Federal judge makes ruling on Idaho Medicaid lawsuit

A federal judge in Idaho made a recent ruling in a long-running class action lawsuit, stating the state’s Medicaid program must share requested information in its decision-making process or find a new assessment vendor.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy W. Dale ruled that Idaho Medicaid needs to disclose the user’s manual for its budgetary assessment program known as Supports Intensity Scale (SIS) if Medicaid clients with developmental disabilities request the information in budget appeals.

Dale ruled that the plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, and defendants should draft a plan with the assessment creator, AAIDD, “that conditionally allows for the disclosure of the user’s manual, or information in it, when the notice of a budget reduction raises concerns about [assessors] and their administration of the SIS-A.”

She continued to state in the ruling that “If such a plan cannot be agreed upon, the parties have the ability under [class action settlement agreement] to draft and agree to alternate procedural safeguards, such as providing participants with independent, trained SIS-A assessors with access to the user’s manual, who can assist participants with challenging their assessment results and testify, if necessary, as proposed by plaintiffs.”

Alternately, Medicaid could find an assessment tool that doesn’t withhold such information, the ruling stated.

Part of the issue raised by Medicaid in court documents states that the AAIDD user’s manual is propriety. Plaintiffs argued that Medicaid clients would need any information necessary to appeal to budget decisions, which would include assessment tools and how decisions were arrived at.

AAIDD’s assessment is used in 20 other states and the District of Columbia, and three other states are considering it for use.

The ACLU called the ruling a “major development in the case, which was originally filed in 2015 on behalf of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities when the State of Idaho drastically cut their Medicaid assistance to dangerously low levels.”

A spokesperson for Idaho Medicaid said the agency could not comment on ongoing litigation.