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Lawsuit Claims Adventist Health Underfunded Pensions

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
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The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Adventist Health System is being sued under a class action lawsuit, alleging the company has underfunded its pension plans by $134 million dollars.

Based in Altamonte Springs, Adventist Health System owns 46 hospitals in 10 states. Adventist is Florida Hospital’s parent company, and is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The hospital system has a pension plan, but according to a new lawsuit, the hospital chain hasn’t been putting in enough money to meet financial obligations. The plaintiffs allege the hospital needs to put $134 million into two separate pensions owed to “thousands of employees.”

That’s according to standards in a federal law called ERISA, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Adventist says that law doesn’t apply and that it’s exempt as a religious organization.

“Moreover, by avoiding ERISA’s requirements, (Adventist Health System} maintains a competitive advantage over other health care entities that comply with ERISA,” the plaintiffs write in the lawsuit.

Adventist is the latest church-affiliated hospital to get hit with this sort of lawsuit. By one Bloomberg estimate, 400,000 workers could be affected nationwide, with shortfalls of up to $4 billion.

Health News Florida reporter Abe Aboraya works for WMFE in Orlando. He started writing for newspapers in high school. After graduating from the University of Central Florida in 2007, he spent a year traveling and working as a freelance reporter for the Seattle Times and the Seattle Weekly, and working for local news websites in the San Francisco Bay area. Most recently Abe worked as a reporter for the Orlando Business Journal. He comes from a family of health care workers.