New York Hospital Ordered to Defend Health Plan Smoker Fee Suit

A Glens Falls Hospital employee is moving forward with part of her case challenging the hospital’s practice of charging tobacco-using workers an extra $520 per year for health-care coverage.

The employee validly alleged that Glens Falls Hospital deducted a tobacco penalty from workers’ wages without operating a legally compliant wellness program that would give them an opportunity to have the charges waived, Judge Mae A. D’Agostino said. This is sufficient to state a claim for discriminatory surcharges in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, D’Agostino said in an order issued Thursday in the US District Court for the ...