Home Health & Hospice Week

A big chunk of San Diego Hospice’s remaining assets are going to its former employees — or at least their lawyers.

The hospice, which declared bankruptcy last year after a federal audit, has paid $2.84 million to 590 employees who joined a class-action suit alleging Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notifi-cation Act violations, reports The San Diego Union-Tribune. That law requires employers with more than 100 employees to give written notice 60 days before a mass layoff.

The hospice’s estate has made an initial payment of $1 million to the government, and the feds will get 65 percent of all remaining cash once all priority and secured claims are paid, the newspaper notes. As the whistleblower who brought the matter to the government’s attention, former nurse Lori Rachac will receive 17 percent of all the money that the government receives.

How much money actually will remain is in question, since the estate faces another WARN Act lawsuit from about 200 more employees, the Union-Tribune says. At present, about $10 million remains to be disbursed.

The estate has paid about $2 million in administrative fees in the case so far, the newspaper highlights.