One of California’s largest skilled nursing home companies, Skilled Healthcare, lost nearly three-fourths of its value Wednesday after a California state-court jury decided it should pay $671 million, for violating a state law in operating its nursing homes.
The class action lawsuit, alleged violations at 22 of Skilled Healthcare’s facilities. Skilled Healthcare, reportedly one of country’s largest nursing home businesses, operates 78 facilities in seven states.
The company said it would vigorously challenge the verdict. The issue of punitive damages also must be settled. That phase of the trial is scheduled to begin next week, according to media reports.
The jury found that the company violated a California law calling for 3.2 nursing hours per patient per day. The class-action suit covered 32,000 patients who were in Skilled Healthcare facilities between 2003 and 2009.
The verdict includes $613 million in statutory damages and $58 million in restitutionary damages, the maximum allowed by law, according to media reports.
