The federal appeals court for the 11th Circuit has upheld a ruling that the state’s Medicaid termination notices violated the right to due process. The decision came Wednesday, Nov. 4.
A three-judge panel affirmed the lower court’s decision. That court found that Florida violated the constitutional right to due process of law for hundreds of thousands of low-income people. The problem was the notices ending their coverage, which the courts found to be unclear and confusing. According to Florida Trib, even state employees had trouble understanding them.
The case concerns people whom the state removed from Medicaid, the public health insurance program for low-income people, for financial reasons after the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency. The trial-court ruling was issued in January by federal Judge Marcia Morales Howard. She ordered that the notices clearly explain why the state determined a person did not meet the income criteria. She also barred the Department of Children and Families (DCF) from ending coverage for financial reasons without proper notification.
Howard also ordered that correct notices be sent within two months to about 500,000 people. Their coverage ended after the pandemic, and they were not later re-enrolled in the program. According to the Florida Health Justice Project, they are to have the opportunity to appeal, have their benefits restored and recover unpaid medical costs.
In August, state attorneys argued to the appeals judges that Howard had required more than the Constitution provides. The appeals court found, however, that the state had not provided a clear explanation either in the notice itself or in other sources. In its reasoning, the court wrote that under Florida’s practice, a fuller explanation appears only after the person affected files an objection.
Lynn Hearn, legal director of the Florida Health Justice Project, the organization that sued the state, called the ruling good news for all Medicaid beneficiaries. The Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), which administers the program, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Florida Phoenix.
Source: Florida Phoenix
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Source: Słoneczne Radio
