The UHS lawsuit landscape covers hundreds of civil claims, a federal fraud settlement, and multiple nine-figure jury verdicts against Universal Health Services, the largest for-profit psychiatric hospital chain in the United States. The allegations cluster around sexual abuse of minor patients, dangerous understaffing, unlawful involuntary commitments, and fraudulent billing at the company’s 346 behavioral health facilities. Recent jury verdicts alone have approached $1.4 billion in combined damages, and by late 2025 more than 30 new lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children at UHS facilities had been filed in a single year.1Combined damages from recent jury verdicts alone have approached $1.4 billion, and as of late 2025, more than 30 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children at UHS facilities had been filed in a single year.
What the Lawsuits Allege
The core allegation across most UHS cases is that the company’s psychiatric facilities placed vulnerable patients, including children, in environments where staffing was too thin to protect them, and that admissions and discharge decisions were driven by insurance coverage rather than clinical need.
Prosecutors and plaintiffs have described a pattern that includes admitting patients who did not qualify for inpatient care, holding patients until insurance ran out, billing for services never provided, misusing physical and chemical restraints and seclusion, and failing to train or staff adequately.2Prosecutors said UHS facilities admitted patients who did not qualify for inpatient care, failed to discharge patients who no longer needed treatment, billed for services never actually provided, maintained inadequate staffing and training, and improperly used physical and chemical restraints and seclusion. In the youth facilities, lawsuits allege staff abused patients directly, allowed patient-on-patient assaults, falsified records, and either punished or ignored children who reported what happened.
The Major Recent Verdicts
Pavilion Behavioral Health: $535 Million
In March 2024, a Champaign County, Illinois jury returned a $535 million verdict against Pavilion Behavioral Health System, a UHS subsidiary, in a case brought by the mother of a 13-year-old girl who was raped by a 16-year-old patient in 2020.3In March 2024, a Champaign County, Illinois jury returned a $535 million verdict against Pavilion Behavioral Health System, a UHS subsidiary, in a case involving the rape of a 13-year-old female patient by a 16-year-old male patient in 2020. The complaint alleged the facility housed the girl near an attacker with a known history of violence without adequate supervision or physical barriers.
The award broke down into $20 million for loss of normal life, $40 million for pain and suffering, and $475 million in punitive damages.4The jury awarded $60 million in compensatory damages, split between $20 million for “loss of normal life” and $40 million for “pain and suffering,” along with $475 million in punitive damages. UHS said in an April 2024 regulatory filing that it would challenge the verdict through post-trial motions and appeals, and analysts estimated the company’s maximum net exposure at roughly $385 million against $250 million in malpractice coverage.
Cumberland Hospital: $360 Million
In September 2024, a Richmond, Virginia jury awarded $360 million against UHS, UHS of Delaware, and Cumberland Hospital for Children and Adolescents in New Kent, Virginia, over sexual assaults committed by the facility’s medical director against multiple patients.5In September 2024, a Richmond, Virginia jury awarded $360 million in damages against UHS, UHS of Delaware, and Cumberland Hospital for Children and Adolescents. The case centered on sexual assaults committed by the facility’s medical director against multiple patients. Three plaintiffs tried the case, and roughly 40 additional plaintiffs had pending litigation against the facility as of the verdict.
Saint Mary’s: $510 Million, Then a New Trial
On September 29, 2025, a Washoe County, Nevada jury awarded more than $510 million in punitive damages to Saint Mary’s Health Network in a suit accusing UHS of Delaware and affiliated defendants of illegally soliciting Saint Mary’s physicians and employees, orchestrating a mass resignation, stealing trade secrets, and destroying text messages during litigation.6On September 29, 2025, a Washoe County, Nevada jury awarded more than $510 million in punitive damages to Saint Mary’s Health Network in a lawsuit against Universal Health Services of Delaware and affiliated defendants. The jury found that UHS had illegally solicited Saint Mary’s physicians and employees, orchestrated a mass resignation, breached contracts and duties of loyalty, disrupted patient care, stolen trade secrets, and destroyed text messages during the litigation process. Saint Mary’s said the scheme began in 2019 and was designed to cripple it during the COVID-19 pandemic. The jury found the defendants liable for fraud, malice, or oppression.
A judge granted a new trial on February 25, 2026 after finding juror misconduct.7However, a judge granted a new trial on February 25, 2026, after finding juror misconduct. UHS disclosed an $18 million legal reserve for the case while acknowledging the outcome could significantly affect its financial condition.
