Residential Care Facility License Defense

Your residential care facility for the elderly (RCFE) is your livelihood. The suspension and eventual revocation of your license will close your RCFE while you continue to pay mortgage payments and incur living expenses. If you want to keep your RCFE and bring back your profit you will need to fight the temporary suspension and revocation action before the Office of Administrative Hearings. Unfortunately, fighting the suspension and revocation of your license will not be easy. The Department of Social Services, or more specifically their Legal Division, will be doing everything they can to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that grounds exist for the revocation of your license. If you have received an order for temporary suspension of license prior to hearing you must decide whether to hire an RCFE defense attorney to represent you in your upcoming hearing.

RCFE License Revocation Action

The legal grounds for revoking your license to operate a residential care facility for the elderly are found in Health and Safety Code Section 1569.1515(c) & 22 CCR 87342. Section 87342(a) sets forth that the “Department [of Social Services] may suspend or revoke any license on any of the grounds stipulated in Health and Safety Code Sections 1569.1515(c) and 1569.50.”

Health and Safety Code Section 1569.1515(c) grants the Department the authority to revoke the license of any corporate licensee that has a member of the board of directors or officer who is not eligible for licensure due to a previous revocation of license or denial of an application for licensure. (This provision is intended to prohibit owners from circumventing license denials or revocations by creating new corporate licensees.)

Health and Safety Code Section 1569.50 is the code section of most use to CCLD in revoking one’s license to operate a residential care facility for the elderly. Section 1569.50 reads…

The department may deny an application for a license or may suspend or revoke any license issued under this chapter upon any of the following grounds and in the manner provided in this chapter:
(a) Violation by the licensee of this chapter or of the rules and regulations adopted under this chapter.
(b) Aiding, abetting, or permitting the violation of this chapter or of the rules and regulations adopted under this chapter.
(c) Conduct which is inimical to the health, morals, welfare, or safety of either an individual in or receiving services from the facility or the people of the State of California.
(d) The conviction of a licensee, or other person mentioned in Section 1569.17 at any time before or during licensure, of a crime as defined in Section 1569.17.
(e) Engaging in acts of financial malfeasance concerning the operation of a facility, including, but not limited to, improper use or embezzlement of client moneys and property or fraudulent appropriation for personal gain of facility moneys and property, or willful or negligent failure to provide services for the care of clients.

Unfortunately for the licensee, Section 1569.50 authorizes the Department to initiate revocation for violations of Title 22 or any conduct which is harmful or injurious to the health, morals, welfare, or safety of residents. Fortunately, the Department effectively limits the scope of conduct warranting revocation to “serious or chronic violations of licensing laws or regulations.” (See Reference Material For Enforcement Actions; “[w]hen a licensee commits serious regulation violations, or engages in criminal conduct, or repeatedly violates licensing regulations despite multiple citations, Plans of Corrections, Civil Penalties, Informal Meetings, a Noncompliance Conference or Compliance Conference, the local Licensing Office may choose to recommend that the provider’s license be revoked).”