St. Andrew’s Resources for Seniors System Settlement Ends Class Action Over Feb. 2024 Data Breach

by Tracy Bagdonas 

St. Andrew’s Resources for Seniors System has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit that alleged the senior and elder care services provider failed to protect the sensitive information of its current and former employees and patients from a February 2024 data breach.

The St. Andrew’s class action settlement received preliminary approval from the court on January 21, 2026 and covers all living individuals in the United States who received notice, including notice of this settlement, informing them that their private information may have been impacted by the February 2024 data breach.

Court documents estimate that the private information of approximately 12,304 living individuals was potentially impacted by the breach.

The court-approved website for the St. Andrew’s data breach settlement can be found at StAndrewsDataSettlement.com.

According to the website, St. Andrew’s settlement class members who file a timely, valid claim form have multiple options for reimbursement.

Class members who submit with their claim form documented proof of out-of-pocket losses stemming from the data breach are eligible to receive a one-time cash payment of up to $5,000.

The settlement agreement states that class members must submit documentation prepared by a third party to receive reimbursement for out-of-pocket losses but may not receive compensation for expenses that have already been reimbursed by another source, including the credit monitoring and identity theft protection offered by St. Andrew’s as part of the data breach notice.

Class members may also receive reimbursement for up to four hours of lost time spent responding to the data breach, at a rate of $20 per hour, subject to the $5,000 out-of-pocket losses cap.

In lieu of these benefits, St. Andrew’s settlement class members may instead file a claim form with no proof or explanation required to receive a one-time alternative cash payment of $50.

Class members may receive their payout via check or credit monitoring, the agreement notes, and all checks must be cashed within 90 days of issuance before expiration.

In addition to any monetary benefits, all St. Andrew’s settlement class members may also file a claim to receive an enrollment code for two free years of CyEx Medical Shield Complete, which includes one-bureau credit monitoring, per the agreement.

To file a St. Andrew’s data breach claim form online, class members can head to this page and log in using the unique ID and PIN found on their received copy of the settlement notice. Alternatively, class members may download a PDF of the claim form from the site to print, fill out and return by mail to the settlement administrator.

All St. Andrew’s settlement claim forms must be submitted online or by mail by May 21, 2026.

Finally, St. Andrew’s has agreed to make certain changes to its information security practices; all enhancements will be funded separately from other settlement benefits, court documents state.

The court will determine whether to grant final approval to the St. Andrew’s data breach settlement following a hearing on June 8, 2026. Compensation will begin to be distributed to class members only after final approval has been granted and any appeals are resolved.

The St. Andrew’s class action lawsuit alleged that the Missouri-based elder care organization failed to implement reasonable cybersecurity measures to protect the patient and employee information stored on its systems, which led to a data breach starting on or around February 8, 2024. According to the settlement site, private information that may have been compromised during the breach includes current and former patient and employee names, addresses, Social Security numbers, driver’s license and state identification numbers, passport numbers, military identification numbers, financial account information, payment card information, health insurance information and medical information.

Full Article & Source:
St. Andrew’s Resources for Seniors System Settlement Ends Class Action Over Feb. 2024 Data Breach 

City to pay $5.8M in class action over elder abuse at Laguna Honda

by Kimberly Marselas

Months after it secured a Five-Star rating and was widely celebrated for completing its rebound from Medicare decertification, San Francisco’s largest nursing home continues to pay the price for safety and privacy lapses that predated the pandemic. 

The city and its Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center were set to settle a lawsuit over explicit photos of patients for $5.8 million, if a legal agreement was blessed by a city oversight committee Thursday night.

The settlement conditions were reported by San Francisco’s PBS television station Thursday morning. The lawsuit is one of several connected to an alleged patient abuse scandal at Laguna Honda, which has a long history of caring for some of the city’s most vulnerable residents, including seniors, the homeless and those with behavioral health needs and substance abuse issues.

It was rocked by scandal and allegations of unacceptable care between 2016 and 2021, when two patients experienced non-fatal overdoses. That triggered intervention by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which revoked Medicare coverage for stays and moved to shutdown the massive facility.

But after four patients died following transfers, CMS relented. The facility accepted significant federal oversight and intervention. During that time, city and building leaders acknowledged major shortfalls in previous years and developed a 960-point recovery plan. The building earned its certification back earlier this year.

The expected settlement is the latest accounting for Laguna Honda, which the senior advocacy group Gray Panthers said will have paid out $12 million in settlements. In this case, the $5.8 million will be distributed among 735 current and former patients, PBS reported.

The lawsuit had alleged that staff took explicit photos of multiple patients and disseminated them, and accused the facility of other abuse and privacy violations. 

The accusations reflect a national concern: Humiliating and demeaning social media posts made by nursing home staff without patient permission were the subject of a recent report calling on CMS to better protect residents from such abuse.

