Class Action Settlement Announced In Nursing Home Class Action Lawsuit Against Skilled Healthcare Over Alleged Understaffing.
A class action settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit against Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc. (“Skilled Healthcare Group” or “Skilled Healthcare” or “Defendant”) pending in the Superior Court of California, Humboldt County (styled Vinnie Lavender, By And Through Her Conservator, Wanda Baker; Walter Simon; Jacquelyn Vilchinsky v. Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc., et al., Civil Action Case No. DR060264) alleging, among other things, that Skilled Healthcare Group’s nursing home chain understaffed each of its 22 nursing home facilities in California, purportedly in violation California state law that requires 3.2 nursing hours per patient daily, according to class action lawsuit settlement news reports.
The Skilled Healthcare nursing home staffing class action lawsuit settlement reportedly provides that Skilled Healthcare will deposit a total of $50 million into escrow accounts to cover settlement payments to class members, notice and claims administration costs, certain service payments to named plaintiffs, plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees and costs and certain other payments. Skilled Healthcare will also reportedly pay $12.8 million to cover the cost of an earlier injunction that ordered each of Skilled Healthcare’s 22 California facilities to comply with state-mandated staffing levels.
Skilled Healthcare also reportedly will provide certain injunctive relief, such as providing specified nurse staffing levels, complying with specified state and federal laws governing staffing levels and posting requirements, and providing reports and information to an outside monitor to track nurse staffing levels.
The Skilled Healthcare class action settlement reportedly includes the following settlement class members, unless otherwise excluded:
(1) Facility Residents Class, consisting of all persons who resided at one or more skilled nursing facilities operated by Facility Defendants during the Class Period, including a subclass of residents who made private payments to Defendants; and
(2) Family Member Class, consisting of all persons who are related to any Facility Resident Class Member by blood, marriage or legal relationship and paid monies to any Defendant, for services rendered to a Facility Resident Class Member at a Facility during the Class Period.
Defendants in the Skilled Healthcare class action lawsuit reportedly include:
- Alexandria Care Center, LLC
- Alta Care Center, LLC
- Anaheim Terrace Care Center, LLC
- Bay Crest Care Center, LLC
- Brier Oak On Sunset, LLC
- Carehouse Healthcare Center, LLC
- Devonshire Care Center, LLC
- Elmcrest Care Center, LLC
- Eureka Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, LLC
- Granada Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, LLC
- Hancock Park Rehabilitation Center, LLC
- Montebello Care Center, LLC
- Pacific Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, LLC
- Royalwood Care Center, LLC
- Seaview Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, LLC
- Sharon Care Center, LLC
- St. Luke Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center, LLC
- Sycamore Park Care Center, LLC
- The Earlwood, LLC
- Valley Healthcare Center, LLC
- Villa Maria Healthcare Center, LLC
- Willow Creek Healthcare Center, LLC
- Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc.
- Skilled Healthcare LLC
The Court is scheduled to hold a Final Settlement Approval Hearing at 8:30 a.m. on, November 30, 2010, at the Superior Court for the County of Humboldt, 825 Fifth Street, Eureka, California 95501, in Courtroom 1 to consider, among other things, whether to approve the Skilled Healthcare class action settlement as fair and adequate.
For more information on the Skilled Healthcare class action settlement, read the Skilled Healthcare class action settlement notice.
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