Nursing home lawsuit news in 2025 and 2026 has been dominated by one storyline: understaffed facilities, preventable deaths, and billing fraud, met by federal prosecutors, state attorneys general, class action plaintiffs, and juries awarding sums that routinely cross eight figures. The federal minimum staffing rule that was supposed to set a floor has been vacated by a court, blocked by Congress, and formally repealed by CMS — leaving the definition of adequate staffing to be worked out, case by case, in courtrooms.
DOJ Sues ProMedica for “Grossly Substandard” Care
On September 2, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice intervened in a whistleblower case and sued ProMedica Health System and its affiliates, including HCR ManorCare, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The complaint in United States ex rel. Compton v. HCR ManorCare, Inc. (No. 16-cv-0851) targets four skilled nursing facilities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia.1U.S. Department of Justice. United States Intervenes and Sues ProMedica Health System Inc. and Its Affiliates for Providing Grossly Substandard Nursing Home Services
Between 2017 and 2023, the government alleges, staff at the four facilities failed to develop or follow individualized care plans, failed to provide adequate wound care to prevent pressure ulcers, failed to maintain resident hygiene, and failed to provide feeding assistance, with severe weight loss in many cases. The complaint also accuses the facilities of falsifying medical records to make it look like care had been provided when it had not.2U.S. Department of Justice. United States Intervenes and Sues ProMedica Health System Inc. and Its Affiliates The suit is brought under the False Claims Act and the Nursing Home Reform Act, alleging that Medicare and Medicaid were billed for care the government calls “non-existent” or “grossly substandard.”
ProMedica has said the lawsuit is “without merit” and intends to defend against it.313abc.com. DOJ Sues ProMedica for Substandard Nursing Home Services The claims remain allegations.
New York’s $45 Million Settlement with Centers Health Care
In June 2023, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the owners of four facilities operated by Centers Health Care, alleging they funneled more than $83 million in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement to themselves through sham vendors, inflated rents, no-show salaries, and fraudulent real estate schemes.4Center for Medicare Advocacy. Court Denies Motion to Dismiss AG’s Fraud Suit Against NY Nursing Home Chain In August 2024, New York Supreme Court Judge Melissa Crane denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss, finding the petition “sufficiently alleges” fraud and illegal behavior by 11 individual defendants.5McKnights Long-Term Care News. $83M Fraud Case Against Nursing Home Group May Proceed With No Defendants Excused
By November 2024, the parties settled for $45 million. $35 million was placed in a Resident Care Fund to improve staffing and care at the four facilities, and $8.75 million went to Medicaid and Medicare as restitution. The facilities cannot be sold or closed for at least three years, and independent health care and financial monitors continue overseeing operations through at least July 2026.6New York Attorney General. Attorney General James Secures $45 Million and Delivers Major Reforms Four Nursing Homes
Vohra Wound Physicians Pays $45 Million
In November 2025, Vohra Wound Physicians and its owner agreed to pay $45 million to settle False Claims Act allegations that the company overbilled Medicare for wound care services in nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities. According to DOJ, Vohra programmed its electronic health record software to automatically bill for higher-reimbursed surgical debridement procedures even when only routine wound management had been performed, and pressured physicians to meet revenue-based quotas. Vohra also entered a five-year corporate integrity agreement with the HHS Office of Inspector General requiring independent review of its billing and health IT systems.7U.S. Department of Justice. Vohra Wound Physicians and Its Owner Agree to Pay $45M to Settle Fraud Allegations for Overbilling
Wrongful Death Clusters: Iowa and Ohio
Care Initiatives, a West Des Moines nonprofit that operates 43 nursing homes across Iowa, has drawn at least 17 wrongful-death and negligence lawsuits filed between mid-2024 and late 2025. The cases involve a dozen different facilities and share one allegation: understaffing and failures in basic care caused preventable deaths.8Iowa Capital Dispatch. Iowa Nursing Home Owner Faces at Least a Dozen Wrongful Death Claims
Three of those suits target Parkridge Specialty Care in Pleasant Hill. One alleges staff failed to administer physician-ordered breathing treatments for resident Maris Bergis, with equipment left unplugged and unstocked. Another claims a 90-minute delay in calling 911 for resident Neuang Boun Sisamouth, whose blood sugar had fallen to dangerous levels. A third, involving the death of Kerry Morris, was settled in March 2025.9Des Moines Register. Parkridge Nursing Home Iowa Third Wrongful Death Lawsuit Several Care Initiatives cases have been dismissed, others are headed to trial between 2026 and 2027, and others are stalled in mandatory arbitration. Care Initiatives has denied all allegations.