In a statement, the San Francisco Public Health Department said it had implemented a “significant restructuring.” 

Laguna Honda “has been the focus of extensive improvements facility-wide, including new policies, enhanced quality management protocols, and new programs that align with national best practices,” a spokesperson said. “This is all with the goal of creating a lasting culture of safety, transparency, and continuous improvement.”

Full Article & Source:
City to pay $5.8M in class action over elder abuse at Laguna Honda 

Aegis Living settles staffing lawsuit for $16.25 million despite ‘fervently disputed’ allegations

by Kimberly Bonvissuto

Aegis Living says it has agreed to the $16.25 million settlement of a lawsuit alleging that staffing decisions were based on budgets rather than resident care needs so that it can focus on “what matters most —  our residents, their families and our team.”

A federal judge on Monday signed off on the settlement, which resolves claims that the Bellevue, WA-based company in Washington state and California made staffing decisions based on budgets rather than resident care needs. Aegis continues to deny any wrongdoing.

“The core of our mission and culture is to provide the highest level of care for our residents. From the beginning, we have fervently disputed the allegations in this case,” Aegis Living General Counsel Elizabeth Chambers told McKnight’s Senior Living on Tuesday. “After several years of aggressively litigating, we made the decision to stop fighting, collaborate with the plaintiff’s attorneys, and put an end to this case so we can continue focusing our full attention on what matters most —  our residents, their families and our team.”

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White approved the deal, according to Law360; it resolves two lawsuits against the senior living company in California federal and Washington state courts.

The two class action suits alleged that Aegis made misleading statements or omitted information about how resident assessment information would inform staffing levels. The lawsuit claimed that Aegis based staffing levels on “predetermined labor budgets, regardless of change in the overall care needs and assessed carepoints of current residents.” The suit argued the practice violated elder abuse and consumer protection laws, and left facilities understaffed and residents’ needs unmet.

The settlement includes $6.35 million in attorney fees and $1.17 million in expense and costs, leaving about $8.4 million for residents, according to Law360. California residents who were part of the suit and lived at one of 15 Aegis Living assisted living communities there between April 12, 2012, and Oct. 30, 2020, will receive approximately $950 each. Washington residents who were part of the suit and lived in one of 18 Aegis Living assisted living communities there between March 8, 2014, and Oct. 30 2020, will receive approximately $1,550 each.

Under the settlement, Aegis Living is required for three years to set staffing levels based on the amount of resources “reasonably required” to perform the care tasks needed by residents, as determined by the company’s assessment procedures.

Similar legal action against other senior living companies also resulted in settlements. The former Emeritus Corp., which merged with Brookdale Senior Living in 2014, settled a class action lawsuit in 2016 for $13.5 million. The suit alleged that Emeritus misled assisted living residents about the use of a computerized system to evaluate residents and determine sufficient staffing and care levels. 

Atria Senior Living settled a similar lawsuit for $6.4 million that same year, and Oakmont Senior Living settled a class action lawsuit for $9 million earlier this year. A similar lawsuit against Sunrise Senior Living is pending.

Full Article & Source:

Aegis Living settles staffing lawsuit for $16.25 million despite ‘fervently disputed’ allegations

After 40 years, U.S. court ends supervision of D.C.’s care for mentally disabled citizens

A federal judge Tuesday ended 40 years of court supervision of the District’s care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, concluding what city leaders called the longest-standing U.S. class-action lawsuit of its kind.

U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle’s order ended a legal odyssey for 479 surviving class members and a larger group of thousands of the city’s most vulnerable residents, many of whom over the years experienced abuse, neglect or whitewashed death investigations after they died while wards of the city.

The lawsuit led to an infusion of more than $2.3 billion in federal aid, the return of $1.2 million in class members’ stolen or misappropriated disability payments, and the eventual bureaucratic transformation of a “broken” system into one of the most modern in the country for treating people with mental disabilities, moving from 49th in 2007 to eighth in 2015 in a national ranking by United Cerebral Palsy.

“This is a case that has spanned eight mayoral administrations, three federal judges and countless administrators of District agencies,” said Clarence J. Sundram, a court-appointed special master in the case and an adviser to New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D). “It’s a historic accomplishment.”

While advocates remain anxious about the city’s future course, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), her predecessor and now-D.C. Council member Vincent C. Gray Jr. (D) were among nearly 100 attorneys, city employees, advocates and six class members present in court to recognize the protracted progress since the District’s 1991 closing of Forest Haven, the notorious asylum then run by the city, in Laurel.

“Although plaintiffs are understandably reluctant to end Court supervision given the long, and sometimes tortuous, history of this litigation, the Court believes that that time has come,” Huvelle said.

