Multimillion-dollar judgments hit nursing home chain with troubled record

The chain of California nursing homes owned by Shlomo Rechnitz has faced state scrutiny for years, including an unsuccessful effort by then-Attorney General Kamala Harris to stop him from acquiring more facilities. Now, a series of recent lawsuits has brought renewed attention to his companies. 

Elder care advocates say Rechnitz’ companies are Exhibit A in how regulators at the Department of Public Health fail some of California’s most vulnerable citizens.

Rechnitz’ companies have denied allegations in all of these cases, which include several that are scheduled to go to trial next year and two in 2024 that resulted in multimillion-dollar judgments against the companies. 

• Mark Johnson, an attorney for the facilities and their holding company, Brius: “It is accurate that nursing homes are the target of abusive lawsuits that accomplish nothing but depleting resources for patient care.”

Wendy York, a Sacramento attorney specializing in nursing home abuse, said that watching elderly and disabled residents repeatedly suffer the same types of injuries in these facilities “feels like a broken record. It feels like Groundhog Day.”

In 2021, a CalMatters investigation found that the state Department of Public Health allowed Rechnitz and his companies to operate 18 nursing homes while delaying a decision on granting licenses to them. The state had kept the license applications in a “pending” status after he acquired them. Rechnitz and his companies were allowed to continue operating five additional homes even after the state denied licenses for those facilities.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law meant to address the issue, but state regulators in 2023 granted Rechnitz’ companies the licenses to operate the homes just before the measure took effect.

Now, some of those facilities are the subject of patient lawsuits, including one that resulted in a $2.3 million judgment against Country Villa Wilshire.

CalMatters’ Jocelyn Wiener has covered the state’s oversight of Rechtnitz’ company since the COVID-19 pandemic. Check out her latest story here.

A new California law aims to expand civil rights protections in K-12 schools while the federal administration under President Donald Trump moves to shut down the U.S. Department of Education and its Office of Civil Rights, reports CalMatters’ Carolyn Jones.

In October California lawmakers passed a measure to create an Office of Civil Rights within the California Department of Education. The office includes an antisemitism coordinator, who will investigate complaints and train school districts on how to prevent antisemitism. The office is also required to submit to the Legislature an annual discrimination report, which would include information such as the number of complaints.

Before Trump’s return to the White House, most K-12 anti-discrimination enforcement fell on the federal government’s Office of Civil Rights. But in March the Trump administration began laying off nearly half the staff at the federal education department, closing numerous branches of the Office of Civil Rights, including the one in California. On Tuesday the administration also unveiled a plan to spin off the education department’s key areas of oversight to other federal departments.

Read more here.

The University of California Board of Regents voted Wednesday to continue its annual tuition hikes, despite pushback from some regents and undergraduate students, writes CalMatters’ Mikhail Zinshteyn.

The tuition model allows the public university system to increase undergraduate tuition and systemwide fees by as much as 5% annually. But what undergraduates pay for tuition once they enroll doesn’t change, since their rate would be locked in that year for up to six years upon enrollment. Graduate students, who are not on the same tuition model, would continue to see annual tuition increases. 

The regents voted 13 to 3 to approve the plan, which begins in 2026-27. UC officials say the plan ensures the system can collect more revenue as the costs of educating students increase. 

Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, one of the regents who voted against the move, said the decision to increase tuition continually should be reviewed at least annually, not left alone for years at a time. Undergraduates also denounced the plan. About half of in-state undergraduate students at UC live in households with incomes below $120,000.

• Diego Emilio Bollo, president of the undergraduate student association at UCLA: “The students are not the UC’s backup budget plan.”

Read more here.

Mi Esquelita is a free, year-round preschool with individual and group therapy. CalMatters’ Adriana Heldiz and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on this San Diego program that is dedicated to young students who have experienced family trauma, as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.