Virginia
- Grounds stated in the sources
- Code of Virginia § 32.1-138.1(A): "a facility may discharge the patient, or transfer the patient, including transfer within the facility, only:" — "If appropriate to meet that patient's documented medical needs;"; "If appropriate to safeguard that patient or one or more other patients from physical or emotional injury;"; "On account of nonpayment for his stay except as prohibited by Titles XVIII or XIX of the United States Social Security Act and the Virginia State Plan for Medical Assistance Services; or"; or with the patient's informed voluntary consent "following reasonable advance written notice." The patients' rights section states the same ground more briefly, as the right to be "transferred or discharged only for medical reasons, or for his welfare or that of other patients, or for nonpayment for his stay".
- Notice stated in the sources
- § 32.1-138.1(C): "In the case of an involuntary transfer or discharge, reasonable advance written notice shall be given to the patient at least five days prior to the discharge or transfer." The same section states a consultation duty: except in an emergency involving the patient's health or well being, "no patient shall be transferred or discharged without prior consultation with the patient, the patient's family or responsible party and the patient's attending physician." Where the physician is unavailable, the medical director is consulted, and in an involuntary case the physician or medical director "shall make a written notation in the patient's record approving the transfer or discharge". No enumeration of the notice's required contents appears in the captured Virginia sources.
- Hearing office in these sources
- The DMAS Appeals Division, which hears "appeals related to actions for services provided by a nursing facility, in accordance with § 1919(b)(3)(F) or 1919(e)(7)(B) of the Social Security Act." Its list of appealable actions includes "A determination made by a nursing facility to transfer or discharge a resident", and the division states it "only hears appeals for medical assistance programs and related services (Medicaid and FAMIS), and nursing facility discharges." The published route: "appeals@dmas.virginia.gov (804) 452-5454 804-371-8488 600 E. Broad Street" "Richmond, VA 23219", with the AIMS portal at the division's appeals page. No filing deadline for a nursing facility discharge appeal is stated in the captured sources.
- Ombudsman in these sources
- The Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman, in the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services: "The Long-Term Care Ombudsmen speak up for people in long-term care, whether they live in a nursing home, an assisted living facility, or are in their own homes with home and community based care." and "This program is managed by the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman." No statewide telephone number for the program is published on the page reviewed; the department publishes a locator, "Find Your Ombudsman", and its own general number, "Phone: 804-662-7000".
- Sources last checked
- 2026-08-30
Reproduced from the agencies' own pages and documents quoted below — potentially relevant official sources, not a determination that any notice, ground, or deadline applies to any situation.
Lede
This page assembles what Virginia's own publishers state about involuntary transfer and discharge from a nursing home. It is a baseline page: the docket rows and the source map are built; the grounds section and the published-process section are not yet written, as the change log records. The fullest single source is Article 2 of Chapter 5 of Title 32.1 of the Code of Virginia, the rights and responsibilities of patients in nursing homes, whose § 32.1-138.1 states the grounds, the five-day notice and the consultation duty. Virginia's vocabulary is transfer or discharge, and the statute calls the resident a patient; a move within the facility is covered by the same section rather than treated separately. The appeal is a fair hearing before the DMAS Appeals Division, the Medicaid appeals body, which names nursing facility discharges among the few things it hears.
Two publishers hold it: the General Assembly states the substance, DMAS hears the appeal, and the ombudsman program sits in a third agency without publishing a statewide number. The federal floor for Medicare/Medicaid-certified facilities is assembled separately on [the federal page](../federal.html); nothing here fills a gap from federal law or another state. Confirm applicability with the agencies named in the sources: whether any provision applies to a particular facility, resident, or notice is for the hearing office to determine. Deadlines and periods on this page are quoted from the sources, not calculated for any case.
Source map
| Document | Publisher and location | Source's own date | Retrieved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code of Virginia, Title 32.1 ch. 5 art. 2 — Rights and Responsibilities of Patients in Nursing Homes | Virginia Law Library | § 32.1-138.1 enactment line 1987, c. 221; 1993, c. 692 | 2026-08-30 |
| Virginia Medicaid/FAMIS Client Appeals — Frequently Asked Questions (PDF) | Department of Medical Assistance Services | 05/21/2021 | 2026-08-30 |
| Long-Term Care & Ombudsman | Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services | none stated on page | 2026-08-30 |
Captured: all three, in tools/packets/virginia-packet.txt. Pending: 12VAC5-371, a Virginia statement of the notice's required contents, a statewide ombudsman contact, and any statement of a bed-hold period — per the packet's pending list.
Change log
2026-08-30 — Baseline page built from the first Virginia packet: docket, lede, source map, change log. Not yet captured or written: section 01 (the grounds, as Virginia describes them) and section 02 (the published process, including the notice's required contents, bed-hold and return, and the notice-periods register). Findings: (1) Virginia's advance notice is five days, and the statute frames it as "reasonable advance written notice" with that minimum; no thirty-day period appears anywhere in the captured Virginia sources, and none is supplied from federal law. (2) Section 32.1-138.1 opens by stating that it implements "subdivision A 4 of § 32.1-138", but the transfer and discharge right in the section as published sits at subdivision A 5, and subdivision A 4 concerns being informed of one's medical condition; the cross-reference is reproduced as published and reconciled nowhere. (3) No Virginia source captured states what the written notice must contain — the statute states when notice is given and who must be consulted, not what the notice says. The absence is stated rather than filled from federal law. (4) DMAS names nursing facility discharge among the actions it hears and cites the federal statute for that jurisdiction, but publishes no filing deadline specific to these appeals; the general Medicaid appeal deadlines in the same document are stated for agency actions on eligibility and services, and this page does not assume they apply. (5) The Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services publishes no statewide ombudsman telephone number on the page captured — only a locator and the department's own general number — so the ombudsman row states what the department publishes. (6) No first-party statement of a Virginia Medicaid bed-hold period was captured. Capture pending: per the source map. Internet Archive: not yet submitted. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter, reviewed 2026-08-30. Corrections: hello@fieldassembly.net.