LAWSUIT CHALLENGES CONSTITUTIONALITY OF MEDICAL ASSISTANCE REIMBURSEMENT CUTS FOR HOME HEALTH PROVIDERS

What: Several Minnesota home health care agencies, workers and disabled individuals

recently filed a Complaint and a Motion for Temporary Restraining Order asking a Ramsey County District Judge to prohibit the Governor and the Commissioner of Human Services from implementing or enforcing a new law that reduces medical assistance reimbursement only for caregivers who provide services to relatives. The suit alleges that the new law is unconstitutional because it arbitrarily singles out those who provide home health care to relatives for different treatment, and discriminates against women and minorities.

Who: The Plaintiffs are home health care agencies, employees and disabled clients who receive home health care. Representatives of the plaintiff group will be on hand to answer questions about the lawsuit and to explain why a new law that reduces medical assistance reimbursement by 20% only for services provided by personal care assistants to their relatives will have devastating effects on families of the mentally and physically disabled, women, people of color and immigrants whose first language is not English, and Personal Care Provider organizations that serve minority communities.

Why: The new law violates the Minnesota Constitution’s equal protection guarantee because it arbitrarily classifies relative and non-relative home health care providers for different treatment, even though both are: (i) required to meet the same qualifications to be licensed; (ii) authorized by the State to provide the same array of healthcare and other services; and (iii) are otherwise similarly situated in every respect. The new law also violates the Minnesota Constitution because it disparately impacts and discriminates against women, people of color and immigrants because they make up a disproportionate percentage of personal care assistants who care for relatives.

When: A press conference will be held on Tuesday, October 25, 2011, at 10:00 a.m.

Where: State Capitol Building, Room 125, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Press Release: A press release along with additional information will be issued at the scheduled press conference.