As recently as 2007, Huvelle acknowledged ongoing “systemic” and “fundamental” failures of city operations while the federal government and private watchdog groups renewed calls to find District officials in contempt and put the program into receivership.

Huvelle declined to do that but, by 2010, named an independent court administrator to improve District funding, quality control and licensing procedures. Last month, the judge cited “steady and substantial” progress and found the District had “finally achieved compliance” in all areas.

[D.C. agrees to name overseer in 1976 disability case]

 

Bowser did not speak in court but afterward pledged that the city this time would keep its promises. “We’ve achieved the milestones that the court set out, but also we continue our commitment to maintain those investments, leadership at the Department [of Disability Services] and improved services for our residents,” Bowser said.

Gray, who led efforts to close Forest Haven and then compiled a mixed record as head of the city’s Department of Human Services starting in 1991, said, “I’m really proud of being part of something this important.” He added: “We still have lots of work to do to create a different way of life in the system.”

The victory was built on a mountain of failures. The lawsuit was brought by six individuals in 1976 and named for lead plaintiff Joy Evans, who was committed at 8 and died in Forest Haven in 1976 at 17.

Plaintiffs in a class that eventually numbered more than 3,000 men, women and children — most of them low-income African Americans without family or other support — documented the human toll of bureaucratic failure, describing a warehouse of physical and psychological neglect and mistreatment, substandard or nonexistent medical care, and lack of oversight that often ended only in the basement morgue.

U.S. District Judge John H. Pratt, who oversaw the case until his death in 1995, ruled in 1978 that conditions violated inhabitants’ constitutional rights to be held “free from harm,” ordering that the city move residents into the “least separate, most integrated and least restrictive settings” possible.

Facing court fines and intervention by the civil rights division of the Justice Department, the city embarked on a costly program to disperse residents into small, privately operated group homes.

As the District slipped into a fiscal crisis in the 1990s, promises of individualized therapy and day programs collapsed into a system of “harm, exploitation and death” that had a “guesswork budget” and no tracking system for expenditures, professional treatment plans or the hundreds of uninvestigated reports of abuse, illness and injury, Sundram said.

A 1999 Washington Post investigation reported 350 incidents of neglect and mistreatment but not a single fine for operators of 150 group homes, in a system paying $100,000 per year for each of 1,100 participants.

As late as 2006, a court monitor found that hundreds of incident reports continued to pile up, while death reports from one vendor were altered nearly half the time, with key facts or recommendations deleted by the District without agreement from the people who wrote the reports.

A turning point came after renewed litigation by the D.C.-based University Legal Services, the Center for Public Representation, a public-interest law firm for people with mental disabilities that is based in Northampton, Mass., and pro bono lawyers from the law firm Holland & Knight.

Co-lead plaintiff’s attorney Cathy E. Costanzo, executive director of the public-representation center, cited Huvelle’s appointment of a compliance administrator, Kathy Sawyer, and focus by the District’s reorganized Department on Disability Services, which Sawyer formerly led.

Still, Sundram and others warned against a return of bureaucratic inertia and low expectations. As with recently successful dieters, Sundram said, “there is a natural tendency after a period of intense effort . . . to relax. Previous bad habits can reemerge and undo achievements that have been accomplished.”

Full Article & Source:
After 40 years, U.S. court ends supervision of D.C.’s care for mentally disabled citizens

Class action lawsuit filed against Blythe Post Acute

BLYTHE - A Blythe nursing home is one of 11 throughout California that has been sued as part of a class action lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed September 21 in Orange County Superior Court, claims that Blythe Post Acute and the other 10 facilities conceived and implemented a plan to "wrongfully increase business profits at the expense of the health of residents."

It was filed on behalf of Robert Garcia, a former resident at one of the other nursing homes, by Garcia, Artigliere & Medby, a Long Beach, Calif., law firm representing victims of nursing home and elder abuse. The lawsuit includes more than 3,000 members who have complaints against the 11 facilities.

The law firm is also seeking an injunction, which would require the defendants to properly maintain staffing levels in accordance with the law.

The nursing facilities listed in the complaint are Meridian Management Services, LLC; Intelex Enterprises, LLC; Office Smart, LLC; MMS Hesperia, LLC; MMS Green Tree, LLC; Bay View Rehabilitation Hospital, LLC; Blythe Post Acute, LLC; Country Crest, LLC; Knolls West Post Acute, LLC; and Spring Valley Post Acute, LLC.

Officials at Blythe Post Acute, which used to be Blythe Nursing Care Center and Rehabilitation Services but was sold in the last six months to Blythe Post Acute, declined to comment on the lawsuit.

"Mr. Garcia and more than 3,000 patients were fleeced and treated as if they were inanimate objects undeserving of the medical attention that the law mandated they receive," said attorney Stephen Garcia. "The infirmed had no idea of the substandard living conditions that existed at these facilities and no doubt would have sought care elsewhere if they had known they were at risk."

