Select Rehabilitation Lawsuit: Overtime Claims and Florida Settlement

Select Rehabilitation, the Glenview, Illinois–based contract therapy company, has faced a Select Rehabilitation lawsuit on three federal fronts alleging that therapists and program managers were forced to work off the clock to meet productivity quotas. The lead case, filed in Florida, settled for $5 million in December 2025. Parallel actions proceeded in New York and Illinois, and a separate 2021 Medicare fraud settlement involved a similarly named but apparently distinct company.

What the Therapists Alleged

The complaints share one central claim: Select set billable-hour targets so high that therapists could not hit them inside a 40-hour week. The New York filing put the productivity requirement at roughly 92%.¹ Therapists who stayed late to finish patient documentation in the company’s electronic medical records system were allegedly discouraged from logging that time, because reporting overtime could drop their productivity score. According to the Illinois complaint, falling below the threshold three times could lead to termination.²

Employees who complained or sought pay for the hours they actually worked faced discipline, demotion, or firing, the complaints said.³ The specific Fair Labor Standards Act violations alleged included failure to pay time-and-a-half over 40 hours, failure to pay for work performed during unpaid meal breaks, and failure to keep accurate records of hours worked.¹ Affected roles included physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, therapy assistants, directors of rehabilitation, and program managers.

The $5 Million Florida Settlement (McLaughlin)

The lead case is McLaughlin et al v. Select Rehabilitation LLC, No. 3:22-cv-00059, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Named plaintiffs Christine McLaughlin, Crystal Vanderveen, and Justin Lembke sued on behalf of current and former Select program managers and therapists. Thirteen additional employees joined the action, which included an Illinois class of therapists and reached back to positions held in 2019.⁴

Senior Judge Harvey E. Schlesinger approved the $5 million settlement on December 18, 2025, granting the plaintiffs’ unopposed motion.⁵ The court directed the plaintiffs to file a Fourth Amended Complaint within seven days, after which the FLSA collective action would be dismissed with prejudice. Judgment was entered and the case closed on December 30, 2025.⁶

The New York Case (Manzella)

Manzella v. Select Rehabilitation LLC, No. 1:23-cv-00860, was filed on February 1, 2023, in the Southern District of New York. Former therapist Adrianna Manzella and former director of rehabilitation Michelle Dzula brought the class and collective action against Select Rehabilitation LLC, its New York affiliate Select PT, OT & SLP Rehabilitation New York PLLC, and two individual defendants: CEO Anna Gardina Wolfe and President Michael Capstick.⁷

Judge Valerie Caproni denied the defendants’ motions to dismiss as moot in November 2023 after the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint, and the court ordered mediation. The case was terminated on July 1, 2024. The available court records do not specify whether the termination resulted from a settlement, withdrawal, or another resolution.⁷

The Illinois Case (Hovorka)

Hovorka v. Select Rehabilitation LLC, No. 1:23-cv-05192, was filed in the Northern District of Illinois. It began as a hybrid class action and FLSA collective action. Several individuals filed consent-to-join forms in late August and September 2023, but the plaintiff withdrew those consents that November and December. By February 2024, Judge Mary M. Rowland gave the remaining opt-in plaintiffs 30 days to file their own individual actions, and Hovorka continued as a single-plaintiff matter.⁸

In October 2024, Judge Rowland denied Select’s motion to dismiss. She found Linda Hovorka had adequately alleged FLSA and Illinois Minimum Wage Law claims, accepting as plausible her allegation that Select maintained a “de facto” policy requiring off-the-clock overtime to meet productivity requirements, and that managers knew therapists were working unpaid hours to complete electronic medical records entries. The court wrote that “Select cannot uniformly deny overtime pay to an employee and then argue that the employee’s uniform allegations are a basis for dismissal.”²

Rowland also flagged the pace of the litigation. In a July 2024 order on a motion to compel discovery, she told both sides: “This is a single-plaintiff FLSA case. Delay is not warranted and will not be tolerated.”⁸

A Different Company: The 2021 Medicare Fraud Settlement

A separate case is often confused with the overtime lawsuits. In July 2021, Select Medical Rehabilitation Services Inc. (SMRS), its former parent Select Medical Corporation, and successor entity Encore GC Acquisition LLC agreed to pay $8.4 million to settle False Claims Act allegations. The government alleged that between January 2010 and March 2016, SMRS used “profit-driven corporate policies” that led 12 skilled nursing facilities in New York and New Jersey to bill Medicare for therapy services that were “medically unnecessary, unreasonable, and unskilled.” The case began as a whistleblower action filed by former SMRS employee Melissa Vail, and the settlement resolved the allegations without a formal determination of liability.⁹

Select Medical Rehabilitation Services and Select Rehabilitation LLC appear to be separate corporate entities. The DOJ press release names Select Medical Corporation as SMRS’s parent and makes no reference to Select Rehabilitation LLC, the Glenview, Illinois company at the center of the FLSA cases. The available records do not establish a corporate connection between the two.⁹

1
Florida Trial Attorneys. Select Rehab New York
2
Justia. Hovorka v. Select Rehabilitation LLC, No. 1:23-cv-05192
3
PR Newswire. Feldman Legal Group Shakes Up the Therapy Industry Against Two of the Largest Therapy Providers Select Rehabilitation and Reliant Rehab
4
Florida Trial Attorneys. Select Rehabilitation
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Florida Trial Attorneys. $5,000,000 Settlement Reached in McLaughlin v. Select Rehabilitation FLSA Collective Action
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PACER Monitor. McLaughlin v. Select Rehabilitation LLC
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CourtListener. Manzella v. Select Rehabilitation LLC
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CourtListener. Hovorka v. Select Rehabilitation LLC
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U.S. Department of Justice. Contract Rehabilitation Therapy Providers Agree to Pay $8.4 Million to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations