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DIPENDRA TIWARI; KISHOR SAPKOTA; GRACE HOME
CARE, INC.,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
ERIC FRIEDLANDER, in his official capacity as
Secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and
Family Services; ADAM MATHER, in his official
capacity as Inspector General of Kentucky,
Defendants-Appellees,
KENTUCKY HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION,
Intervenor Defendant-Appellee. |
No. 21-5495 |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky at Louisville.
No. 3:19-cv-00884—Gregory N. Stivers, District Judge.
Argued: January 27, 2022
Decided and Filed: February 14, 2022
Before: SUTTON, Chief Judge; GUY and DONALD, Circuit Judges.
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OPINION
_________________________
SUTTON, Chief Judge. Dipendra Tiwari and Kishor Sapkota sought to establish a home
healthcare company, called Grace Home Care, that would focus on serving Nepali-speaking
individuals in the Louisville area. Like other companies that provide healthcare services, home
healthcare companies face a number of regulations. One of them is a certificate-of-need
requirement, which restricts the number of such companies that may serve each county in
Kentucky. When the Commonwealth denied their certificate-of-need application, Tiwari and
Sapkota filed this lawsuit. They claim that the regulation violates their Fourteenth Amendment
right to earn a living, serves only the illegitimate end of protecting incumbent home healthcare
companies from competition, and through it all lacks a rational basis. At the motion to dismiss
stage, the district court allowed the case to proceed to discovery. On summary judgment, the
district court upheld the law. We affirm. |
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