OPCO Skilled Management: Lawsuits, Neglect, and Settlements

Lawsuits against OPCO Skilled Management and its affiliated entities fall into three main categories: medical malpractice and wrongful death suits tied to resident care, a federal racial harassment case brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that settled for $865,000, and a contract dispute in Missouri federal court. The litigation sits alongside a regulatory record showing deficiency rates and fines running well above national averages across the roughly 64 skilled nursing facilities the company is affiliated with in Arizona, Indiana, Missouri, New Mexico, and Texas.¹

The EEOC Racial Harassment Settlement

The largest resolved case involving an OPCO-affiliated operator is a federal civil rights suit brought by the EEOC against Orange Treeidence OPCO LLC, which ran Riverwalk Post-Acute in Riverside, California. Providence Group, Inc. and Providence Administrative Consulting Services, Inc. were co-defendants.²

The EEOC alleged that from at least 2018, a class of Black employees at the facility faced severe and pervasive racial harassment from residents, co-workers, and a supervisor, including repeated racial slurs. When workers complained, the agency said, management told them to tolerate the abuse instead of intervening. One employee, Montoyia Watson, alleged she was suspended and then fired after raising the issue in writing and verbally.²

The case settled in September 2023 for $865,000 to affected employees.³ A three-year consent decree also required the defendants to retain an equal employment opportunity monitor, rewrite anti-discrimination policies, build a formal harassment reporting structure, and run anti-discrimination training focused on racial harassment. The court kept jurisdiction over the decree for its full term.²

Medical Malpractice and Wrongful Death Suits

Thornton v. Opco MO Skilled Mgmt LLC

Filed in January 2020 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, this medical malpractice case concerns the care of Hattie Mae Thornton. Anthony Thornton and the estate sued Opco MO Skilled Mgmt LLC together with Complete Health Care Services, physician Malathi Tadakamalla, Nursing and Rehab at Carmel Hills LLC, and Red Wood Healthcare Group LLC. The case was still open at the last recorded docket activity in March 2020.⁴

Harris v. 8033 Opco LLC

Lovie R. Harris filed a medical malpractice suit in July 2024 that named eight defendants: 8033 Opco LLC, OPCO MO Mgmt LLC, Caliber Advisors LLC, El Dorado Nursing & Rehabilitation LLC, First Sweetzer Holdings LLC, Hatteras Investments LLC, Midwest Division-RMC LLC, and Sasem Investments LLC. Harris amended the complaint in September 2024. The parties stipulated to dismissal without prejudice on November 8, 2024, which leaves the door open for the claims to be refiled.⁵

Wrongful Death at Redwood of Raymore

A wrongful death lawsuit was filed against Redwood of Raymore, a Missouri facility under OPCO CA Skilled Management, on behalf of the family of a 70-year-old woman who fell twice at the facility, was moved to another nursing home, and died a month later. Family attorney Scott Shachtman declined to discuss specifics with FOX4 Kansas City, which reported the filing in March 2019.⁶

The Abbott Contract Suit

Tylina Abbott filed a contract lawsuit against OPCO Skilled Management LLC, doing business as Red Wood Post-Acute Network, in April 2019. Originally brought in Jackson County, Missouri state court, the case was removed to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. OPCO moved to dismiss, and the last available docket entry showed the matter referred to the court’s Mediation and Assessment Program under Bankruptcy Judge Brian T. Fenimore.⁷

Alleged Neglect Reported at the Redwood Homes

The Raymore wrongful death filing came out of the same set of facilities examined in a March 2019 FOX4 investigation. FOX4 looked at six Kansas City–area homes acquired about two years earlier by OPCO CA Skilled Management, described in the report as a Los Angeles company: Redwood of Blue River, Redwood of Cameron, Redwood of Carmel Hills, Redwood of Independence, Redwood of Kansas City South, and Redwood of Raymore.⁶

The report focused on Bradick Barrett, a 34-year-old veteran with a traumatic brain injury living at Redwood of Raymore. His sisters said his care worsened after the acquisition. They described finding him in urine-soaked sheets and left in a diaper without clothing despite a full closet, and said staff often ignored him. State inspectors had recorded 23 violations at Redwood of Raymore, three times the national average, including understaffing, failure to conduct FBI background checks, failure to administer pain medication, monthly-only bathing for some residents, and residents left in bed for hours.⁶

