Bob wrote:I was just told something which shocks me.
A friend who is also a patient at the Sacred Heart Oncology Group told me
she got in a conversation with one of the oncologist's nurses, actually a physician's assistant. And this person told her she doesn't have a health insurance benefit with her employment.
Can that be true? That nurses working at the largest and most profitable medical outfit in Northwest Florida doesn't don't have health insurance with that outfit?
also p.s. to yella. For stitches and other minor injuries it's less expensive to go to a walk-in medical clinic than going to an ER.
It's true, Bob, if this nurse or PA is classified as a PRN (as-needed) employee or is filling a defined part-time slot.
As I've written here before, I knew a PRN nurse at my prior employer who worked over eighty hours in two weeks consistently for over eight months. Because she was classified as a PRN "contract employee" (even though she was actually an employee of the corporation), she was not eligible for benefits. She eventually found another position in the corporation that was classified as full time.
I know of another nurse who was directly hired on a specific unit at a local facility on a supposed contract basis. His contract guaranteed him 29 hours per week. The admin who set this up told me we could then "use him as much as he wants to work, but we still won't have to give him benefits."
Her words made me feel sick inside, and angry.
I would like to see all local nurses band together, form their own corporation, obtain group insurance for all the nurses (including making insurance available to part-timers at a pro-rated price), and then lease their services to local hospitals under a contract designed by the nurses. It's not a union, but it's the next best thing.
Home
