The Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association and more than 80 of its member hospitals have settled a class action lawsuit alleging the hospitals fixed the pay of temporary nurses hired through per diem agencies for $22.5 million, according to a Daily Miner report.
The suit was filed in 2007 by nurses seeking to recoup lost wages. The suit was settled in September and approved by the court in March.
In 1997, the AzHHA instituted a billing rate schedule for temporary nursing agencies to follow in order to be included in the association's temporary and traveling nurse agency registry program. The AzHHA also allegedly required hospitals using the registry to hire at least half of its temporary nurses from the registry. The rates were lower than the going rate for temporary nurses, and the class action suit alleged the AzHHA's actions were equivalent to price fixing.
In 2005, temporary nursing agency PC Healthcare Enterprises sued AzHHA and some members alleging illegal price fixing. The suit was settled in a confidential agreement, according to the report. And in May 2007, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Arizona Attorney General filed a complaint against AzHHA. AzHHA was ordered to stop using the rate schedule as part of resolving the complaint, according to the report.
The amount each hospital will pay as its part in the settlement has not yet been released.
Read the Daily Miner report on the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association's alleged price fixing.
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The suit was filed in 2007 by nurses seeking to recoup lost wages. The suit was settled in September and approved by the court in March.
In 1997, the AzHHA instituted a billing rate schedule for temporary nursing agencies to follow in order to be included in the association's temporary and traveling nurse agency registry program. The AzHHA also allegedly required hospitals using the registry to hire at least half of its temporary nurses from the registry. The rates were lower than the going rate for temporary nurses, and the class action suit alleged the AzHHA's actions were equivalent to price fixing.
In 2005, temporary nursing agency PC Healthcare Enterprises sued AzHHA and some members alleging illegal price fixing. The suit was settled in a confidential agreement, according to the report. And in May 2007, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Arizona Attorney General filed a complaint against AzHHA. AzHHA was ordered to stop using the rate schedule as part of resolving the complaint, according to the report.
The amount each hospital will pay as its part in the settlement has not yet been released.
Read the Daily Miner report on the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association's alleged price fixing.
Related Articles on the AzHHA:
Proposed Arizona Budget Scales Back Medicaid Cuts, But Doesn't Include Hospital Tax
Arizona Hospitals Ask Governor to Implement Provider Tax
President of Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association to Retire in 2011