Geisinger Health will shell out $450,000 and live under a two-year federal consent decree to end an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit that claimed the health system mishandled accommodations for workers with disabilities. At the heart of the case: how Geisinger handled job-protected leave and reassignment for employees coming back from disability-related absences, capping off an enforcement push that started with an EEOC filing in 2021.
According to the EEOC, the agency announced on Feb. 24 that Geisinger Health, Geisinger Health System Foundation and Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center agreed to pay $450,000 and provide other equitable relief to resolve the suit. The consent decree, entered Feb. 17, bars disability discrimination and retaliation and requires systemwide policy changes. “Disability discrimination has no place in the workplace,” Debra Lawrence, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Philadelphia District Office, said in the agency’s statement.
Court filings show the $450,000 will cover back pay and statutory damages for several workers, and a federal judge signed off on the agreement earlier this month, according to Mealey's. Geisinger told Becker's Hospital Review that the consent decree “does not constitute an admission of any wrongdoing by Geisinger” and said the deal lets the system keep its attention on patient care.
What the consent decree requires
The two-year decree directs Geisinger to revisit practices that the EEOC said restricted job-protected leave and forced employees to compete for open positions instead of being reassigned as a reasonable accommodation. It also requires the system to post notices about the decree in conspicuous locations and on the employee intranet portal for the full two years, and to send the EEOC periodic reports on employees who are terminated after taking leave, according to the EEOC.
The agreement also mandates training on disability discrimination and the Americans with Disabilities Act, with at least one hour of training for non-supervisory staff and a minimum of two hours for supervisors, managers, recruiters and human resources personnel.
Background and legal context
The EEOC first went to court in September 2021 after pre-litigation conciliation talks broke down, alleging that since January 2018 Geisinger had limited leave and manipulated job postings to make it harder for employees to return from disability-related absences. The case, filed as EEOC v. Geisinger Health, No. 2:21-cv-04294 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, produced a March 2025 memorandum from U.S. District Judge Karen S. Marston that trimmed some claims but left the core challenge to Geisinger’s leave and reassignment policies intact, according to Casemine.
What this could mean for workers
For employees who need extended leave tied to a disability, the settlement puts more structure and scrutiny around what happens when they try to come back. Training, required postings and direct reporting to the EEOC are all designed to make Geisinger’s accommodation process more transparent and easier to enforce.
The reporting requirement, in particular, gives the EEOC an ongoing look at any terminations that follow a leave of absence. If patterns emerge, the agency will not have to start from scratch to investigate possible noncompliance. Labor and disability advocates say consent decrees like this can ripple beyond a single employer and push other large organizations that use similar leave and reassignment policies to rethink their own practices.
Legal implications
The consent decree ends the EEOC’s enforcement action without a trial, but it does not prevent individual workers from filing their own lawsuits. For the next two years, Geisinger must keep its employment policies, practices and procedures in line with both the Americans with Disabilities Act and the specific terms of the decree, and must continue providing the EEOC with the required reports.