In Ohio, Majestic Care of Fairfield, a Butler County skilled nursing facility, faces at least three active wrongful death lawsuits — involving residents Shirley Browning, Lola Rutherford, and Hugh Joel Carter — all alleging that the facility prioritized profits over patient safety by operating with inadequate staff. The Browning complaint alleges the facility failed to implement a fall prevention plan after an initial fall, delayed imaging by 15 to 16 hours, and allowed additional falls that caused eight broken ribs and ultimately her death in November 2023. The Rutherford complaint alleges an unwitnessed fall in March 2025 after a call light went unanswered for more than an hour, followed by a failure to file an incident report and false documentation of no injuries. None has reached trial or settlement as of early 2026, and the facility denies the allegations.10Fox 19. Wrongful Death Lawsuits Pile Up Against Greater Cincinnati Nursing Facility
Record Verdicts in Ohio and Illinois
In February 2026, a Hamilton County, Ohio, jury returned a verdict of roughly $17.67 million in Love v. Meadowbrook Healthcare, LLC, a wrongful death case involving Janene Roberson, a 52-year-old resident with multiple sclerosis. The estate alleged that Meadowbrook Care Center was chronically understaffed and that Roberson died from a urinary tract infection and sepsis after receiving substandard care in violation of the Ohio Nursing Home Residents Bill of Rights.11Robert Kreisman. $17.6 Million Jury Verdict in Nursing Home Under-Staffing Lawsuit Wrongful Death
Earlier, in May 2025, a Cook County, Illinois, jury awarded $5.5 million to the family of Sandy Brooks, an 85-year-old resident of Landmark of Richton Park who required dialysis three times per week but received none during his 13-day stay. He died on December 10, 2020, from what testimony described as toxic waste buildup and multi-organ failure. The verdict, after three hours of deliberation, tied the record for the largest nursing home neglect award in Cook County history.12Fox 32 Chicago. Family Wins $5.5M Nursing Home Neglect Case Tied Largest Cook County
These sit inside a broader trend. Between 2013 and 2022, U.S. juries handed down more than 1,200 “nuclear verdicts” exceeding $10 million, with a median of about $21 million. In 2023 alone there were 129, and nearly a quarter exceeded $100 million. Medical liability cases, including nursing home suits, accounted for about 30 percent of such awards in 2023, up from roughly 20 percent in the prior decade. California, Florida, New York, and Texas generate about half of them nationwide.13FCRRG. How to Navigate Nuclear and Thermonuclear Verdicts in Senior Care Liability Cases
Class Actions: Alden Group and Maryland
A proposed class action against Illinois-based Alden Group cleared a key hurdle in April 2026, when Cook County Associate Judge Myron Mackoff ruled the case had a “sound legal basis” and could move to discovery. Led by the AARP Foundation, the suit targets six Chicago-area facilities and alleges that Alden chronically operated at roughly half of legally required staffing levels while concealing the shortfalls by reporting “ghost workers” and submitting false data to regulators.14Chicago Tribune. Class Action Lawsuit Alden Nursing Homes
The named facilities are Alden Heather Health Care Center, Alden Town Manor, Alden Terrace of McHenry, Alden Village North, Alden Lakeland Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, and Princeton Rehabilitation and Health Care Center. About ten residents have joined anonymously; if certified, the class could cover thousands of current and former residents. Discovery is expected to last one to two years and will test whether contractual clauses in Alden’s admission agreements, which the suit alleges limit residents’ ability to sue over injuries caused by understaffing, are enforceable.15Skilled Nursing News. Class Action Suit Over Alleged Understaffing at Alden Group Nursing Homes Moves Forward
