A healthcare staffing firm is accused of not paying its workers for one month of work at Moore County Hospital District, a rural hospital in Duma, Texas, MedPage Today reported July 26.
HospitalMD, a healthcare staffing firm, was contracted by Moore County Hospital to help staff the facility. The staffing firm provided at least 13 healthcare workers to the hospital in the last two years, according to the report.
After Moore County Hospital District notified HospitalMD and its President and CEO Jim Burnette that it would not renew a monthly contract after January 2021, emails reveal that the hospital staffing firm failed to pay some of its employees for work completed in December 2020 and early January.
According to emails between Mr. Burnette and at least two of the workers, he reportedly has still not paid them as of April, but he intends to do so.
"I will pay you for your clinical time and travel as soon as I can," Mr. Burnette wrote on April 22 to Tarah Romanski, a nurse practitioner who left the rural Texas hospital. "I am having conversations with prospects but have not [sic] new contracts to date. I am sorry that I became unable to pay you as agreed. But I will, and I will make it up to you. I just don't know when this will happen."
Ms. Romanski told MedPage Today that she still hasn't been paid and she estimates that she is owed $22,000 for her work in December.
"I don't know how he sleeps at night," Ms. Romanski said.
Moore County Hospital District and Mr. Burnette declined MedPage Today's request for comment.
Read the full report here.