Pennsylvania — The new operators of several new Golden Living nursing homes will be publicly known after a judge ordered the state of Pennsylvania to turn over the nursing home chain’s ownership records. 

The ruling was handed down in mid-January, despite requests from the new operators to keep the information private. The Pennsylvania Department of Health will now have to turn over the records regarding the transfer of ownership of 35 Golden Living nursing homes to several new operators.

The records were sought by a local news reporter, but the new operators had appealed a previous ruling to disclose the records. 

The operators argued the documents were confidential proprietary information and that trade secrets are not subject to public release under state law. 

The judge, however, disagreed and said the operators didn’t prove the record disclosure would “result in substantial competitive injury” in the nursing home business.