Overview
Cohen Milstein is Class Counsel in this certified securities class action against InnovAge Holdings, a national healthcare company providing medical care to ailing seniors.
Shareholders allege that InnovAge’s IPO registration statement and subsequent public statements were materially false and misleading and omitted critical information about the company’s business and operations, leading to a 78% stock drop.
In addition to InnovAge and former CEO Maureen Hewitt, the lawsuit names the private equity firms that control InnovAge; the underwriters in the company’s IPO; and members of the company’s Board of Directors, including the former Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, and former Senator, Edward Kennedy Jr.
The class action was brought by El Paso Firemen & Policemen’s Pension Fund, the San Antonio Fire & Police Pension Fund, and the Indiana Public Retirement System. The certified class includes “persons and entities who “(i) purchased or otherwise acquired the publicly traded common stock of InnovAge between May 11, 2021, and December 22, 2021, inclusive; and/or (ii) purchased or otherwise acquired publicly traded InnovAge common stock either in or traceable to InnovAge’s March 4, 2021, IPO and were damaged thereby.”
Important Rulings
- On January 8, 2025, the Honorable William J. Martínez for the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado certified the nationwide class of shareholders in this securities class action. The court further appointed El Paso Firemen & Policemen’s Pension Fund, San Antonio Fire & Police Pension Fund, and Indiana Public Retirement System as Class Representatives and Cohen Milstein as Class Counsel.
- On January 18, 2024, the court ordered that Underwriter Defendants’ motion to dismiss be denied in part.
- On December 21, 2023, Defendant’s motion to dismiss was denied in part for Defendants InnovAge; former President and CEO Maureen Hewitt; former CFO Barbara Gutierrez; directors John Ellis Bush, Andrew Cavanna, Caroline Dechert, Edward Kennedy, Jr., Pavithra Mahesh, Thomas Scully, Marilyn Tavenner, Sean Traynor, and Richard Zoretic; and private equity firms Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe and Apax Partners.
- On April 11, 2022, Cohen Milstein was appointed sole Lead Counsel and the El Paso Firemen & Policemen’s Pension Fund, San Antonio Fire & Police Pension Fund, and Indiana Public Retirement System were appointed Lead Plaintiffs.
Case Background
InnovAge (NASDAQ: INNV), a national healthcare company providing medical care to ailing seniors, allegedly violated federal securities laws by making false and misleading statements to investors regarding the company’s staffing and ability to adequately care for participants.
In May of 2016, InnovAge became the first Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (“PACE”) organization to achieve for-profit status. Former C.E.O., Maureen Hewitt and Tom Scully of private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe led an aggressive lobbying campaign to permit PACE entities to be operated as for-profit businesses, starting with InnovAge.
During the relevant period, InnovAge was overly focused on aggressive enrollment at the expense of ensuring sufficient staffing and adequate care for the vulnerable elders who were its participants.
InnovAge centers suffered from severe staff shortages, high caseloads, significant delays, lack of contracts from specialists, lack of coordination with caregivers, and insufficient training on the use of medical records. Instead of addressing these issues, InnovAge focused its resources on hiring sales and marketing staff and ignored substandard home and clinical care for its participants. When faced with government audits, InnovAge executives allegedly instructed staff to “clean up” or delete hundreds of records for medical care that were over 180 days outstanding. As a result, in just nine months, InnovAge was facing penalties in three states.
In September 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (‘CMS’) suspended enrollment at InnovAge’s Sacramento, California center after an audit of the facility found that InnovAge “substantially failed” to “provide to its participants medically necessary items and services that are covered PACE services.” Also in 2021, CMS and the state of Colorado suspended enrollment at InnovAge’s Colorado facilities. As these sanctions came to light, InnovAge’s stock price plummeted.
Original case name: El Paso Firemen & Policemen’s Pension Fund, San Antonio Fire & Police Pension Fund, and Indiana Public Retirement System v. InnovAge Holding Corp. et al., Case No. 1:21-cv-02770, United States District Court for the District of Colorado
Operative case name: Texas and Indiana Pension Funds v. InnovAge Holding Corp. et al., Case No. 1:21-cv-02770, United States District Court for the District of Colorado