The $122 Million Federal Fraud Settlement
On July 10, 2020, UHS and its subsidiary Turning Point Care Center agreed to pay a combined $122 million to resolve federal False Claims Act allegations.8On July 10, 2020, UHS and its subsidiary Turning Point Care Center agreed to pay a combined $122 million to settle allegations that they violated the federal False Claims Act. The Department of Justice alleged that from January 2006 through December 2018, UHS facilities submitted false claims to Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, the VA, and the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program for inpatient behavioral health services that were not medically necessary.
Turning Point, in Moultrie, Georgia, separately agreed to pay $5 million to resolve kickback allegations tied to free or discounted transportation offered to Medicare and Medicaid patients.9Turning Point, a UHS facility in Moultrie, Georgia, separately agreed to pay $5 million to resolve allegations that it offered free or discounted transportation to Medicare and Medicaid patients as illegal kickbacks to induce them to seek treatment there. The deal resolved 18 whistleblower lawsuits across four federal districts, with whistleblowers collectively receiving more than $16.7 million.10The settlement resolved 18 whistleblower lawsuits filed across four federal districts, with whistleblowers collectively receiving more than $16.7 million from the federal share of the recovery.
As part of the agreement, UHS entered a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement with the HHS Office of Inspector General, running from July 2020 through March 2026, that required an independent monitor to assess patient-care protections and annual independent reviews of billing claims. UHS did not admit liability.
Active Abuse Lawsuits by Facility
Hartgrove Hospital, Illinois
In December 2024, a lawsuit was filed in Cook County, Illinois on behalf of more than 100 former minor patients, ranging from 8 years old to teenagers, who alleged systematic sexual abuse at Hartgrove Hospital and other UHS-operated Illinois facilities.11In December 2024, a lawsuit was filed in Cook County, Illinois on behalf of more than 100 former minor patients, ranging in age from 8 years old to teenagers, who alleged they were systematically sexually abused at Hartgrove Hospital and other UHS-operated facilities in Illinois. The complaint alleges staff forced minor patients to perform sexual acts on one another and that reports of abuse were met with punishment or silence. Hartgrove denied the allegations and said it would defend the case vigorously.
In December 2025, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office approved felony charges against Edmund Rivers, a former mental health counselor at Hartgrove, for the sexual assault of minor patients.12Separately, in December 2025, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office approved felony charges against Edmund Rivers, a former mental health counselor at Hartgrove Hospital, for the sexual assault of minor patients. Prosecutors alleged Rivers sexually assaulted multiple male patients between the ages of seven and 14 across an eight-year period from 1996 through 2004. Other Illinois UHS facilities drawing legal scrutiny include Riveredge Hospital in Forest Park, Streamwood Behavioral Health, and the now-closed Rock River Academy in Rockford.
Psychiatric Institute of Washington
On February 3, 2025, a putative class action was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against UHS and the Psychiatric Institute of Washington (PIW), alleging unlawful involuntary hospitalizations and a pattern of neglect that included chronic understaffing, falsified medical records, failure to provide treatment or discharge planning, and unsafe, unsanitary conditions.13On February 3, 2025, a class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against UHS and the Psychiatric Institute of Washington (PIW), a facility UHS owns and operates in Washington, D.C. The complaint alleged chronic understaffing, falsification of medical records, failure to provide necessary treatment or discharge planning, and maintenance of unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
The complaint drew on a June 2021 Disability Rights DC report, “A Disturbing Death,” which examined an April 2020 patient death. The report described a patient who had been ordered to receive one-on-one staffing but was left unsupervised in a seclusion room; security footage showed the patient become unresponsive and appear to stop breathing, yet staff did not initiate CPR for at least 21 minutes.14According to the report, the patient had been ordered to receive one-on-one staffing but was left unsupervised in a seclusion room. Security footage showed the patient became unresponsive and appeared to stop breathing, yet staff did not initiate CPR for at least 21 minutes. The report also documented records inconsistent with the footage, dramatic underreporting of serious incidents compared to the public psychiatric hospital in the District, and additional allegations of sexual abuse, choking and punching by staff, and improper restraint use. The case was still at the motion-to-dismiss stage in mid-2026.
