Medicaid Patients Denied Hearing Rights for Home Care Shortfalls

Neither the Medicaid Act nor the 14th Amendment’s due process clause gives home-care eligible Medicaid beneficiaries a right to a notice and automatic hearing when they experience service gaps, a federal court said.

The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, therefore, didn’t have to give beneficiaries these procedural protections when their home-care was interrupted or delayed, the US District Court for the District of New Hampshire said.

The court granted the department and Commissioner Lori Weaver partial summary judgment in the proposed class action, which alleged that the service gaps amounted to a reduction, denial, or termination of ...