Agency Threatens Consequences If Nevada's 'Patient Dumping' Does Not Stop

After the news broke this week that a Las Vegas psychiatric hospital was "dumping patients," or improperly discharging mentally ill patients, to neighboring states, government officials and agencies have put Nevada on notice.

The scandal, first unearthed by the Sacramento Bee, has caught the attention of not only local Nevada politicians, but also agencies on the federal level. In a letter Thursday from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that oversees the system under which the hospital in question operates, federal authorities warned Nevada to fix the problems at the Rawson-Neal Psychiactric Hospital in Las Vegas or face real funding consequences.

The letter, obtained by The Associated Press on Friday and excerpted by the Los Angeles Times, stated, "If we do not receive an acceptable, timely submission, or if a resurvey finds that the hospital is not complying with any [conditions of participation], we will notify you that we are initiating action to terminate the facility's Medicare provider agreement." Basically, the letter said, stop the improper shipping of patients to other facilities or you will not get the funding, potentially millions of dollars, that Medicare provides.

The ultimatum comes after a shocking story was revealed about the practices of the Rawson-Neal Psychiatric hospital, when 48-year-old James Flavy Coy Brown appeared in Sacramento in February with no possessions and no family in the area. Soon enough, it was discovered that employees at the Las Vegas mental hospital had sent him there on a one-way bus ticket, with only snacks and a three-day supply of his Schizophrenia medication. Brown arrived without any arrangements for his treatment, no access to his Social Security payments, no identification, and knew no one to contact for help. He hadn't even ever visited Sacramento before.

The Sacramento Bee's investigation found that an estimated 1500 patients of the Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital have similarly been discharged since 2008. Last year, Rawson-Neal bused out more than one patient per day, totally nearly 400 in the year, sent out to 176 cities in 45 states across the country.