Healthcare workers at Watsonville (Calif.) Community Hospital are taking additional steps to get a cost initiative they filed in October on a future ballot, according to a Register-Pajaronian report.
The Watsonville Accountable and Affordable Health Care Initiative seeks to limit how much the hospital can charge patients. Under the proposed ballot initiative, the hospital could not charge patients "more than 15 percent above a reasonable cost of providing care," according to the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, which represents the workers. The union has said patients or their insurance providers would receive reimbursement from overcharges.
Surgical tech Chris Gil said in the report the initiative targets alleged overcharging by the hospital.
To get the initiative on the November 2018 ballot, union members plan to try to gather signatures in support of the measure, according to the report. The signature-gathering phase is slated to officially kick off this weekend. A total of nearly 1,800 signatures from registered voters are necessary to qualify the measure for the ballot.
In a statement to Becker's Hospital Review, WCH denied the union's allegations and called the proposed ballot initiative "a waste of taxpayer dollars and a distraction from the true catalyst: the union's opposition to our request that our SEIU-represented personnel begin contributing to their health insurance at the same rate of participation as that of all other hospital employees."