Violations doubled at the Carmel Hills and Kansas City South locations after the acquisition, the investigation reported, and federal authorities threatened to withhold Medicaid funding from the Independence facility. Jim Kooken, the Raymore administrator, told FOX4 the facility had inherited problems from the prior owner, fired unqualified staff, added training, and raised starting pay from $12 to $13 an hour. A later inspection at the time had dropped the violation count to 11.⁶

The Regulatory Record Behind the Lawsuits

Across its 64 affiliated facilities as of 2026, OPCO Skilled Management averaged 1.7 serious deficiencies per home, against a national average of 0.7. Average fines were $51,978 per home, compared with $31,434 nationally. Nurses provided 3.2 hours of care per resident per day (national average: 3.9), and nursing staff turnover ran at 53.1%, roughly seven points above the national rate. Four OPCO homes were Special Focus Facility candidates, a CMS designation for consistently poor performers, and four others had gone more than two years without a standard inspection.¹

Several OPCO facilities were hit with “J” citations, the most severe inspection finding, meaning immediate jeopardy to resident health or safety, in late 2025 and early 2026. Pine Grove Manor in St. Louis was cited in December 2025 for failing to provide basic life support, including CPR, before EMS arrived, and was fined $9,510.⁸⁹ Plainfield Health Care Center in Indiana was cited in January 2026 for failing to provide appropriate treatment to a resident with dementia.¹⁰ Brentwood Place Three in Dallas was cited in February 2026 for failing to keep the facility free from accident hazards and for inadequate supervision.¹

At Aztec Healthcare, a 112-bed OPCO facility in Aztec, New Mexico, CMS health inspection and staffing ratings sit below average. Over the prior three years, the facility drew three federal fines totaling $136,098 and 53 complaint-driven inspection citations covering nutritional care, professional standards, failure to notify families of changes in a resident’s condition, and staffing. Nurse hours ran just over 3 per resident per day and turnover topped 58%.¹¹

Why the Corporate Structure Matters if You Sue

If you are considering a claim, the number of entities named in the Harris case is not unusual for this industry. OPCO Skilled Management operates under the common skilled nursing model in which an operating company (the “OpCo”) runs day-to-day care while a separate property company (the “PropCo”) owns the real estate, which insulates property assets from operational lawsuits. The OpCo typically runs on thin margins and leans on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.¹² Critics argue the structure lets owners pull real estate profits while leaving the operating entity financially exposed.¹³

Individual OPCO homes reflect that layering in their Medicare ownership records. Brentwood Place Four in Dallas lists Brentwood 4 Nursing & Rehab LLC and David Garetz as holding operational or managerial control since March 2018, with Hansen Hunter LLC joining in April 2024.¹⁴ Garetz, identified as the CFO of at least one OPCO entity, appears in CMS records tied to 98 nursing homes across Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico, and Texas in roles including corporate officer and indirect owner.¹⁵ For families and workers trying to identify the right defendant, the complexity of these arrangements can make it hard to determine who actually controls a facility and where money moves.¹³

1
ProPublica. Opco Skilled Management Nursing Home Affiliate
2
EEOC. Riverwalk Post Acute Settles EEOC Racial Harassment and Retaliation Lawsuit
3
Bloomberg Law. Nursing Facility Settles EEOC Race Bias Lawsuit for $865,000
4
UniCourt. Thornton et al v. Opco MO Skilled Mgmt LLC et al
5
PACER Monitor. Harris v. 8033 Opco LLC et al
6
FOX4 Kansas City. After Alleged Neglect at Care Facility, Injured Veteran’s Family Says He Deserves Better
7
UniCourt. Abbott v. OPCO Skilled Management LLC
8
ProPublica. Pine Grove Manor Nursing Home Inspection Details
9
Medicare. Pine Grove Manor Nursing Home Details
10
ProPublica. Plainfield Health Care Center Nursing Home Inspection Details
11
Medicare. Aztec Healthcare Nursing Home Details
12
FTI Consulting. No Place Like Home: Treatment of SNF Leases Under 365
13
The American Prospect. The Corporatization of Nursing Homes
14
Medicare. Brentwood Place Four Nursing Home Details
15
Nursing Home Report. David Garetz Nursing Home Ownership Records