Trinity Health will pay $75 million to resolve allegations that it mismanaged its pension plans, putting an end to more than two dozen class-action lawsuits that have been filed against the Livonia, Mich.-based system over the past three years, according to Bloomberg BNA.
In each lawsuit, the system is accused of improperly classifying its pension as a "church plan" exempt from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which requires pension plans to have adequate funding to pay their promised benefits.
Under the settlement agreement, Trinity will make three $25 million pension plan contributions. The deal could benefit as many as 116,000 individuals who work for Trinity-affiliated entities, according to Bloomberg, which cited settlement papers filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.
The $75 million settlement is less than the $107 million St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Conn., agreed to pay in May to resolve allegations it improperly classified and underfunded its pension plan. However, the Trinity settlement is more than nine times larger than the $8 million settlement reached by St. Louis-based Ascension Health in a similar suit in 2015.
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