Memphis Nurses Being Forced To Pay Back Commitment Bonuses
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The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare (MLH) is coming after Midsouth nurses to try and make them pay back commitment bonuses paid to them two years ago when COVID-19 was at its peak.
The hospital offered bonuses to individuals in demand positions to help maintain a consistent working staff and give them a reason not to become travel healthcare workers during that time. Those who agreed to accept the bonus also agreed to adhere to certain regulations.
Those regulations include:
Remaining in the same work position for two years
• Maintaining an eligible, 24-7, on-call status
• Minimum 500 work hours for contract nurse
• Minimum 900 work hours for part-time nurses
• Minimum 1664 work hours for full-time nurses
At the time of signing, individuals were notified that failure to adhere to the regulations could result in them being made to pay back a portion or all of the bonus.
One local nurse says she was shocked to receive a letter from MLH recently, stating that she had to pay back a significant portion of the bonus. She says several other nurses received this as well.
A copy of the letter given to Action News 5 shows that she is being made to pay back $14,070 of her bonus.
The nurse says she was not ever called in and has only taken paid time off. She also stated that she has worked overtime.
She says that she has no way to dispute the chargeback, stating that she believes this is a terrible way to treat individuals who dedicate their lives to caring for the sick.
MLH released a statement defending their decision and said that bonuses could be paid back with a check or money order or nurses could contact them to make arrangements for paycheck deductions.
The statement from MLH is below:
From time to time, healthcare systems around the county offer bonuses to encourage their employees to stay – in this case to incent them not to become travel nurses during the pandemic. Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare implemented an initiative, offering a bonus to staff in high demand roles in exchange for a two-year commitment to remain with the organization in those select roles.
Employees who chose to participate agreed to meet specific requirements, including remaining in a qualifying role with the organization, or the bonus would have to be repaid. Every individual was fully educated about the requirements and signed a commitment letter, indicating that they understood their obligation.
As the initiative ends, we are in the process of alerting those who did not fulfill the commitment and will work with them on a payment plan. With bonus programs like this, stringent regulatory requirements must be followed once eligibility criteria is established, including not treating any group of individuals different from another. The program successfully stabilized our workforce during a time of tremendous turnover. We are grateful to our employees for their dedication and commitment to Methodist Le Bonheur and its communities and we will continue to work together to provide highest quality care in the region.
Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare
They signed a contract and may or may not of fulfilled the terms of it. Go to court and let a judge decide.
Watch what happens the next time and there will be a next time their needed.
If the “failure” was that they were not called to work the required hours, but were available, then the loss falls on the hospital. In any event, this is typical of middle management. Hospital management “Stay on call for us, accept significant limitations on your life because we need you. Now that we (as middle Managment ) have screwed this up, you should pay us back.
Typical MBA arrogance. I have yest to see a hospital manager (with one exception) who was good for anything except getting me a cup of coffee when the ER was busy. Middle management is typically an unneeded expense. This is a perfect example of it.