In Brief: San Francisco Sues Nevada For Patient Dumping; Union Sues Covered California
San Francisco Sues Nevada Over Patient Dumping
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera has filed a lawsuit against Nevada to collect reimbursement for a state-run hospital's practice of taking patients across state lines and dumping them within city limits.
According to Herrera, the Rawson-Neal Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Las Vegas, transported and dumped at least 24 of its former patients in San Francisco between 2008 and 2013. According to city officials, 20 of those patients needed immediate medical care, costing the city at least $500,000.
The class-action suit, filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, seeks reimbursement and a permanent injunction against the state of Nevada from engaging in a similar practice in the future.
“Homeless psychiatric patients are especially vulnerable to the kind of practices Nevada engaged in, and the lawsuit I've filed today is about more than just compensation—it's about accountability,” Herrera said. “What the defendants have been doing for years is horribly wrong on two levels: it cruelly victimizes a defenseless population, and punishes jurisdictions for providing health and human services that others won't provide. It's my hope that the class action we're pursuing against Nevada will be a wake-up call to facilities nationwide that they, too, risk being held to account if they engage in similarly unlawful conduct.”
According to media reports, Rawson-Neal discharged some 1,500 patients between 2008 and 2013 and placed them on buses with one-way tickets to out-of-state destinations and no followup plan for their care. At least one-third of them wound up in California.
Nevada officials have contended that its state-run facilities have provided a significant amount of care to California residents in recent years and sending them back to their home state after discharge was appropriate.
Covered California Sued Over Admitting Kaiser
The National Union of Healthcare Workers has filed suit against the Covered California health insurance exchange in an attempt to bar Kaiser Foundation Health Plan from participation.
The suit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, claims that Kaiser, which was fined $4 million by the Department of Managed Health Care earlier this year regarding issues of enrollee access to mental health services, does not meet the federal standard requiring health plans participating in the exchange to be in good standing with regulatory bodies.
The suit seeks to compel Covered California to only allow health plans to sell coverage that are in good standing, as well as court costs.
“Before Kaiser is allowed to enroll thousands more patients through the Exchange, it should first demonstrate that it can take care of the patients who already rely on Kaiser for their health care,” said Horace Beach, a psychologist who works at Kaiser’s hospital in Vallejo.
The NUHW represents about 5,000 Kaiser employees in California, including nurses, psychologists and other workers.
A Kaiser spokesman said its health plan is in good standing with regulators.
