County of Kern v. State Department of Health Care Services

County of Kem operates the Kem Medical Center (collectively Kern). Kern challenges the decision of respondent State Department of Health Care Services (Department) to reduce Kem’s Medi-Cal reimbursements by $2,295,367. According to the Department, Kem should have been paid $925 per patient day instead of $1,125 per patient day for services provided to patients in its neonatal intensive care unit when the nurse-to-patient staffing ratios exceeded one to one or one to two. When Kem pursued an administrative appeal, the Department upheld the legal basis for the reduction by citing Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center v. Bonta (2003) 107 Cal.App.4th 237 [ 132 Cal.Rptr.2d 9 ] (Sierra Vista). In addition, the Department found that the auditor properly calculated the nurse-to-patient staffing ratios by using Kem’s assignment sheets. On appeal from the denial of its petition for writ of mandate, Kem contends that Sierra Vista was wrongly decided and should not be followed, and that the Department’s methodology for calculating the nurse staffing ratios was arbitrary and capricious.

We find no error and affirm.

FACTS

The Medi-Cal contract

The Department and Kem entered into a…