Iowa Medicaid lawsuit dismissed; critics say chronic problems persist

A lawsuit accusing Iowa’s privately run Medicaid program of illegally denying health assistance for thousands of Iowans with disabilities was dismissed Friday by a federal judge because the managed-care company in the suit ended its contract with the state.

The lawsuit against Iowa was filed last year by Disability Rights Iowa, a federally supported advocacy group that seeks to protect the rights of people with disabilities.

Disability Rights claimed in a June 2017 lawsuit that levels of care for people with serious disabilities are being terminated, reduced or denied without legal justification, often violating constitutionally protected due process, through engaging in “vague, subjective, arbitrary and secret criteria.”

The six plaintiffs in the case all were clients of AmeriHealth Caritas, one of three companies initially hired by Iowa in April 2016 to take over management of the Iowa program, which costs $4.8 billion annually to operate.

Read more: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/investigations/2018/02/02/iowa-medicaid-lawsuit-dismissed-critics-say-chronic-problems-persist/302037002/