The lawsuit, filed April 6 by Lynn Cole, BSN, in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, seeks class-action status for an unspecified number of nurses. Ms. Cole, who worked for Highmark from 2017 to 2019 as a salaried employee, accuses the company of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by not adequately paying nurses for time spent reviewing health insurance authorization requests beyond 40 hours per week.
The class-action includes utilization management nurses, utilization review nurses, medical management nurses, nurse reviewers or care management nurses who worked at Highmark in the last three years, according to the lawsuit.
In an emailed statement to Becker’s, a Highmark spokesperson said the company is not commenting on pending litigation.
Read more here.
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