City of San Francisco Sues HHS Over Laguna Honda Hospital Closure

Federal watchdogs have raised concerns after the recent deaths of nine patients who were discharged or transferred to other facilities.

The City of San Francisco and patients' advocates have filed a pair of lawsuits aimed at reversing the federal government’s decision to cut funding and order discharges or transfers by Sept. 13 for all patients at the troubled Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehabilitation Center.

"The federal government has put Laguna Honda and our City in an impossible situation," City Attorney David Chiu says in a media release. "As the final safety net for many of our most vulnerable San Franciscans, Laguna Honda serves too critical a need to be closed due to an arbitrary, bureaucratic decision."

The 156-year-old skilled nursing facility cares for nearly 700 patients and relies on more than $200 million in funding each year from the federal government. However, federal watchdogs have raised concerns after the recent deaths of nine patients who were discharged or transferred to other facilities.

The city’s lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Xavier Becerra alleges that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services forced the city to implement an unworkable closure and transfer plan that denies the city due process and puts Laguna Honda patients at risk.

The complaint claims CMS imposed an arbitrary Sept. 13 deadline to transfer Laguna Honda's patients and has denied the city due process as the facility is required to close well before the city's administrative appeals can be decided—appeals that would render the transfers unnecessary.

The lawsuit asks a federal judge to eliminate the Sept. 13 deadline and extend federal funding to Laguna Honda at least until the appeals can be decided and all patients can be safely transferred or discharged.

A separate class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of Laguna Honda patients and families, alleges that the closure of Laguna Honda and rushed transfer process violate the Americans with Disabilities Act and deny patients and their families substantive and procedural due process.

"For over 150 years, San Franciscans have relied on Laguna Honda to provide critical care to our most vulnerable," says plaintiffs counsel Louise Renne, a former city attorney and now a partner at Renne Public Law Group.

"We simply cannot allow Laguna Honda to close. The actions of CMS and the California Department of Health are illegal, unnecessary, and cruel."

Chiu says CMS's mandate forces San Francisco "into an unworkable closure and transfer plan that has done far more harm than good. Hundreds of patients' lives are stake. We are taking legal action today in the hope that a court will compel the federal government to exercise compassion and common sense."

San Francisco Mayor London N. Breed says the city is "working hard to address issues that have been raised at Laguna Honda, and that important work will continue."

"But closing this facility and forcing residents and families to go through the trauma of transfers should not be part of that process," Breed says.

"This facility provides care and support for some of the most vulnerable people in our city, and that support must continue to keep them healthy and safe."

Both suits are filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.