San Francisco’s largest skilled nursing home, Laguna Honda, will not be able to reinstate 120 beds — which would have improved capacity for care in the rapidly aging city — after federal regulators this month denied the hospital’s attempt to gain approval for the expansion.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services turned down Laguna Honda’s request to reinstate the beds, citing federal regulations that require nursing facilities certified after 2016 to limit residents to two per room. Reinstating the 120 beds would have required Laguna Honda to place three residents in some of its rooms.
CMS can make an exception to this rule by granting nursing homes a waiver allowing them more than two residents per room if they can show it meets residents’ needs and will not harm their health and safety…