic well being care, stipulates {that a} “Catholic well being care establishment should deal with its workers respectfully and justly,” together with offering “simply compensation and advantages.”
Whereas Catholic bishops have devoted time and a focus to implementing the directives’ steering on abortion and creating new steering on transgender well being care, they’ve not often publicly spoken up when Catholic well being programs have been accused of mistreating their workers or failing poor sufferers.
In January, a nurses’ union report raised concerns that one other Catholic well being big, Ascension, was closing labor and supply models at increased charges than all U.S. hospitals, with closures in poorer neighborhoods and Black and Latino communities. Greater than 15 U.S. Catholic bishops didn’t reply or declined requests for touch upon that report from RNS.