Retired health care workers seek pension change as they provide help

Nurses and doctors treating COVID-19 patients do so while risking infection themselves, and many have also become sick or are, at the very least, under a tremendous amount of personal and professional strain due to the pandemic.

Their retired or semi-retired colleagues are ready and willing to pitch in and help. But in Minnesota, some of those former health care professionals risk losing pension benefits should they return to work, effectively keeping them sidelined when their knowledge and expertise are most needed.

The House Government Operations Committee on Wednesday approved a bill meant to address this problem by temporarily suspending the limits on hours health care workers can spend on the job before their retirement benefits suffer. It now goes to the House Floor.

Rep. Kristin Bahner

Sponsored by Rep. Kristin Bahner (DFL-Maple Grove), HF4576 would allow retired health care workers who have a Public Employees Retirement Association General Plan or Minnesota State Retirement System General Plan – or any pension plan administered by PERA or MSRS that covers them – to work as many hours as needed during a peacetime emergency without losing pension payments.

Bahner said other states have faced staffing challenges as doctors and nurses have fallen ill, but that Minnesota has a “deep bench” of health care professionals operating on what are called phased out or post-retirement agreements.

“In other words, we have a wealth of semi-retired and retired individuals that can fill in these gaps,” she said. “…To be concise, they can step up with little or no training in a crisis situation.”

The committee received a letter of support for the bill from one of those workers, Becca Lundberg, a retired certified registered nurse anesthetist from Wayzata.

She told members expertise such as hers, which includes providing airway and ventilator support, is needed now more than ever. But current requirements “severely limit” the hours she could work and would face a reduction in her retirement benefits if she exceeded that threshold.

“This is a time of increased demand on our health care systems while also there exists a limited supply of qualified providers such as CRNAs,” she wrote. “Please support this bill to remove income limits so that retirement benefits are not reduced for those retired pension earning former employees. Many of us are willing to offer valuable and experienced care.”

The companion, SF4498, is sponsored by Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer (R-Big Lake) and awaits action by the Senate State Government Finance and Policy and Elections Committee.