D.C. Federal Judge Orders Hospital to Roll Back Huge Health Care Hikes for Nurses

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

A federal judge in D.C. has ordered management at the Washington Hospital Center, the capital’s biggest hospital, to roll back health insurance deductible increases and coinsurance maximums for its 1,850 unionized nurses. The deductibles tripled for 40% of the nurses at the beginning of 2012. In a July 10 victory for the WHC nurses and their union, National Nurses United, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon upheld an arbitrator’s ruling that the hikes violated the union’s contract with the hospital. He also threw out the hospital’s plan, imposed at the same time, to force its nurses to use only WHC facilities and doctors for medical care. “This is vindication for the 1,850 NNU nurses at MedStar Washington Hospital Center who stood together to protect our ability to make decisions about our own health care,” Stephen Frum (right), a nurse on the burn/surgical intensive care unit and the NNU’s chief nurse representative, said in an NNU-issued statement. “Because we have a strong union, we were able to stop MedStar’s attempt to unilaterally change the terms and conditions of our employment.  Unfortunately, the hospital wasted tens of thousands of dollars in these legal proceedings that should have gone for patient care, when it could have simply respected the rights of its bedside caregivers from the beginning,” Frum added. "If MedStar wants to confront the significant nurse turnover rate” at the hospital, “it should start with respecting its contractual commitments to the nurses,” he said. - Press Associates Union News Service; photo by Chris Garlock