<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">To quote Rush Limbaugh . . .</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">"If people cannot afford health care, perhaps they don't deserve it."</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of today's (July 3, 2014) Spokesman-Review.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">------------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><h1 style="font-size: 28px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Idaho asks Supreme Court to take up Medicaid reimbursement challenge</h1><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BOISE – The U.S. Supreme Court should consider an appeal by Idaho of a lawsuit challenging increased Medicaid reimbursement rates, according to a petition filed Wednesday.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The state’s appeal requests that the justices decide on a 2009 case where five providers say Idaho’s Medicaid rates were too low because they were kept at 2006 reimbursement levels. The Idaho private agencies that sued the state include Inclusion Inc.; Exceptional Child Center Inc.; Living Independently for Everyone Inc.; Tomorrow’s Hope Satellite Services Inc.; and WDB Inc.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In 2011, a federal judge ruled against Idaho and ordered the department to raise the payments. The increased reimbursements cost the state $12 million in 2013.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Attorney General Lawrence Wasden filed the petition paperwork on behalf of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. The petition is the first step to get a case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, which typically grants and hears oral arguments in fewer than 100 appeals per year.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“There are several critical issues for Idaho in the outcome of this lawsuit,” Wasden said in a statement. “We’re asking the Supreme Court to take up this case because the 9th Circuit’s decision incorrectly permits private parties to interfere with the administration of the state’s Medicaid program and the Legislature’s choices regarding that program.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The original lawsuit contended that Health and Welfare was wrong to keep the rates at older levels when studies showed that the costs of providing services were going up.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Health and Welfare’s own study suggested charging nearly $500 each for certain types of services, according to the lawsuit. In reality, however, those same services were being reimbursed at the rate of $268 each, the lawsuit says. Because lawmakers failed to give the department funding for the rate increase, providers were kept at the lower 2006 rates, according to the lawsuit.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the petition, Wasden argues that the courts were wrong in siding with the providers. He says the ruling allows providers to rewrite the agreement between Idaho and the federal government on Medicaid funding.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It also interferes with the state’s ability to deliver services effectively and efficiently while maintaining costs at an appropriate level,” Wasden said.</span></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">------------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"There's room at the top they are telling you still.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- John Lennon</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div></div></div></body></html>