Catholic Healthcare West pays $275,000 to resolve discrimination claim

October 21, 2010

Catholic Healthcare West, the parent company of French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo and Arroyo Grande Community Hospital, agreed to pay $275,000 in civil penalties to resolve allegations that CHW discriminated against immigrant job seekers, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

Under the terms of the settlement, CHW agreed to pay $257,000 in civil penalties — the largest amount of civil penalties ever paid to resolve such allegations — and $1,000 in back pay to the person who first mounted the allegations.

CHW required legal immigrants and naturalized U.S. citizen job seekers to provide more documentation than is required by federal law, but did not ask native born citizens to provide the same documentation, according to the department’s findings. The Immigration and Nationality Act prohibits employers from imposing different or greater employment-eligibility verification standards on the basis of a worker’s citizenship status.

CHW, the eighth largest hospital provider in the nation, has also agreed to review its past hiring practices at all of its 41 facilities in order to identify and compensate any additional victims who have lost wages as a result of the hospital provider’s discriminatory practices.


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With all the cheating and falsifying of documents that are presented to honest employers by illegal immigrants, I don’t blame an employer for wanting to confirm a questionable individuals employment status. This is ridiculous. If you speak with an accent, chances are that you weren’t born here and might be taking a job from a citizen. This discrimination BS has gone too far just like every other good intentioned act surrounding that cause.


Keep up the good work Karen

Since you first published the French Hospital controversy

You would be surprised how much I have learned about hospital “business”, the AMA and FDA (external)

As well as the medical insurance (internal).

at least 50% of bankrupsy and foreclosures occurred because of medial expenses or which 40% had medical insurance as I have. Besides having medical insurance, the doctors, hospital have more than one way of charge to increase income. People can’t keep up will their bills (with medial insurance), go into more debt and can’t sustain.

Karen, keep up the good work.