Home care nurses at a Flushing-based provider allege the company has illegally ended their health coverage amid an impasse in contract negotiations.
Centerlight, a nonprofit that provides long-term care for people with chronic health needs, failed to extend the insurance coverage of more than 70 nurses beyond a Dec. 30 deadline after their previous contract expired in September, the New York State Nurses Association alleges. On Tuesday, the union filed a notice of unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board alleging Centerlight violated federal law by not continuing coverage during bargaining.
The nurses, who have been pushing for months for better pay and benefits, are seeking the insurance to be reinstated while the union continues to negotiate a new contract.
Centerlight has accused the union of negotiating in bad faith. Coverage lapsed after the union rejected a short-term contract that would have given health benefits to the nurses while negotiations proceeded, said Centerlight Chief Administrative Officer David Silva. In lieu of an agreement, Silva said Centerlight offered to pay for the nurses’ benefits under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act or COBRA, a federal program that allows people to keep their employment-based health insurance after some life events. COBRA often comes with higher premiums but Centerlight offered to reimburse the nurses for the difference, Silva said. As an alternative, Centerlight also offered to cover them under the company’s non-union benefits package for the same cost, according to Silva.
But the nurses rejected both offers, which they claimed amounted to worse coverage and higher premiums.
As part of negotiations, Centerlight has asked the nurses to pay between $100 and $400 a month for health insurance, up from the $21 monthly payment they have been paying since 2015, according to Silva. NYSNA has rejected those demands while pushing Centerlight to increase payments to the union’s benefit fund to keep up with rising health care costs.
“In an attempt to save money and have nurses shoulder the costs, they refused to do what all other employers do and continue our benefits,” said Becky Gonzalez, Karine Bellony and Rosemonde Semexant, members of NYSNA’s bargaining committee, in a joint statement.
“They are scared,” said Bellony, referring to the nurses. “We are worried because if something happens, one of them gets sick or a child gets sick, what do the nurses do? We cannot afford to pay COBRA.”
The labor fight comes after a period of troubled finances for Centerlight – which operates 11 older adult centers and home care services in the city, Long Island and Westchester – over the last decade. The company paid $57 million to the state in 2016 to settle Medicaid fraud charges related to its billing practices, leading the company to sell off more than $100 million in assets, including health centers and nursing homes in Crown Heights, Jamaica, Allerton and White Plains.
The revenues of the company’s health centers outweighed its expenses by approximately $46 million, while its total liabilities were $33 million more than its assets, according to its latest tax filings in 2023. A separate filing for its overall operation shows that program had net assets around $11 million that year.
