AmeriHealth Caritas has agreed to pay $5 million to settle two overtime lawsuits this year

AmeriHealth Caritas, one of the nation’s largest Medicaid insurers, has agreed this year to pay $5 million to settle two federal lawsuits alleging that the Newtown Square company improperly failed to pay overtime to some of its more than 9,000 employees.

AmerHealth Caritas settled last month for $2.5 million a lawsuit involving workers who help coordinate care for Medicaid beneficiaries who receive long-term services in the community or in nursing homes. A separate $2.5 million settlement in February addressed the lack of overtime for workers who review medical treatment authorization requests from doctors.

Both groups alleged that they were improperly classified as exempt workers and accordingly not paid overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a week.

A care-coordination worker, Isabella Bristow, earned $51,000 a year, and alleged she regularly worked 50 to 60 hours a week without overtime, according to her complaint.

Bristow’s attorney, Deirdre Aaron, of Winebrake & Santillo LLC, said last month’s settlement terms prevented her from commenting. The numbers of workers covered by the settlements was not available.

AmeriHealth Caritas denied doing anything wrong.

“AmeriHealth Caritas pays fair wages and complies with all wage and hour laws. This settlement avoids a protracted litigation,” the company said in a statement regarding the $2.5 million settlement approved last month by U.S. District Court Judge Wendy Beetlestone in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Others companies in the same industry, including Centene Corp. and Highmark Health subsidiary Gateway Health LLC, have settled similar lawsuits in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

AmeriHealth Caritas is majority owned by Philadelphia’s Independence Health Group, the parent of Independence Blue Cross.

Last year, AmeriHealth Caritas had $280 million in net income on $20.2 billion in revenue. The company operates in 13 states and Washington D.C.

In 2020, AmeriHealth Caritas agreed to pay $4.25 million to settle an earlier lawsuit alleging failure to pay overtime to clinical-care reviewers. In 2021, the company agreed to pay $275,000 to settle allegations involving workers who handled customer grievances.