Envision Healthcare Failed to Pay Frontline Hospital Employees for Every Hour Worked, Lawsuit Alleges

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Envision Healthcare Corp. faces a proposed collective and class action that alleges the medical management company has knowingly failed to pay nurses, doctors and advanced practitioners proper wages. 

The 36-page lawsuit alleges Envision treats nurses, doctors and advanced practitioners as “commodities that it sells by the scheduled hour to its hospital customers,” and pays the workers only for the hours that they are scheduled to work. The suit stresses that the reality of a dynamic and unpredictable healthcare environment rarely allows for the employees’ work to be done by the end of a scheduled shift, and nurses, doctors and advanced practitioners thus routinely work beyond the end of their shifts to handle their responsibilities. 

“Envision knows this, but games the hourly pay scheme by refusing to compensate its workers for time worked beyond their scheduled shift,” the case alleges, arguing that the allegedly “rigged system” by which Envision pays wages based only on a person’s scheduled hours is “a plain violation” of its employment contracts and federal and state labor laws. 

The lawsuit states that the American healthcare system is in crisis in that myriad pre-existing problems have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, straining the industry to its breaking point. These dynamics, the suit says, have birthed intolerable working conditions for frontline hospital workers, who’ve been forced to endure excessively long hours, chronic understaffing and “illegal pay practices.” 

The suit relays that the plaintiff’s allegations sit at the “confluence of all these factors.” 

More specifically, the case alleges that Envision pays nurses, doctors and advanced practitioners, at most, for only their scheduled shifts without regard to the amount of time they’ve actually spent working. The plaintiff, a Missouri resident, contends that affected employees routinely work in excess of 40 hours each week performing necessary work tasks without compensation. 

“Indeed, Envision has not even used a time-clock or other method to track the amount of time Plaintiff has actually worked,” the suit claims. “Instead, the company pays her only for the time listed on her pre-arranged schedule.” 

Further, the case says that although Envision uses four electronic systems to track time for payroll purposes, only one can be used by any given employee. 

The lawsuit also mentions that as far as overtime hours are concerned, they must be approved in advance by a worker’s immediate supervisor. 

The case aims to represent all individuals currently and formerly employed by Envision as medical employees, other than physicians, in hourly positions who worked more than 40 hours in a workweek at any time within the last three years. 

The suit also looks to cover all Envision medical employees subject to a written contract that provided an hourly rate for each hour worked during the applicable statute of limitations period. 

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