A federal judge has given final approval to a $14.75 million settlement between Elevance Health and a group of nurses who alleged the insurer misclassified them as exempt from overtime pay.
U.S. District Judge David Novak signed off on the deal Aug. 20 in the Eastern District of Virginia, closing out five related lawsuits that had been consolidated for settlement purposes. The cases were brought by nurses who worked in medical management and utilization review roles across Virginia, Minnesota, North Carolina and Maryland.
In their complaints, some of which date back to 2022, the nurses alleged their primary job was reviewing medical authorization requests against pre-determined clinical guidelines and criteria, work they argued was non-exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act and state overtime laws. They pointed out that licensed practical nurses at Elevance performing the same type of reviews were classified as hourly and received overtime, while the salaried nurses routinely worked more than 40 hours a week without additional pay.
The court awarded roughly $4.92 million in attorneys’ fees, representing one-third of the common fund, along with $240,000 in costs and $96,500 in service payments.
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