(The Center Square) — One of the nation’s largest hospital systems has decided to settle after investigations by Nevada, California and Colorado determined it was forcing new nurses to repay training costs if they left the company within two years.

The company, called HCA, was found to have violated state-level consumer protection laws, with possible federal consumer financial protection law violations as well. The for-profit hospital system settled to pay over $75,000 to affected Nevada nurses and nearly $800,000 to the state of Nevada.

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“The debt that HCA saddled its prospective employees with was unlawful and hindered the ability of Nevadans to thrive early in their vital careers in the health care industry,” said Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford in a press release.

The HCA agreed to pay a total of $2.9 million to California, Nevada and Colorado. In Nevada, nurses will receive approximately $75,776 as full restitution for their forced Training Repayment Agreement Provisions, or TRAPs.

The HCA group will notify eligible nurses, but the attorney general’s office did not specify when that would be.

Until spring 2023, HCA required nurses hired through their Specialty Training Apprenticeship for Registered Nurses program to sign a contract to repay the HCA if they had not completed their first two years of employment with the company.

It’s a common practice. Nationwide, of the roughly 5.8 million registered nurses, one-third are estimated to have been in apprenticeships with similar requirements. Those required to pay back training costs have included nurses early in their careers, immigrant nurses and nurses working in areas with few hospitals.

“Workers must be able to pursue better pay and better working conditions – not be trapped by debt that their employer makes them take out,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta in a news release.

In Nevada, Mountain View Hospital, Sunrise Hospital and Southern Hills Hospital are owned or operated by HCA.

The settlement comes after an investigation by the attorneys general in Nevada, California and Colorado, along with the national Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB.

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“I am proud of today’s settlement, which includes full available restitution for the impacted nurses and penalties paid to our state,” said Ford. “I will not allow bad actors to saddle Nevadans with destructive, unlawful debt as they attempt to develop the skills they need to help make the Silver State safe and healthy.”

As part of the settlement, Nevada will receive $786,500 in penalties from the settlement, with the rest to be sent to Colorado and California. The HCA group owns 186 hospitals across 20 states, as well as in the United Kingdom.