Dive Brief:

The class action lawsuit, citing the NYT report, alleges that Ascensions improper cost-cutting measures, including cutting its nursing staff by 23% over the past five years, led to complex nurse payment structures as the health system attempted to incentivize nurses to work longer hours to make up for the staff shortages.

The lawsuit alleges that as a result the defendant nurses, all former and current employees at Joliet, Illinois-based Ascension Saint Joseph, experienced regular and repeated compensation errors, which Ascension did not contest but still failed to pay.

The undercompensation is systemic and may have impacted dozens, perhaps hundreds, of hospital employees,according to the lawsuit.

Ascension failed to compensate oneof the lawsuits defendants, former interventional radiology nurse Desiree Lehr, over $2,000 in incentive shift pay, in addition to another $762.50 that was discovered during the course of the lawsuit investigation, according to the suit.

Another defendant, a current psychiatric nurse at Ascension, has still failed to receive her contractually obligated raise intended to go into effect July 11, 2022, according to the suit.

In a statement to Healthcare Dive, a spokesperson for Ascension said that the system recently became aware of the litigation and was looking into the issues raised.

We pride ourselves on paying every associate a fair wage, the spokesperson said.

The federal lawsuit is the latest spotlight on the nations hospitals, especially nonprofits, as systems reckon with dismal financial outlooks heading into this year.

In September, the NYT reported another investigation, which found that one of the nations largest healthcare systems, Providence Health, routinely pressured patients into paying their medical bills even if they were eligible for financial assistance.

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Illinois nurses file class action lawsuit against Ascension over wage ... - Healthcare Dive