A different kind of class action is pending in Maryland. In Connor v. Maryland Department of Health (No. 1:24-cv-01423, D. Md.), nursing home residents with mobility-related disabilities are suing the state for failing to conduct required annual inspections of nursing facilities and failing to investigate complaints within mandated timeframes, arguing the lapse in oversight violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. On April 22, 2025, the court denied Maryland’s motion to dismiss and certified a class of at least 9,000 residents. The case is now stayed for settlement mediation.16Justice in Aging. Court Grants Class Certification and Denies Maryland’s Motion to Dismiss in Nursing Home ADA Case17Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. Connor v. Maryland Department of Health
The Federal Staffing Rule Is Gone
Hanging over every understaffing case is the question of what counts as adequate staffing. In May 2024, CMS finalized a rule requiring 3.48 hours of total nursing care per resident per day, with a registered nurse on site 24 hours a day. The industry sued.
On April 7, 2025, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas vacated the mandate in American Health Care Association v. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., holding that CMS had exceeded its statutory authority by replacing the staffing baseline Congress had explicitly set — eight consecutive hours of RN coverage per day — with a 24/7 requirement Congress had previously rejected.18Georgetown Law Litigation Tracker. American Health Care Association v. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Memorandum Opinion and Order HHS appealed to the Fifth Circuit in June 2025.19Maynard Nexsen. In Surprise Move DHHS Appeals District Court Decision to Strike Down Long-Term Care Staffing Mandates
Before the appeal was resolved, Congress enacted a budget reconciliation bill in July 2025 imposing a 10-year moratorium on implementation and enforcement of any federal minimum staffing standards for nursing homes. CMS formally repealed the rule in December 2025, reverting to the prior requirement of eight consecutive hours of RN coverage per day.20American Hospital Association. CMS Repeals Minimum Staffing Requirements for Skilled Nursing Long-Term Care Facilities The repeal does not touch facility assessment requirements, which still oblige nursing homes to evaluate resident needs and set staffing internally.21Nursing Home 411. Statement on Staffing Rule Repeal
With no federal floor, what counts as “adequate” staffing will be answered by juries weighing cases like Love, Brooks, and the Alden class action.
Arbitration Clauses Still Keep Many Cases Out of Court
Many of these suits never reach a jury. Mandatory arbitration clauses buried in admission agreements are enforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in Kindred Nursing Centers Limited Partnership v. Clark, which held that states cannot single out such clauses for stricter treatment than other contracts.22Rutgers PolicyLab. U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Mandatory Arbitration Clause in Nursing Home Dispute
Federal regulations impose some limits. Under 42 C.F.R. § 483.70(n), facilities cannot condition admission on signing an arbitration agreement, must explain the agreement in plain language, and must give residents 30 days to rescind their signature.23Norris McLaughlin. What Am I Signing: New Ruling on Arbitration Clauses in Admission Agreements Even so, several Care Initiatives wrongful-death cases in Iowa have been stayed and pushed into arbitration, out of public view.8Iowa Capital Dispatch. Iowa Nursing Home Owner Faces at Least a Dozen Wrongful Death Claims The Alden class action will test whether clauses that specifically restrict residents’ right to sue over understaffing harm can hold up.
If you are evaluating an admission agreement for a family member, the arbitration clause is the single document feature most likely to shape what happens if something goes wrong later. Reading it, asking the facility to strike it, or using the 30-day rescission window are the practical options available before harm occurs.