Maricopa County Courthouse

Arizona Plans to Throw Half of its Medicaid Recipients off the Rolls

     PHOENIX (CN) - To save $500 million illegally, Arizona plans to throw half its Medicaid recipients off the rolls by next year and cap the number of people eligible for Medicaid next week, despite a voter initiative that requires such coverage for any Arizonan at or below the federal poverty line, poor people say in a Superior Court complaint.
     The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System serves 1.3 million people. Lead plaintiff Anthony Fogliano sued the state and AHCCCS Director Tom Betlach in Maricopa County Court.
     Fogliano challenges recent actions by the Legislature and AHCCCS.
     "In 2011, the Legislature enacted legislation giving AHCCCS the authority to deny or terminate coverage for populations covered by [the successful voter initiative] Proposition 204," the complaint states. "In response, the governor requested permission from the federal government to freeze enrollment and eliminate coverage for persons protected by Proposition 204. Subsequently, AHCCCS issued a proposed rule and announced its intention to freeze enrollment of adults without dependent children on July 1, 2011, and, at its discretion, exercise its authority to terminate or deny coverage for some or all of those individuals to bring AHCCCS operations within legislative appropriations.
     "As a result of the legislation and proposed rule, persons eligible for AHCCCS under Proposition 204, including persons with chronic, severe and significant medical conditions, will not receive the medical care they need and their health will be adversely affected.
     "Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief to enjoin defendants from taking any action to freeze enrollment, deny or terminate health care coverage or in some other way eliminate or reduce the number of eligible persons covered by the AHCCCS program currently and in the future for individuals protected by Proposition 204 and the Voter Protection Act."
     Arizona voters approved Prop. 204 in 2000. In 1998, state voters approved a constitutional amendment called the Voter Protection Act, "to prevent the Legislature from enacting legislation that defeated or frustrated the intent and purpose of voter-approved measures," according to the complaint.

Maricopa County Probate Court: Reform weighed to protect life ...

Arizona Probate Courts could start managing incapacitated individuals’ health care and finances based on how much money they have and how long they expect to live if the Supreme Court accepts recommendations in a report being presented next week.

A committee weighing Probate Court reforms is calling for new rules to reduce fees, strengthen accountability and protect the assets of people deemed too ill to care for themselves.

Chief among recommendations in the committee’s final 432-page report is a requirement that judges conduct “sustainability” reviews weighing potential future costs against existing assets.

If adopted, the change means the courts would – for the first time – consider how much money someone has when deciding how much of that money to spend on care and other services.

The current lack of attention to available funds has led to cases of people’s assets being drained to pay for the services of court-appointed lawyers or fiduciaries, which manage an incapacitated person’s health care or finances.

The probate-reform committee, made up of judges, lawyers and fiduciaries, was formed last year by Arizona Chief Justice Rebecca Berch following accounts in The Arizona Republic detailing how people placed under the court’s protection were billed for hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney and fiduciary fees.

Judges charged with overseeing the cases rarely stepped in to limit the fees.

The committee’s report will be presented Monday to the Arizona Judicial Council, a panel of the state’s top judges that establishes statewide court rules and sets the court’s legislative agenda.

Other committee recommendations would establish fee guidelines, require court-appointed lawyers and fiduciaries to submit budgets, create a training program for probate judges and implement new processes for monitoring incapacitated adults under the court’s care.

Some say these combined methods have never before been tried in any Probate Court and represent a new way of doing business.

“If these (rules) are adopted, it would be a new era,” said Arizona Court of Appeals Judge Ann Timmer, chairwoman of the probate committee.

“This is untested,” Timmer added. “This is the best way not only to get improved oversight but head off conflicts.

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