Maine Medical Center

The three campuses will now be known as MaineHealth Maine Medical Center in Portland, Biddeford, and Sanford.

FEMA announced Monday that it's awarding nearly $2.7 million to the Mills administration for purchasing PPE for state employees, and nearly $3.7 million to Maine Medical Center for the cost of testing staff for COVID and for hiring temporary employees.

The amendment includes paid parental, bereavement, jury duty, witness and military leaves. The benefits will be retroactive to last December. That's when nurses alleged that the hospital illegally eliminated those benefits as retaliation for forming a union.

Maine Medical Center nurses, now part of the Maine State Nurses Association, say they believe the loss of benefits is in retaliation for forming a union.

It includes a 15% across-the-board wage increase over three years, beginning with 7% in the first year of the agreement.

The agreement follows more than a year of negotiations and comes nearly one month after nurses voted to recertify their union.

The nurses voted Wednesday and Thursday whether to decertify their union, and the pro-union contingent prevailed 74% to 26%, according to the Maine State Nurses Association.

The agreement, announced Wednesday night, means that Maine Medical Center will no longer withdraw from Anthem's network next year. While health care advocates are pleased that patients won't see disruptions in care, they are raising some concerns about the deal.

MaineHealth and Anthem have reached an agreement that will keep Maine MedicalCenter in the insurance company's network for the next two years.

Nurses at Maine Medical Center are casting ballots Wednesday and Thursday on whether to decertify their newly formed union.