Los Angeles investigates another patient dumping case

Los Angeles city prosecutors have begun investigating another alleged patient dumping incident, this time a Costa Mesa hospital, which allegedly took a mentally ill man 42 miles to the city's Skid Row. City prosecutors say College Hospital dropped the man outside of Skid Row's Union Rescue Mission. If the hospital did do what it's accused of doing, it may have violated a state law that makes it a misdemeanor to dump patients in another county.

This follows a string of actions by city officials against providers they contend have engaged in patient dumping. Los Angeles prosecutors have investigated more than 50 cases of alleged dumping since 2005. It has filed charges against a handful of providers, including Kaiser Permanente, which eventually agreed to establish new discharge rules, train employees more and allow monitoring by a former U.S. attorney to settle the matter.

To learn more about these cases:
- read this Los Angeles Times article

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