The complaint alleges that for more than four years, the defendants and their licensees defrauded their residents by engaging in malicious and oppressive business practices to wrongfully increase profits at the expense of patients.

Each facility was underfunded and understaffed solely for the purpose of financial gain and failed to provide the proper health, care and attention that the residents paid for, according to the complaint.

It notes that for more than four years, Robert Garcia and more than 3,000 patients were the victims of financial abuse by not receiving the proper services paid for. Even more egregious was that their lives were placed in jeopardy.

As an example of the defendants' disregard for the welfare of the patients, in the last few years, each facility paid the defendants as much as $1 million for nursing supplies and office supplies, but received little or nothing in return, said the complaint. Instead, the money was used to benefit the defendants.

"Despite repeatedly being cited by the Department of Public Health for deficiencies, the defendants continued to be non-compliant and take advantage of the most vulnerable segment of our society," said Garcia, the attorney. 

Full Article & Source:
Class action lawsuit filed against Blythe Post Acute

Class action lawsuit filed against Sacramento-based management of Eskaton Village Grass Valley

Homeowners at a luxury 130-unit Nevada County senior living community have filed a class action lawsuit against the Sacramento-based corporate owners of the complex and four of its top managers, alleging financial irregularities and elder abuse.

The suit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, names Eskaton Village Grass Valley, Eskaton Properties Inc., Eskaton Village Grass Valley Homeowners Association, Eskaton CEO Todd Murch, Chief Operating Officer Betsy Donovan, Operations Director Mark Cullen and former COO Trevor Hammond as defendants in the case. 

Lead plaintiffs are Eskaton homeowners Ronald Coley and Karen Lorini, filing on behalf of themselves and the other 130-plus homeowners, alleging nine complaints of breach of fiduciary duties, financial elder abuse, unfair business practices and negligence. 

“I can’t comment on the particulars, since we are in open litigation,” Murch said on Monday. “The homeowners association will be vigorously defending its side, so that means they disagree with whatever’s being alleged.” 

Part of the complaint alleges that the Eskaton Homeowners Association, rather than being an organization representing homeowners’ interests, is actually controlled by management. 

In addition to some Eskaton homeowners, the board of Eskaton Village Grass Valley Homeowners Association also includes corporate representatives such as Cullen, who served on the board between 2003 through 2012, and Hammond, a board member from 2003 through the middle of 2011. 

“Plaintiffs are informed and believe, and thereon allege, that Eskaton has disregarded the separate corporate existence of EVGV (Eskaton Village Grass Valley), EPI (Eskaton Properties Inc.) and the HOA,” the complaint says. “Among other things, Eskaton has treated HOA property as its own.” 

Both Coley and Lorini declined comment on the case, which is scheduled for a public case management conference on May 21, according to Sacramento County Superior Court public records. The hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. in Department 35 of the Gordon D. Schaber Courthouse. 

The 95-page complaint was first filed Nov. 19, 2014, but an amended first complaint was filed on Jan. 5 by the plaintiffs’ co-counsels, Sacramento-based attorneys David Diepenbrock and Michael Vinding. 

Diepenbrock on Monday declined all comment on the case. Neither Vinding nor defendants’ attorney Rod Baydaline of Sacramento could be reached for comment. Donovan also could not be reached for comment. 

The homeowners’ class action lawsuit is separate from a successful union organizing effort last June. In a landmark election, employees of Eskaton Village Grass Valley became one of the first groups of senior living workers to vote in favor of joining a section of the local Service Employees International Union. 

Larry King, a campus patrol officer at Eskaton, said there have been eight contract negotiating sessions since September, when the union members delivered a proposed 49-page contract to management. He said the sessions have so far been “slow-going,” mostly confined to disputes over language. 

“We haven’t gotten to the financial terms yet,” he said. 

Sources who contacted The Union and who declined to be identified said both the class action lawsuit and the union election are indicative of a widespread pattern of dissatisfaction with management attitudes toward workers and residents in the community. 

As an example of alleged management intimidation, sources cite a Feb. 12 letter in which the Eskaton HOA’s legal committee notified homeowners about the costs of the lawsuit and warned that “special assessments levied against each member may be required to pay for this unanticipated expense this year if our insurance carrier denies coverage.” 

In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Union, the legal committee states that “the purpose of this letter is to make you aware of this litigation, and to give you sufficient notice that special assessments may be required.” 

According to the complaint, Eskaton Village Grass Valley includes 287 housing units, of which 130 are individually owned condominium units sometimes referred to as “patio homes.” The patio homeowners pay a monthly “assessment” to cover various services, such as landscaping and security patrol. 

