Judge Refuses for 2nd Time to Make Home Readmit Medi-Cal Patient : Health: Lawyers fail to prove the Van Nuys facility had a bed available. The suit contends the woman was turned away because of state budget problems.

A judge on Thursday refused for the second time in three weeks to order a Van Nuys nursing home to readmit an 82-year-old Medi-Cal patient whose lawyers contend she was turned away because the state stopped making payments for the poor until the Legislature approved a budget.

In denying a motion for a preliminary injunction against Beverly Manor Convalescent Hospital, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen E. O’Neil said lawyers for Vera McKinney had failed to prove that the hospital had a bed available when the plaintiff applied for readmission.

Lawyers for Bet Tzedek Legal Services, a public interest law firm representing McKinney and her family, said she had lived at the Sepulveda Boulevard facility for 18 months and was seeking to return on Aug. 19 after a three-week hospitalization for surgery.

At the time the suit was filed, Bet Tzedek attorney Eric M. Carlson accused the hospital of “callously refusing” to readmit McKinney, suggesting the denial was because the state two weeks earlier had cut off Medi-Cal payments until a budget was approved in Sacramento.

Although a state budget recently was approved and Medi-Cal payments are beginning to flow again, Carlson said Thursday that McKinney’s suit, which seeks readmission and damages “in excess of $25,000,” would continue.

If not settled through negotiation, he said, the case eventually could go to a full trial.

Thursday’s ruling was on Bet Tzedek’s request for a preliminary injunction. On Aug. 24, O’Neil denied their petition for a temporary restraining order that also would have forced the hospital to readmit McKinney.

Carlson said the lawsuit’s focus is not money but enforcement of a state law that requires nursing homes to readmit patients who are temporarily hospitalized, provided space is available.

The suit seeks to prove “that the law is applicable regardless of whether the state is paying for health costs at the time,” Carlson said.

Betty Baker, attorney for Beverly Manor, a nationwide chain of health facilities, was not available for comment Thursday.

But in an earlier interview, she said that McKinney was denied readmission solely because no bed was available, not because the state had cut off payments to her and other poor patients.

“We have not violated either the spirit or the letter of the law,” Baker said.

In denying the request for a preliminary injunction, the judge also said that because McKinney has been placed in a Tujunga nursing home, she would not suffer irreparable harm while the case awaits trial.