The plaintiffs in this case were a group of medical services and medical professionals associations in the state of California. On May 5, 2008, plaintiffs filed a petition for writ of mandate and a class action complaint in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, against the Director of the California Department of Health Services. The Department is charged with the administration of California's Medicaid program, Medi-Cal. The plaintiffs alleged that Assembly Bill X3 5 ("AB 5"), which reduced by ten percent payments under the Medi-Cal fee-for-service program, violated various state and federal laws, and therefore could not lawfully be implemented. They sought declaratory relief, and preliminary and permanent injunctive relief.

On May 21, 2008, the State removed the action to the Central District of California, because it raised a question under federal law. The plaintiffs asked the court to remand the case back to the Los Angeles Superior Court, and on June 23, 2008, Judge Christina A. Snyder agreed. Judge Snyder found that since a state law equivalent existed for all of the plaintiff's federal law claims, the case could not be said to be "arising under" federal law for the purposes of federal question jurisdiction. The case was then remanded to Los Angeles Superior Court as case number CV BC 390126.

The Clearinghouse has acquired the State Court case summary, which shows ongoing activity on the case through to at least May 2013, but it is unclear from this document whether the case has lead to any substantial orders in favor of either party, or if it is approaching a settlement. The summary of this case on the California Medical Association's own website provides little information, and focuses mostly on Douglas v. Independent Living Center (in the Clearinghouse as PB-CA-16), a related suit in federal court that reached the Supreme Court.

This summary is up-to-date as of July 2013.

David Priddy - 10/04/2011
Alex Colbert-Taylor - 07/23/2013


compress summary