Pennsylvania Hospitals Distributing $16,400,000 to Thousands of Workers After Settlement
Two Pennsylvania hospital systems are paying $16.4 million to more than 11,000 workers after a lawsuit claimed they secretly agreed not to hire each other’s staff.
The workers said Geisinger and Evangelical Community Hospital had a no-poach deal from 2014 to 2020.
That meant nurses and other employees could not easily jump to the other system for better pay. The lawsuit said the deal kept wages down. Both systems denied it and settled without admitting they did anything wrong.
The alleged agreement ended after the U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust case in 2020 over Geisinger’s plan to take a large ownership stake in Evangelical. Judge Matthew W. Brann approved the payout plan, reports PennLive.
It covers 11,252 eligible workers in six counties, with a $250 minimum. Geisinger put in $19 million. Evangelical put in $9.5 million.
After about $10 million in legal fees, $2.8 million in expenses, and other costs, $16.4 million is left for workers. The average check is about $1,500. The largest is $28,000, based on work records.
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