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PetSmart Sued For Sending Dog Groomers To Debt Collection [huffpost.com]:

Attorneys General, HCA Settle Over Nurse Training Repayment Provisions [hcinnovationgroup.com]:

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.

HCA imposed TRAPs on nurses who worked at their five hospitals in California: Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose; Regional Medical Center in San Jose; Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks; Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside; and West Hills Hospital & Medical Center in West Hills (no longer under HCA ownership).

Under California’s settlement, HCA will:
• Pay approximately $83,000 to provide full restitution to California nurses who made payments on their TRAP debt to HCA.
• Be prohibited from imposing TRAPs on nurse employees and attempting to collect on the approximately $288,000 in outstanding TRAP debt incurred by California nurses who signed TRAPs with HCA.
• Pay $1,162,900 in penalties to California.
• 
HCA will pay a total of $2,900,000 in penalties under settlements filed in California, Colorado, and Nevada today.

“All too often, employer-driven debt forces workers to remain in jobs that they would otherwise leave. That’s not just wrong; it’s illegal under state and federal law. Workers must be able to pursue better pay and better working conditions — not be trapped by debt that their employer makes them take out,” said Attorney General Bonta in a statement. “I’m grateful to my fellow attorneys general in Colorado and Nevada for their partnership. With today’s settlement, we are taking a stand for workers in our states by holding HCA Healthcare accountable — ensuring that all affected nurses are made whole financially, that the company pays a penalty for its wrongdoing, and that the company is subject to strong injunctive terms to deter future misconduct.”

Nursing unions applauded the settlement. “California Nurses Association and our national union, National Nurses United, want to thank Attorney General Bonta for his leadership in addressing this growing trend of employers, such as HCA, using debt repayment contracts to lock nurses and other workers into jobs,” said Sandy Reding, R.N., president of the California Nurses Association, in a statement. “HCA, the largest for-profit hospital system in the country, has a shameful track record of using predatory stay-or-pay contracts, or Training Repayment Agreement Provisions (TRAPS), which handcuff nurses to our employers through the threat of serious financial consequences or ruin. No nurses and no other workers should be locked into a job under the weight of debt to their employer.”

Original Submission