By Rihem Akkouche

Four million documents. Forty-nine depositions. Five separate lawsuits spanning four states. And in the end, a $14.75 million settlement that just one class member out of 524 chose to walk away from.

Nurses who spent years accusing Elevance Health of misclassifying them as exempt from overtime pay have asked a Virginia federal court for final approval of the global settlement, filing a motion Monday asking the court to certify settlement classes across all four states involved and close out the litigation for good.

What the Nurses Alleged

At the center of the dispute was a straightforward but consequential question: did the work these nurses actually performed qualify them for the "learned professional" exemption that would allow Elevance Health to withhold overtime pay?

The nurses, who worked in medical management roles across Virginia, Minnesota, Maryland and North Carolina, argued no. Their primary responsibility, they said, was processing health insurance authorization requests — work they described as routine and constrained by company processes specifically designed to limit independent discretion and judgment, regardless of whatever nursing credentials they held. In their view, that work simply didn't require the kind of advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning the exemption was designed to cover.

Elevance Health, formerly known as The Anthem Cos. Inc., saw it differently. The company maintained throughout the litigation that its nurses held registered nursing licenses, earned close to $100,000 annually, and exercised genuine clinical judgment when approving or denying medical service requests — enough, in the company's view, to qualify them as exempt learned professionals under federal wage law.

A Legal Question the Courts Couldn't Agree On

What makes this case notable isn't just the dollar figure — it's how differently courts answered the exact same legal question.

A New York federal court granted summary judgment in Elevance Health's favor on the exemption question in one of the five related cases. But courts handling the Minnesota and Virginia cases reached the opposite conclusion. That split outcome, playing out in real time across the very lawsuits these parties were litigating, illustrates exactly the kind of legal uncertainty that tends to push both sides toward the negotiating table rather than risk a verdict.

How the Deal Came Together

Two of the five cases — one filed in Virginia, another transferred from Minnesota — were already headed toward trial dates in May and June before the parties reached a settlement in principle on March 28, with a federal magistrate judge helping broker the agreement.

Getting there wasn't quick. Across the five related cases, the parties produced nearly 4 million documents and deposed roughly 49 opt-in plaintiffs before finally landing on settlement terms — a discovery process substantial enough to suggest both sides had a genuinely clear-eyed view of their case's strengths and weaknesses by the time they agreed to settle.

The Numbers Behind the Settlement

The total settlement fund covers $14.75 million for 524 settlement class members, split between 72 Fair Labor Standards Act collective members and 452 state law settlement class members.

After risk-of-loss adjustments, the net allocation fund comes to approximately $9.4 million — roughly 60% of the damages both sides had assessed going into settlement talks. Individual payments will vary significantly depending on each nurse's circumstances, ranging from $250 to more than $61,000, with average recoveries exceeding $17,000 per class member.

Plaintiffs' counsel is seeking $4.9 million in attorney fees, representing one-third of the total settlement fund — a figure the motion notes is consistent with standard Fourth Circuit practice for cases of this size and complexity.

A Near-Unanimous Vote of Confidence

Perhaps the clearest signal of how the class views this settlement: out of 524 eligible class members, only one opted out, and not a single one filed an objection. The motion points to that response as a strong indicator that the settlement is, in fact, fair to the people it's meant to compensate.

Elevance Health continues to deny any liability in the case, framing its willingness to settle as a resolution rather than an admission that its overtime classification practices were wrong.

What Happens Next

Counsel for both the nurses and Elevance Health did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday. With the motion for final approval now filed, the case's fate rests with the Virginia federal court — and whether it agrees that $14.75 million, distributed across 524 nurses whose overtime status divided courts across three different states, is enough to finally close the book on years of litigation.