Piedmont Healthcare retirees notched a victory Thursday in their effort to preserve a benefit promised those who worked 30 continuous years at the hospital.
Piedmont, which completed the acquisition of University Hospital earlier this year, informed hospital retirees last year that a promised lifetime supplemental Medicare policy was only being paid “voluntarily.”
The retirees, whose number averages around 250, banded together over the uncertainty. In March, 174 of them filed a civil suit in Richmond County Superior Court seeking a guarantee Piedmont won’t stop paying for the policy during their lives.
In response to the lawsuit, Piedmont attorneys got the case moved to U.S. District Court, saying it falls under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, or ERISA.
The plaintiffs, represented by attorney Jack Long, argued the benefit – which appeared on employee literature for years – wasn’t an ERISA plan. Instead it was simply a free-standing perk Piedmont took on when it acquired University.
Moreover, ERISA doesn’t cover government-sponsored plans, and the hospital facilities sit on land leased from the government, they argued.
District Court Chief Judge J. Randal Hall remanded the case to superior court Thursday, saying the federal court lacks jurisdiction.
Piedmont, required to prove jurisdiction when it tried to move the case, failed to show the retirees were likely to suffer injury because it continues to pay the benefit, Hall wrote.
Their injury remains “hypothetical, considering Piedmont is still providing the alleged benefit,” he said.
The plaintiffs, whose ages range to their 90s, were relieved to see the case sent back, said Robert Taylor, a University retiree helping organize the plaintiffs.
“We felt like it was local business, and the decision needed to be made with local constituents,” Taylor said. “Superior Court gives us the right to a jury trial, and that was important to us.”
The case likely will move more quickly in superior court, and that’s important to the group, some of whom have died since the litigation began, he said.
“We are anxious to go ahead and get some resolution, because a lot of people are worried about the benefit, and to get it through and get is solved is something we want to get accomplished,” he said.
Susan McCord is a staff writer with The Augusta Press. Reach her at susan@theaugustapress.com.
