Indiana Medicaid Must Cover Patients with Treatable Disabilities, After State High Court Declines to Review Case

The Indiana Supreme Court has declined to review a lower court decision that found the state's Medicaid program must provide benefits to people who have disabilities that can be improved with treatment, the AP/Cincinnati Enquirer reports. The court action allows the lower court decision to stand. The case stems from a 1993 lawsuit that "challenged" the state's policy of denying Medicaid coverage to people who could "overcome their disabilities and return to work" if they received medical care. Last September, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that such individuals are disabled "for the purposes of Medicaid eligibility." On June 20, the state Supreme Court issued a brief declining to hear a state appeal in the case. Indiana had argued that covering additional disabled people would cost "at least" $60 million per year; state Medicaid Director Kathy Gifford estimated the cost to be "as high as $90 million" per year. Advocates for the disabled, however, said the state's policy prevented people from receiving care until their conditions could no longer be treated "effectively." State law previously required a person to have a disabling condition that was likely to last a lifetime to qualify for Medicaid, but the state Legislature approved a bill last year that allowed people with disabling conditions that would prevent them from working for four years or more to receive benefits. However, the law did not expand Medicaid benefits to people with conditions that would improve quickly with treatment -- the "issue" of the lawsuit. With the Supreme Court affirming the appeals court ruling, the AP/Enquirer reports that the state could be forced to provide Medicaid coverage "retroactively" to people who have been denied coverage over the last eight years. Gifford said it will "take time" to implement the court order, adding that as many as 20,000 disabled people could qualify for Medicaid (AP/Cincinnati Inquirer, 6/24).