Nevada reaches $862K settlement with hospital operator over employee debt

The state of Nevada and a group of nurses will share $862,000 as part of a $2.9 million, multistate settlement with HCA Healthcare for an employment provision requiring entry-level nurses to repay the cost of a mandatory training program if they did not stay with the company for two years, the attorney general’s office announced Thursday.

“The debt that HCA saddled its prospective employees with was unlawful and hindered the ability of Nevadans to thrive early in their vital careers in the health care industry,” Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, said in a news release. “I am proud of today’s settlement, which includes full available restitution for the impacted nurses and penalties paid to our state.”

State attorneys say the health care system generally required entry-level nurses to complete a specialty nursing residency program as a condition of employment. The investigation found those new hires were required to sign a repayment agreement in their on-boarding paperwork if they did not complete the training — which attorneys allege is a violation of two Nevada state consumer protection laws.

The attorneys general said the agreements, known as “Training Repayment Agreement Provisions,” were a form of employer-driven debt.

“The (agreements) purported to require nurses to repay a prorated portion of the StaRN (the entry-level program) ‘value’ if they did not work for HCA for two years,” the release said. “If a nurse left HCA before the end of the two-year period, then the TRAP loan was often sent to debt collection, or the balance of the TRAP obligation was deducted from the nurse’s final paycheck.”

Nevada joined California and Colorado, as well as the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during the Biden administration, in an investigation into the health care giant.

HCA owns or operates MountainView, Sunrise and Southern Hills hospitals in Nevada. HCA will notify nurses eligible for restitution, according to the release.

In the Thursday settlement, HCA agreed to pay nearly $76,000 in restitution for those Nevada nurses who made payments on their unlawful debt to the health care system. It will also pay $786,500 in penalties to the state. The remaining settlement penalties will go to California and Colorado, the two other states.

Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.