Heritage Operations Group, LLC v. Norwood

322 F.R.D. 321
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedJune 23, 2017
DocketNo. 1:16-cv-10614
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 322 F.R.D. 321 (Heritage Operations Group, LLC v. Norwood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Heritage Operations Group, LLC v. Norwood, 322 F.R.D. 321 (N.D. Ill. 2017).

Opinion

Order

Elaine E. Bucklo, United States District Judge

In this putative class action, Heritage Operations Group, LLC, the nursing care facilities it operates, and Medicaid-eligible residents of those facilities (collectively “plaintiffs”) sue Felicia Norwood, Director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (“HFS”), in her official capacity, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief for violations of Title XIX of the Social Security Act (the “Medicaid Act”) and its implementing regulations, the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), the Rehabilitation Act, and the Fourteenth Amendment. Before me is plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification [ECF No. 9], which I grant for the reasons set forth below.

I.

This is one of several related eases brought by healthcare providers and their [324]*324Medicaid-eligible long-term nursing care patients who seek Medicaid coverage under Illinois’s state plan. In this case, Heritage Operations Group, LLC, an Illinois company that manages and operates nursing facilities throughout the state of Illinois, sues, along with twelve of the facilities it manages (together “institutional plaintiffs”), as the authorized representative of its residents who have allegedly applied for, but have not received, Medicaid benefits.

These purportedly Medicaid-eligible residents are also plaintiffs in this matter (“patient plaintiffs”). The patient plaintiffs fall into two major categories: (1) those who are awaiting Medicaid eligibility determinations and (2) those who, despite receiving approval, are still awaiting Medicaid benefits.

Plaintiffs have brought suit against Felicia Norwood, the Director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, in her official capacity, in an effort to make the agency comply with federal law. They allege that defendant Norwood has failed to process plaintiffs’ Medicaid applications, render eligibility determinations, and provide Medicaid benefits with reasonable promptness, as required by the Medicaid Act and its implementing regulations. Plaintiffs additionally assert that defendant Norwood’s inaction constitutes violations of the ADA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Plaintiffs ultimately seek injunctive and declaratory relief to ensure the defendant’s future compliance with the Medicaid statute.

Plaintiffs seek to certify a class of Heritage residents who have not promptly received Medicaid benefits. Plaintiffs propose a class consisting of the following:

All disabled and/or medically needy persons who require long term care at a skilled nursing facility and have received nursing care at a skilled nursing facility managed and operated by Heritage Operations Group, LLC, who are eligible for Medicaid and who submitted Medicaid applications and either 1) have not received a determination on their application by Defendant within forty-five days of submitting their application, or 2) who were approved for Medicaid benefits, and who have not received payment for their nursing care within twelve months of the date that benefits were approved to begin.

II.

For a proposed class to be certified, it must meet the prerequisites of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a) and satisfy at least one of three requirements in Rule 23(b). Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 564 U.S. 338, 345, 131 S.Ct. 2541, 180 L.Ed.2d 374 (2011). Rule 23(a) establishes four threshold requirements that all class actions must meet:

(1) the class [must be] so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable (numerosity);
(2) there [must be] questions of law or fact common to the class (commonality);
(3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties [must be] typical of the claims or defenses of the class (typicality); and
(4) the representative parties [must] fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class (adequacy of representation).

Chicago Teachers Union, Local No. 1 v. Bd. of Educ. of Chicago, 797 F.3d 426, 433 (7th Cir. 2015). Rule 28(b)(2) — which plaintiffs invoke here — permits class certification where a defendant has “acted or refused to act on grounds that apply generally to the class, so that final injunctive relief or corresponding declaratory relief is appropriate respecting the class as a whole.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(2). “In other words, Rule 23(b)(2) applies only when a single injunction or declaratory judgment would provide relief to each member of the class.” Dukes, 564 U.S. at 360, 131 S.Ct. 2541. It is plaintiffs’ burden to demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that all of the applicable Rule 23 factors are met. Chicago Teachers Union, 797 F.3d at 433. I have broad discretion to determine whether class certification is appropriate. Mulvania v. Sheriff of Rock Island Cty., 850 F.3d 849, 859 (7th Cir. 2017).

[325]*325There is no magic number needed to satisfy Rule 23(a)(l)’s numerosity requirement. Mulvania, 850 F.3d at 859. Nonetheless, courts often find that classes with more than forty members are sufficiently numerous. Id. Plaintiffs also need not “demonstrate the exact number of class members as long as a conclusion is apparent from good-faith estimates.” Barragan v. Evanger’s Dog & Cat Food Co., 259 F.R.D. 330, 333 (N.D. Ill. 2009). According to plaintiffs, their proposed class in this case would include approximately three hundred individuals. Plaintiffs support this number through financial records that identify specific individuals who plaintiffs assert would be included in the proposed class. I agree with plaintiffs that this showing is sufficient to meet the numerosity requirement.

To meet Rule 23(a)’s commonality requirement, plaintiffs have to show that there is at least one question of law or fact that is common to the class. Suchanek v. Sturm Foods, Inc., 764 F.3d 750, 755 (7th Cir. 2014). A common question exists “[w]here the same conduct or practice by the same defendant gives rise to the same kind of claims from all class members.” Id. at 756. The putative class members’ claims must “depend on a common contention that is capable of class-wide resolution.” Bell v. PNC Bank, Nat. Ass’n, 800 F.3d 360, 374 (7th Cir. 2015).

In the present case, the proposed class claims “all derive from a single course of conduct” by the defendant — namely, defendant Norwood’s failure to timely process applications and provide Medicaid benefits. Suchanek, 764 F.3d at 756. Defendant’s alleged inaction is “at the heart of [each] claim in the complaint.... [and] is common to all the class members.” Peterson v. H &R Block Tax Servs., Inc., 174 F.R.D. 78, 82 (N.D. Ill. 1997).

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Related

Koss v. Norwood
305 F. Supp. 3d 897 (E.D. Illinois, 2018)
Koss v. Eagleson
N.D. Illinois, 2018

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
322 F.R.D. 321, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heritage-operations-group-llc-v-norwood-ilnd-2017.