Attorneys General, HCA Settle Over Nurse Training Repayment Provisions
upstart writes:
Attorneys General, HCA Settle Over Nurse Training Repayment Provisions:
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has announced a settlement with HCA Healthcare Inc. and Health Trust Workforce Solutions LLC (together, HCA), resolving allegations that HCA unlawfully required entry-level nurse employees to repay the cost of a mandatory training program if they did not remain employed with the company for two years.
One of the nation's largest hospital systems, for-profit HCA has several hospitals in California.
Today's settlement is the result of a years-long investigation by attorneys general in California, Colorado and Nevada, working in partnership with the Biden Administration's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The states' investigation found that HCA violated California employment and consumer protection laws as well as the federal consumer financial protection laws by using training repayment agreement provisions (TRAPs) in nurses' employment contracts. These TRAPs are a form of employer-driven debt, or debt obligations incurred by individuals through employment arrangements.
Here is how the California attorney general' s office described HCA's nursing training program and the settlement: As a condition of employment at an HCA hospital, HCA generally requires that entry-level nurse employees complete the Specialty Training Apprenticeship for Registered Nurses (StaRN) Residency Program. The company has advertised StaRN as an avenue for entry-level RNs to get the education and training they need to land their first nursing jobs in an acute-care hospital setting, although StaRN does not provide nurses with education or training necessary for licensure as an RN.
Until the spring of 2023, HCA required that RNs hired through the StaRN program at facilities in several states, including California, sign a TRAP agreement in their new-hire paperwork. The TRAPs purported to require nurses to repay a prorated portion of the StaRN "value" if they did not work for HCA for two years. If a nurse left HCA before the end of the two-year period, then the TRAP loan was typically sent to debt collection.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.