California IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : State Settles Suit on Care Home Patients

The state can no longer transfer nursing home patients against their will from hospitals to cheaper facilities farther away from their homes under a settlement to a lawsuit. The state Department of Health Services agreed in the Sacramento County Superior Court settlement to let Medi-Cal patients stay in hospital-owned nursing homes, unless there are less expensive nursing homes within 15 miles that can admit the patient within 30 days. Three elderly Northern Californians filed a class-action suit in July, 1989, challenging the state’s Medi-Cal policy.