CALIFORNIA — Nursing homes were wrong in refusing to readmit three residents after they were hospitalized, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled July 18.
The ruling cited federal law that says nursing homes receiving federal Medicaid funds can only transfer or discharge patients for specified reasons, such as change in condition.
Providers said “dumping” concerns are overstated.
“Our experience has been that the vast majority of discharges relate to residents who are well enough to return home present needs that cannot be appropriately served in the (nursing home) in which they reside or present behaviors that place other residents and staff at risk,” Mark Reagan, attorney for the California Association of Health Facilities, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
From the August 2019 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
