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Verdict; $600 million in damages
Verdict: Skilled Healthcare faces more than $600 million in damages
The Times-Standard
Posted: 07/06/2010 03:44:18 PM PDT
Skilled Healthcare Group Inc., and subsidiary Skilled Healthcare LLC, are facing more than $600 million in statutory damages after the jury rendered a verdict in the class-action lawsuit Tuesday in Humboldt County Superior Court.
The jury opted to assess the maximum amount of damages pursuant to Health and Safety Code 1430 (b): California statute mandates that nursing homes maintain 3.2 nursing hours per-patient per-day. The total comes to $500 per-patient per-day that the 22 nursing facilities involved in the suit were in violation of the law, which amounts to a total of more than $600 million.
After two weeks of deliberating, the jury will return in the coming days for an additional trial to establish any punitive damages to be awarded in the case. Judge Bruce Watson will then decide if an injunction is assessed against Skilled Healthcare, which would mandate the company -- one of the largest nursing home chains in the country -- to comply with the law in the future
I suspect every LTC attorney is salivating and every CA provider is shaking in their boots today! I know this organization and they are one of the better providers in the state / country. I think this case stems primarily form a pocket of facilities in the Eureka, CA area which is very difficult to staff.
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During his career in human resources and recruiting, Tony Perry has been placing top long-term care talent in the healthcare industry for nearly 20 years. His firm, Executive Search Solutions, is one of nations leading senior care recruiting firms. Check out his BLOG and WEBSITE to secure the right candidate for critical open positions or for representation in your job search.
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Comment by Robert C. Hankinson on July 7, 2010 at 11:39am
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Seems like the reimbursement & compliance department would have seen this issue before it blew up? Staffing may have been an issue, but you can buy a lot of contracted nursing for 600 million....
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Comment by Tony Perry on July 7, 2010 at 6:33pm
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My understanding is this case is a first where there is no argument for harm. If you look at their surveys you would not say this is a company that is doing poorly. Quite the contrary. My question is since there is no ruling of harm, where would the award go besides the lawyers? Back to the state of CA?
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Didn't notice this was a "Class Action" suit. California is a little different from the feds. I think they have 4 different types of class action suits. It could be a bunch of patient relatives, or a law firm with a strong healthcare consulting department doing the research. But since the state isn't involved, I have no clue how this settlement pans out. Having dealt with Medi-Cal in my past I bet the cost reports from 2003 thru 2009 haven't been audited and these lawyers are challenging how this company calculated the nurse staffing statistic. Maybe they included vacation / sick / holiday hours in with “hours worked” which is a no-no. But not knowing the details it’s hard to say. I bet the lawyers are getting their moneys worth, that’s for sure.
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Comment by Argine Bunnao on July 14, 2010 at 12:00am
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currently working under skilled health care. Im really disappointed with the verdict since theres no negative outcome on this patients. I wont disaggree with the issues of nursing hours 3.2 which was not funded before. With the facilities involved its really heartbreaking but when does a 3.2 hours measures the kind of care given to this people. Theres a lot of staff that contributes to the care of this patients not just the people directly assigned to them or so called nurses. There are activity staff, social workers and etc that are involved with their care as well. The lawyers are just after of big fish out there to make big money. Skilled health care will appeal!!!!
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