High Court Struggles Over Hospital Pension Dispute: Supreme Court Justices considered the cases of three church-affiliated nonprofit hospital systems being sued for underfunding pension plans covering about 100,000 employees. But the outcome ultimately could affect the retirement benefits of roughly a million employees around the country. Workers suing the health systems argue that Congress never meant to exempt them and say the hospitals are shirking legal safeguards that could jeopardize retirement benefits. The Supreme Court seemed to struggle on Monday over whether some of the nation’s largest hospitals should be allowed to sidestep federal laws protecting pension benefits for workers.
