Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Arizona High Court To Hear GOP Lawmakers' Suit Challenging Expansion Of Medicaid
Arizona Republic: Arizona Supreme Court To Consider Legality Of Medicaid Expansion
The state high court this week agreed to hear the Republican lawmakers' challenge to the state's Medicaid expansion, which extended insurance coverage to more than 400,000 low-income Arizonans. The lawmakers filed a lawsuit in 2013 seeking to halt legislation pushed through by then-Gov. Jan Brewer. (Alltucker, 9/13)
Des Moines Register: Disabled Iowans Could Be Exempted From Private Medicaid Management
Iowa might resume direct oversight of care for people with serious disabilities instead of having private Medicaid-management companies continue doing it, the state’s human-services director said Wednesday. Many of the most serious complaints about Iowa’s privatized Medicaid system have come from disabled Iowans and their families. Numerous families have reported having their services cut and their hassles multiplied by the management companies. Their plight has sparked a federal lawsuit against the state. (Leys, 9/13)
The Washington Post: Nursing Home Residents Lose Class-Action Suit To Secure Community-Based Services
A U.S. district court judge on Wednesday dismissed a class-action lawsuit that alleged that the District failed to comply with a federal mandate to move eligible and interested Medicaid recipients out of nursing homes and into the community. U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle ruled that a single injunction could not remedy the problems experienced by the elderly and disabled nursing home residents because barriers to moving them back into the community extended beyond the system’s shortfalls with transition services. (Chandler, 9/13)
