CANHR and three nursing home residents have filed a lawsuit against California Secretary of Health and Human Services, Diana Dooley, charging that the State is willfully violating federal laws that protect against dumping nursing home residents into hospitals. For years, California nursing homes have been sending Medi-Cal residents to acute care hospitals and refusing to allow them to return to the nursing homes where they reside, primarily to increase profits and make space for more lucrative Medicare and private pay residents.

Federal law forbids this practice by requiring states like California to offer a readmission hearing that provides for the “prompt” readmission of residents. While the California Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”) provides a hearing, the State is refusing to enforce its own hearing decisions, leaving patients with no way to return home. As a result of the facilities’ refusal to readmit, residents are forced to remain in expensive hospital beds that have cost Californians over $70,000,000 for unnecessary hospitalization costs.

CANHR is represented by BraunHagey & Borden LLP.Click here to read the complaint…