NEW YORK – St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan is poised to close for good at the end of April. But what will happen to its 3,500 employees when the hospital ceases to exist?
The Greenwich Village hospital cited more than $1 billion in liabilities in recent bankruptcy court filings. The hospital used emergency loans from the state and lenders to fulfill payroll obligations, but when the 160-year-old facility shuts down, many of its employees – particularly those workers who are not members of a union – may lose their health insurance along with their jobs.
St. Vincent's Manhattan is owned by St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers.
Jack A. Raisner, a partner at Outten & Golden, LLP, a New York-based law firm specializing in employee rights, said St. Vincent's abrupt shutdown and bankruptcy filing focuses attention on the plight of workers who experience the sudden loss of jobs plus the loss of company health insurance.
"A safety net for St. Vincent’s patients exists in the form of other healthcare providers – but no safety net exists for many employees who suddenly have no health insurance," Raisner said. He noted that this scenario has been played out across the nation during the recession, leading to many lawsuits.
"Non-union employees usually find they have no COBRA to buy into, no readily available medical insurance plan exists for them – and even if they find it, how will they pay for it?" asked Raisner.
The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires covered employers to provide employees with 60 days advance written notice that they will be losing their jobs in a mass layoff or shutdown.
New York enacted its own version of the WARN Act a little more than a year ago, Raisner said, giving employers slightly more leeway – 90 days notice in advance of a shutdown. Raisner suspects that such notice was not given to the employees of St. Vincent's.
René S. Roupinian, one of Raisner’s colleagues at Outten & Golden, said that if St. Vincent’s violated the New York WARN Act, employees could be eligible to receive up to 60 days of back pay and benefits, which include medical expenses incurred due to lack of health insurance during the notice period.
"Now that St. Vincent's has filed for bankruptcy, it is expected there will be a loss of health insurance," Roupinian said. "Employees are often let go with no insurance. It's a harsh reality and can often be more devastating than the sudden loss of income."
Outten & Golden is currently litigating a case against Caritas Health Care, in which former employees of St. John's Queens and Mary Immaculate hospitals claim they were terminated in alleged violation of the federal and New York WARN Acts.
That class action suit has been certified with 800 former workers who are not healthcare union members.
