A Bronx hospital cut 12 nurses who check insurance claims; their union says AI software took the work, the hospital says otherwise

Montefiore Medical Center sent layoff notices on 28 May 2026 to 12 utilization review nurses across its Moses, Einstein and Weiler campuses in the Bronx, with a termination date of 12 July, the Bronx Times reported on 2 July 2026. Utilization review is the behind-the-scenes work of confirming that hospital care is medically necessary and covered, and of appealing an insurer's denial when it is not. The New York State Nurses Association says the work is going to AI-powered software from Datavant, a private-equity-backed health data company, and called it "12 experienced nurses [were] laid off...to be replaced with artificial intelligence software". The union filed a class-action grievance on 1 June, arguing the move breaks the AI-protection language it won in the contract that ended a 41-day strike. Montefiore rejects the characterisation. A spokesperson called the union's claims inaccurate and misleading, described the technology as a nonclinical program that helps facilitate the paperwork process, and said only: "What is true is that we are always investing in new technology to ensure the best care and outcomes for our patients and will continue to do so for the betterment of the people we serve." The hospital has not said who or what will do the reviews once the nurses are gone. Nurses also raised a second objection that has nothing to do with their jobs: Datavant holds patient records that can include immigration status, and its Ciox Health unit settled a data-breach claim for $900,000 this spring. This site does not count the 12 posts in its jobs total, because the employer denies that AI is doing the work - the dataset only records losses the employer itself attributes to AI. It is worth reading anyway, because utilization review is exactly the kind of licensed, procedural, document-heavy role that AI vendors are selling into first, and because a contract clause written to stop it is now being tested.