Palmetto Pee Dee, South Carolina
In August 2025, a man identified as John Doe sued the now-shuttered Palmetto Pee Dee Behavioral Health facility in Florence, South Carolina along with UHS and UHS of Delaware, alleging escalating physical and sexual abuse after he entered the facility at age 15 in January 2014 for trauma treatment.15In August 2025, a lawsuit was filed against the now-shuttered Palmetto Pee Dee Behavioral Health facility in Florence, South Carolina, along with UHS and UHS of Delaware. The plaintiff, a man identified as “John Doe” who was 15 years old when he entered the facility in January 2014 for trauma treatment, alleged that he was subjected to escalating physical and sexual abuse by both fellow residents and staff members. The complaint names staff member Harry Austin, accused of beating the plaintiff with a leather belt, cornering him in a closet, and using chokeholds, and alleges another staff member recorded peers attacking the plaintiff without intervening. It also alleges staff gave alcohol to teenage residents while forcing them into sexual acts, and that the plaintiff received no medical treatment for severe injuries beyond Tylenol.
Palmetto Pee Dee closed permanently in June 2019. Before closing, it received state fines of nearly $20,000 in 2018 for 51 violations and nearly $16,000 in 2019 for 17 violations tied to reporting procedures, staff background checks, and resident rights.16Before closing, the facility received state fines of nearly $20,000 in 2018 for 51 violations and nearly $16,000 in 2019 for 17 violations related to reporting procedures, staff background checks, and resident rights. The Strom Law Firm, representing the plaintiff, said it planned to file similar suits against other UHS-affiliated facilities.
What Government Investigations Have Found
Two major investigations frame the civil litigation. The first was a 2016 BuzzFeed News series by Rosalind Adams, “Intake,” that drew on interviews with current and former UHS employees in at least 10 states and described pressure to “convert” callers into admitted patients regardless of clinical need and to hold patients until insurance ran out.17Employees from at least 10 states described pressure to “convert” callers into admitted patients regardless of whether they needed inpatient care and to hold patients until their insurance coverage ran out. An analysis of Medicare billing data found that by 2013, the diagnostic code for “suicidal ideation” appeared in more than half of all Medicare claims submitted by UHS hospitals, 4.5 times the rate at non-UHS psychiatric facilities.18A BuzzFeed News analysis of Medicare billing data showed that by 2013, the diagnostic code for “suicidal ideation” appeared in more than half of all Medicare claims submitted by UHS hospitals, a rate 4.5 times higher than at non-UHS psychiatric facilities. The series triggered a federal criminal investigation that, by late 2016, touched more than one in ten of the company’s psychiatric hospitals.
The second was a Senate Finance Committee report released in June 2024, “Warehouses of Neglect,” which concluded after a two-year investigation that the harms documented at youth residential treatment facilities were “endemic” to the industry’s operating model.19In June 2024, the Senate Finance Committee released a report titled “Warehouses of Neglect: How Taxpayers Are Funding Systemic Abuse in Youth Residential Treatment Facilities,” summarizing a two-year investigation into four major providers including UHS. The committee concluded that the harms documented at youth residential treatment facilities were “endemic” to the industry’s operating model, which incentivized filling beds to capacity while cutting staff levels and qualifications. The committee specifically found that at Cedar Ridge Behavioral Hospital in Oklahoma, a staff member who sexually abused a child was moved to a different wing rather than fired, and reportedly continued returning to the child’s window nightly.20When the abuse was identified, the facility relocated the staffer to a different wing rather than terminating her. The staffer reportedly continued to return to the child’s window nightly and expressed intent to continue the abuse after the child was discharged.
Regulatory Penalties and Shareholder Scrutiny
UHS has accumulated roughly $197.6 million in penalties across 53 recorded enforcement actions since 2000, according to the Good Jobs First Violation Tracker.21According to the Good Jobs First Violation Tracker, the company has incurred approximately $197.6 million in total penalties across 53 recorded enforcement actions since 2000, spanning government-contracting violations, employment-related offenses, environmental and safety issues, and anti-competitive practices. Between 2023 and 2024, multiple UHS facilities in California, Texas, Illinois, and Washington state settled with the HHS Office of Inspector General for employing individuals excluded from federal healthcare programs, with Hartgrove Behavioral Health System paying the largest penalty at roughly $735,672.
The volume of abuse litigation has drawn in securities lawyers. Scott+Scott and Kehoe Law Firm have both announced investigations into whether UHS directors and senior executives breached fiduciary duties by failing to prevent the alleged pattern of abuse, though as of early 2026 neither had filed a derivative or securities lawsuit.22As of early 2026, neither firm had announced the filing of a derivative or securities lawsuit, though both were actively soliciting affected shareholders. UHS has told investors that the outcome of “known and unknown litigation, liabilities and other claims” could have a “material adverse effect” on the company.