Of numerous allegations in the complaint, plaintiffs allege “breach of fiduciary duties” in regard to mandated 3 percent annual increases in the cost to homeowners for a variety of services “supposedly needed to pay for increased personnel costs,” the complaint says. 

“Plaintiffs learned for the first time in 2014, however, that EVGV employees have received no raises since 2010,” the complaint adds. “Thus, the increases were unjustified and improper for nonexistent wage increases.” 

A copy of the complaint is attached to this story at www.theunion.com.

Full Article & Source:
Class action lawsuit filed against Sacramento-based management of Eskaton Village Grass Valley

AARP Wins Class Action Against Over Drugging of Seniors

A California nursing home has settled with AARP in an unprecedented class-action lawsuit against the facility for using inappropriate kinds and amounts of psychiatric drugs on elderly residents without the consent of the residents or their families, according to AARP Bulletin. University of California nursing professor Charlene Harrington told AARP Bulletin that the use of “unnecessary” and “extremely dangerous” antipsychotics as chemical restraints in US long-term care facilities is widespread.

AARP lawyer Kelly Bagby said of the successful legal action, “It is the first case of its kind in the country, and hopefully we can replicate this nationwide.”

AARP Bulletin says over-medicating of seniors in long-term care facilities “stems from inadequate training and chronic understaffing, as well as an aggressive push by pharmaceutical companies to market their products.”

Attorney Toby Edelman of the Center for Medicare Advocacy told AARP Bulletin, “The misuse of antipsychotic drugs as chemical restraints is one of the most common and long-standing, but preventable, practices causing serious harm to nursing home residents today. When nursing facilities divert funds from the care of residents to corporate overhead and profits, the human toll is enormous.”

Full Article and Source:
AARP Wins Class Action Against Over Drugging of Seniors

A Breach of Trust: Humana Used Obamacare as Club Against Policyholders

A federal class action claims Humana jacked up its health insurance premiums to coincide with Obamacare, while failing to give policy holders a reasonable way to cancel policies.

Lead plaintiff Daniel L. Doyle sued Kentucky-based Humana on Tuesday.

Doyle says he received a letter from Humana in August stating that his policy would be canceled on Dec. 31, 2013 and replaced with a new one, to coincide with the Affordable Health Care Act.

The premium for the new policy would be $395.97 a month, significantly (73%) higher than the $229.30 a month Doyle had been paying.

Doyle says he received another letter on Oct. 24, 2013 with clarification to the August letter. He then found a better policy with another provider and wanted to cancel his policy with Humana.

"On or about November 20, 2013, Mr. Doyle was notified that he had new insurance coverage with Blue Cross Blue Shield beginning December 1, 2013," the complaint states.

"Plaintiff then immediately attempted to contact Humana to cancel his policy but was unable to reach anyone who could assist him to cancel.

"Plaintiff again tried to cancel two to three days later. He again was unable to reach anyone at Humana who could assist him in cancelling his policy.

 "On numerous occasions, Mr. Doyle unsuccessfully attempted to cancel his policy by calling the toll-free number listed in the October 24, 2013 letter. Whenever Mr. Doyle called the toll-free number, he encountered an automated call system that would not enable him to speak to a person.

"Frustrated with the significant hold times and inability to speak with a human being, Mr. Doyle contacted his Blue Cross representative, who provided a fax number for Humana which he was unable to locate on Humana's website.

"On or about November 25, 2013, Mr. Doyle sent a facsimile to Humana providing Human with written cancellation of his policy.

"Humana refused to respond to Mr. Doyle's written cancellation request.

The class consists of all Humana policyholders in the United States who have been billed for insurance premiums on policies which were canceled by Humana on or before Dec. 31, 2013 and/or after the class member tried to cancel the policy.

Doyle seeks class certification, wants Humana enjoined from continuing its practices, disgorgement of profits from the scheme and actual and punitive damages for violations of the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act.

Humana is one of the largest health insurers in the country, with more than $13 billion in revenue in 2013, according to the lawsuit.
Full Article and Source:
A Breach of Trust:  Humana Used Obamacare as Club Against Policyholders

See Also:
A Breach of Trust

Minnesota wants CMS to investigate Humana’s Medicare Advantage plans

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson is asking the CMS to investigate Medicare Advantage plans offered by Humana and has presented regulators with more than 25 affidavits of complaints from beneficiaries.

The affidavits allege, for instance, that Humana denied reimbursement for services that it is required to cover for all Medicare beneficiaries—including diagnostic ultrasounds, mammograms and care in a skilled-nursing facility for a stroke patient.

The letter also said, among other complaints, that the Louisville, Ky.-based insurer created confusion by not adequately disclosing which providers were in-network and does not comply with required appeals processes.

The complaints come at a time when the popularity of Medicare Advantage plans has been escalating. And Minnesota has the highest percentage of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in an MA plan, at 49%—compared with 28.8% of beneficiaries nationwide, the letter said. Humana has 17% of the Medicare Advantage market in Minnesota, according to Swanson’s office.

Swanson wrote that she was asking the CMS to pursue an investigation because states do not have the authority to enforce Medicare Advantage plan rules and make benefit determinations.

Full Article and Source:
Minnesota wants CMS to investigate Humana’s Medicare Advantage plans

See Also:
A Breach of Trust

Texas Judge Says OK To Class-Action Suit For Over 12,000 Foster Children

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A class-action lawsuit accusing Texas of poorly supervising foster children can proceed.

Retired U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack has certified as a class more than 12,000 abused and neglected children permanently removed from their birth families. The lawsuit was brought by the group Children’s Rights.

The Dallas Morning News (http://dallasne.ws/17jUduQ ) reports Jack ruled this week following a January hearing. Attorneys for Texas are reviewing the ruling.

The state continues to investigates the July death of 2-year-old Alexandria Hill. Her foster mother, who was recruited by contractor Texas Mentor, faces a capital murder charge.

State officials after the death examined 23 Texas Mentor homes. The Austin American-Statesman (http://bit.ly/12OXHCm ) reports two children were removed amid concerns about how caretakers disciplined the youngsters.


Full Article and Source:
Texas Judge Says OK To Class-Action Suit For Over 12,000 Foster Children

AARP Joins Class Action Suit Against CA Nursing Facility

The AARP has joined what lawyers call an unprecedented class-action lawsuit accusing a Ventura nursing home of using powerful drugs without the informed consent of residents or family members.

Lawyers from the powerful advocacy group's foundation will serve as co-counsel in a case alleging that Ventura Convalescent Hospital skirted California's regulations in providing antipsychotic drugs to residents. While state law requires nursing homes to verify that a doctor has received a patient's or family member's consent, the lawsuit contends the nursing home did not.

Although targeted at the nursing home, the suit also alleges Dr. Gary Proffett, a prominent Ventura County physician, routinely relied on nursing homes to obtain consent rather than doing it himself as the law requires.

"The nursing home is literally the one that is putting the pill in the mouth and they are doing it without permission," said Gregory Johnson, the Oxnard lawyer who filed the class-action suit in November along with attorney Jody Moore of Thousand Oaks.

The case underscores the bristling debate over the use of chemical restraints to control the behavior of people in nursing homes with Alzheimer's disease and other dementia.

Full Article and Source:
AARP Joins Antipsychotic Drug Lawsuit Against Ventura Nursing Home

VT Seeks Dismissal of Abuse Lawsuit Against APS

A lawyer for Vermont told a judge Monday that a disability-rights group can’t sue the state over the alleged failings of its Adult Protective Services Division, because the people named as bringing suit haven’t suffered any injuries.

“There’s no allegation of specific harm to the plaintiffs,” Assistant Attorney General Todd Daloz told Judge Michael Kupersmith.

The state has filed a motion to dismiss a suit brought against the state by Vermont Legal Aid for the groups Disability Rights Vermont and the Community of Vermont Elders.

Legal Aid lawyer Barbara Prine said in courtroom arguments and in interviews that the state was trying to use a legal technicality to avoid fixing a system she called “dysfunctional” and a “wholesale failure.”

The groups filed the lawsuit in December, saying Adult Protective Services routinely violates the law that requires it to begin investigating reports of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation of vulnerable adults within 48 hours of receiving them, and that the state in recent years frequently has had a backlog of as many as 300 open investigations.

“This has gone on for years,” Prine said in court Monday. “We spent a year negotiating with them trying to get it to improve and it did not improve. ... The system is dysfunctional.”

Full Article and Source:
State Seeks Dismissal of Abuse Lawsuit

DC Class Action Nursing Home Lawsuit to Go Forward

The District has lost an effort to have a federal judge throw out a class-action suit brought on behalf of nearly 3,000 nursing home residents.

Judge Ellen Huvelle on Tuesday rejected the city’s contention that it has complied with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) by providing services to nursing home residents who want to live in the community. The ADA requires states and local governments to provide services to people with disabilities in the most integrated setting possible.

Huvelle ruled that the District’s claims fell short of those requirements on several fronts, including that the city has no meaningful plan to integrate nursing-home residents into community settings.

The case, Day v. the District of Columbia, was brought by University Legal Services, AARP Foundation Litigation and Arent Fox LLP.

Source:
DC Class Action Nursing-Home Lawsuit to Go Forward

Civil Suits Against Rita Hunter Pending

A 12-count indictment handed up last week will demand Rita Hunter's appearance in federal court, but the former Jasper County public administrator also has court dates pending in state court on civil lawsuits filed against her by county wards.

