Important News for Medicaid Waiver Recipients
by: Alaska Legal Services Corporation
In Mid-2005 Alaska Legal Services Corporation filed a lawsuit against the State of Alaska on behalf of four long-term Medicaid Waiver recipients. These recipients had been notified that the State was going to be terminating their Medicaid Waiver benefits because their most recent annual assessment (the "Consumer Assessment Test") showed that they no longer qualified for Waiver services.
Our review of the facts showed that these four Waiver recipients' medical conditions had not improved in any way since they State first admitted them into the Waiver program. Our review of the law showed that it was unconstitutional for a government agency to grant someone a benefit and then try to take it away when the person's original conditions had not improved.
For these reasons we filed the lawsuit. In late December 2005, the superior court agreed with us, finding that it is a violation of our constitution's due process protections for the State of Alaska to try to terminate a person's Medicaid Waiver benefits unless and until the State could first show that the person's underlying medical conditions had first improved since he or she was first admitted into the Waiver program. The Court thus entered an order against the State prohibiting it from taking any steps to terminate the Medicaid Waiver benefits of our four clients unless and until the State could first prove that their underlying medical conditions had materially improved since they were first admitted into the Waiver program. The Court's decision and resulting order are hereby posted.
Last Reviewed On: 01/31/06
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