On March 16, 2016, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation issued suspension orders affecting University Village, a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) in Tampa, Florida. Long-Term Living publication reports:

The first order states the facility was acquired illegally. IMH Healthcare, LLC, the general partner of the new ownership, does not have approval to operate as a licensed CCRC provider.

 

The second order makes several allegations against University Village for violating provisions of Florida’s Insurance Code for:

  • failing to comply with the OIR’s target examination and filing false information;

  • failing to fulfill statutory and contractual obligations to residents, estates of former residents and prospective residents, including failing to pay more than $4 million in refunds owed to residents;

  • continuing to accept new residents while being financially insolvent; and

  • engaging in fraudulent or dishonest management practices.

For more on the OIR action, read Tampa Times coverage, “Florida Officials Move to Suspend  Tampa’s University Village Retirement Home.” 

The events that led to this state action are somewhat unusual. For earlier reports on the long-simmering issues, see Channel 8 News Report from September 2015: “Owner Claims, State Lying, Retirees Suffer.”   See also a Tampa Bay Times article from February 2015, “State Looks into Alleged Financial Problems at Tampa Retirement Community.”

Photo of Katherine C. Pearson Katherine C. Pearson

Katherine C. Pearson is a Professor of Law and the Arthur L. and Sandra S. Piccone Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Her scholarship focuses on laws and policies connected to aging and she has frequently included age-related issues…

Katherine C. Pearson is a Professor of Law and the Arthur L. and Sandra S. Piccone Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Her scholarship focuses on laws and policies connected to aging and she has frequently included age-related issues in her teaching of courses on contract law, conflicts of law and nonprofit organizations law.  She is a regular speaker for continuing education programs, both for consumers and lawyers, to address cutting edge concerns in consumer protection for older adults.  She is the author of articles and chapters on access to justice, senior living options including continuing care and life plan communities, long-term care financing and filial obligations, and is the co-author of a treatise, The Law of Financial Abuse and Exploitation (Bisel 2011).

She authored chapters for the Research Handbook on Law, Society and Ageing, published in 2024 as part of a series on law and society handbooks offered by international publisher Edward Elgar. She is a 2024-2025 Fulbright Scholar in Canada and was in residence at the University of Ottawa in the Fall of 2024 as the Research Chair in Health Law, Policy and Ethics.  Her earlier experience as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar (based at the Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, and working in Ireland, Portugal, and the U.K. in 2009-10), resulted in publications, including an article with an international, historical perspective on ethical concerns for attorneys representing older adults, entitled “The Lesson of the Irish Family Pub,” published by Stetson Law Review.

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