Several lawsuits still are making their way through the courts, though in other instances, courts have ruled in favor of the former administrator who left office Dec. 31, 2008. One Jasper County Circuit Court jury also has found in favor of Hunter, who thus far has been defended by attorneys for the county's insurance carrier. In addition, Hunter has not been released in final financial settlements she filed on wards when she left office, because of challenges filed questioning how wards' money was handled and reported.

Hunter, 59, of rural Joplin, now faces federal charges of health care fraud, theft of government property, document fraud, Social Security fraud and Medicaid fraud, in connection with the operation of her office when she was administrator from January 2005 through December 2008. The indictment alleges financial misdeeds started as early as April 2005, four months after the start of her term.

The indictment alleges Hunter collected nearly $200,000 to which her office was not entitled. That came either by falsifying reports to apply for Medicaid benefits to which wards were not entitled, or collecting fees from what wards were receiving from Social Security, without authorization and without reporting to the federal agency. In those cases, more than $121,000 from Medicaid and nearly $60,000 from Social Security were used for the fees for administrative charges by her office and to pay attorney fees and tax preparation fees, authorities allege.

Hunter is to report Jan. 5 for arraignment on the charges. In an appearance before U.S Magistrate James C. England on Wednesday, she was assigned a public defender and released on a personal recognizance bond, according to Don Ledford, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips.

Springfield attorney Lynn Myers said he expects both sides will be back in Jasper County Circuit Court soon on a lawsuit filed in July 2008 on behalf of several former wards. The suit seeks damages from Hunter and the county's insurance company, alleging she overcharged wards and mishandled their funds.

The lawsuit currently lists wards including Guy Sesler, Treba Benson and the late Emma France, but Myers is asking the court to approve the case as a class action, contending overcharging was common among all wards' accounts.

Full Article and Source:
Civil Suits Pending on Local Level

See Also:
Former Jasper County MO Administrator Rita Hunter Indicted for Fraud Scheme!

Hennepin County District Court, Probate Division (Complaint 11959)

From 1/03/08 until now, our Mother and us are being robbed by this "court of law" that remains causal to millions of dollars being taken by an appointed "trustee". This individual horror story is being carried out on other innocent, helpless, vulnerable adults across our state. The fact is, this is what the court allows. With approval of the court, the appointee bilks tens of thousands of dollars from our estate, under the guise of "trustee fees".

We have endured years of irreparable harmed, both financially and emotionally, at the hands of a system that condones and enables fraud and abuse by who we expected to uphold the very laws that they seemingly ignore with impunity. Please - this is a travesty that is no doubt wreaking havoc not on just a few, but on untold thousands in this state alone. With the cumulative damages rivaling that of the ponzi scheme perpetators that got national attention recently.

 

The big difference being we had no intention whatsoever of risking any money yet are being fleeced by the court and it's cronies as this is being written. And no doubt will continue to to be robbed by them until it is stopped by a class action legal firm. We a need your attention as this has dragged out since Oct. of 07, with no end in sight other than to have our total financial futures taken from us by this corrupt system.

Source:
Hennepin County District Court Probate Division, complaint 11959 for $2,000,000.00

Advocates Set to Sue DC on Behalf of Disabled Confined to Facilities

Vietress Bacon had been living in the Washington Nursing Facility near Skyland Terrace in Southeast Washington for only a few months when she realized she wanted out.

The 46-year-old mother of two has bipolar disorder, is partially paralyzed because of a childhood car accident and uses a motorized wheelchair.

She ended up at the nursing home after she was no longer able to live with her mother. Once at the facility, she discovered that she needed permission from her mother to leave the nursing facility. She was not able to see her son, a musician and rapper, perform. And she missed mundane freedoms such as being able to eat a hamburger and french fries in the middle of the night.

"It's like you're stripped of all your adulthood," Bacon said.

Eleven years after the Supreme Court ruled that state and local governments must provide services to the disabled in the least restrictive settings possible, more than 500 disabled D.C. residents are confined to nursing homes against their wishes because the city has not provided services that would allow them to live independently, according to a lawsuit that disability rights advocates plan to file in federal court.

The lawsuit alleges that the District has failed to provide in-home help with bathing, dressing, transferring people in and out of wheelchairs, and other activities - although such services cost much less than the $60,000 annual price tag of nursing home care, and most of the services are funded under Medicaid. One program to help seniors and the disabled stay in the community has 4,000 slots. As of last week, 1,000 slots were open. Failing to provide such services is a violation of the American With Disabilities Act, the lawsuit argues.

"The whole point of the ADA is to end unnecessary segregation. And that's what nursing homes are," said Marjorie Rifkin, a lawyer with University Legal Services. That group, Arent Fox and AARP Foundation Litigation filed the class-action lawsuit on behalf of disabled residents of D.C. nursing homes. "The District is long overdue in taking steps to transition people into the community."

