FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE Contact: Peri Jude Radecic, Director
of Public Advocacy
Tuesday,
March 27, 2006 (520) 327-9547, extension 23
Cell:
(623) 308-5111
Recent Developments in Ekloff v. Rodgers
Federal Class Action Lawsuit
AHCCCS Appeals to the Ninth Circuit and Files Motion
for Stay
Motion for Stay to be heard April 14
Parents Encouraged to Seek Incontinence Briefs Under
Federal Court Order
Tucson, March 27, 2006.....On Friday, March 3, 2006,
U.S. District Court Judge Raner Collins ruled, in the case of Ekloff v.
Rodgers, that the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) is
required by federal Medicaid law to supply preventive incontinence briefs to
children with disabilities to “correct or ameliorate (at least in part) the
children’s condition.” The statewide class action lawsuit, filed by the
In his opinion, Judge Collins ruled that:
4
The phrase “to
correct or ameliorate” within federal Medicaid law “is meant to include
incontinence briefs for preventive purposes...” and “the State is obligated
under federal law to provide the briefs at issue.”
4
“[T]he State must
reimburse Plaintiff parents for their out-of-pocket expense in buying the
incontinence briefs themselves.”
4
Issued a permanent
injunction “enjoining the State, the AHCCCS or any contractually-bound third
party from denying Plaintiff children or Plaintiff parents incontinence briefs
for preventive purposes.”
AHCCCS Appeals
Since March 3, AHCCCS has filed a Motion for Stay pending
appeal asking that Judge Collins’s Order in Ekloff not be enforced while
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit considers whether to uphold or
reverse Judge Collins’s Order. A hearing
on the Motion for Stay will be held on Friday, April 14 in federal District
Court in
Parents Encouraged to Seek Incontinence Briefs Under
Federal Court Order
“The Center has met with AHCCCS to discuss implementation of
the Court’s Order,” said Robin Murphy, Managing Attorney at the Center. “AHCCCS has advised its health plans that
they should be filling prescriptions for briefs prescribed for preventive
purposes. Although we understand that
some parents have encountered difficulties in getting briefs from their health
plans, we have been assured by AHCCCS that they are working out these
implementation problems. In addition,
AHCCCS is developing a policy which parents can follow to request reimbursement
under the Court’s Order.”
The Center suggests that parents obtain a prescription from
their child’s primary health care provider and seek to fill that prescription
through the child’s managed care organization.
Any parent with a child with a disability who encounters difficulty in
obtaining medically necessary incontinence briefs should call the Center at
(602) 274-6287 or toll-free at 1-800-927-2260.
Ekloff v. Rodgers is a continuation of the Center’s
work to ensure that people with disabilities have the health care services they
need. The Center’s Health Care Services
Team handles issues ranging from the denial of assistive technology such as an
electric wheelchair to another class action lawsuit against AHCCCS, Ball v.
Rodgers, which was filed to remedy on-going problems with the provision of
adequate in home personal care attendant services for individuals enrolled in
Robin Murphy, Sally Hart and Jennifer L. Nye are the
Center’s lead attorneys on this case.
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The Arizona Center for Disability Law is a not for
profit public interest law firm, dedicated to protecting the rights of
individuals with a wide range of physical, mental, psychiatric, sensory and
cognitive disabilities. The Center is
authorized under various federal statutes and appointed by the Governor of