Full Article and Source:
Advocates Set to Sue DC on Behalf of Disabled Confined to Nursing Homes

CA Class Action Suit: Patients Suffer Sub-Par Care at CA Facilities

A group of California skilled nursing facilities operated by Paksn Inc. has “systematically” failed to meet state minimums for direct patient care and staffing, according to a state court class action.

Maryann N. Valentine says Vacaville, Calif.-based Paksn, Thekkek Health Services, and seven nursing homes and licensees owned by Antony and Prema Thekkek have continuously failed to provide 3.2 hours of daily, direct nursing care to each patient as mandated by Cal. Health & Safety Code § 1276.5.

The complaint in the Alameda County Superior Court asks the court to hold the defendants liable for up to $500 per violation and treble damages because the infractions involve senior citizens and disabled people.

Valentine filed suit as guardian of her ex-husband, George E. Valentine II, 61, who suffered a brain injury and has “extremely limited” mobility. He has lived at Gateway Rehabilitation & Care Center in Hayward, Calif., since 2000, she says.

According to the suit, the level of care that Valentine receives faltered when the defendants acquired Gateway in 2003. Since that time, the facility routinely has failed to meet the state minimum for direct nursing care hours and maintains an inadequate number of nurses on staff.

George Valentine has experienced infrequent and painful turning and repositioning that resulted in pressure sores, and also has experienced infrequent assistance with toileting, frequent urinary tract infections and unsanitary living conditions, the suit asserts.

The facility has also failed to provide Valentine with necessary fluids or assistance with grooming, bathing and eating, and has failed to respond to his medical and dental problems and falls, the complaint says.

Other California facilities owned by the Thekkeks and operated by Paksn have provided similarly deficient care since 2006, according to the suit.

Full Article and Source:
Patients Suffer Sub-Par Care at California Facilities, Class Action Says

TX Disability Rights Advocates to File Class-Action Lawsuit

Disability rights advocates will file a class-action lawsuit on Monday, alleging that Texas leaders have violated the Americans with Disabiltiies Act by confining some 4,500 Texans with disabilities in nursing homes.

The suit, which will be filed in U.S. District Court in San Antonio, will argue that the individuals have been segregated and not provided with treatment and services they need, according to a press release sent out this afternoon.

Among the advocates filing the suit are Garth Corbett, senior attorney at Advocacy Inc.; Rob Velevis, litigation associate at Weil, Gotshal & Manges; Mike Bright, executive director of The Arc of Texas; and Dennis Borel, executive director of the Coalition for Texans with Disabilities.

Source:
Advocates Filing Suit Over Disabled in Nursing Homes

CA: Class Action Against Skilled Healthcare Group Settles for $62.8 Mil

A class action involving violations of nursing home staffing regulations at Skilled Healthcare Group nursing facilities in California settled for $62.8 million on Sept. 8.

The parties came to an agreement after a jury in the Humboldt County Superior Court awarded the class plaintiffs $671 million for violations of state nursing home staffing requirements in July (Vinnie Lavender, et al. v. Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc., No. DR060264, Calif. Super., Humboldt Co.).

Source:
California Nursing Home Class Action Settles For $62.8 Million

See Also:
Motion for Mistrial or New Trial Denied to Skilled Healthcare Corp, Inc.

Nursing Home Chain Loses Class Action Lawsuit Big

I guess there's probably a lot a screaming and yelling going on at the Skilled Healthcare Group (SKH) headquarters in California. Perhaps the anger derives from the miserable looking financial chart for the company showing a whopping 75% decline in price per share in one day!

Another portion of the companies anger is probably being misdirected at the lawyers who defended the company in a class action lawsuit brought against Skilled Healthcare based on systematic under-staffing at 22 nursing homes owned by the corporate giant. Really, the only people to blame are the managers in the company who intentionally chose to limit that staffing at their facilities.

After hearing months of evidence regarding staffing levels at the nursing homes operated by Skilled Healthcare, the jury awarded the maximum amount permissible under the California Health and Safety Code--- a whopping $671 million to the members of the class.

The massive jury award is hardly an arbitrary number. Rather, the compensatory damages were awarded based on a statutory violation of $500 per-patient per-day at the 22 subject facilities for not providing that state minimum staffing of 3.2 hours for each patient living at the nursing homes on a daily basis.

In addition to the compensatory damages, the lawsuit also seeks punitive damages against Skilled Healthcare. Unlike compensatory damages, punitive damages are intended to punish the wrongdoer for their acts. The punitive aspect of the lawsuit will move forward in the coming weeks.

Full Article and Source:
Nursing Home Chain Hit With Landmark Verdict in Under-Staffing Class Action Lawsuit