States fear that five words in Obama health law will open door to lawsuits

By Jon Ward
The Daily Caller
04/02/10

The addition to existing law of five words, and a comma, may cause a world of hurt to state governments.

Tucked away on page 466 of President Obama’s 2,704-page health-care bill is a provision that changes the definition of “medical assistance,” the term describing what states are required to provide to Medicaid recipients.

States have in the past been required to provide payment for services to physicians. Now, under the new definition, states will be liable for ensuring provision of “the care and services themselves.”

In other words, states are legally on the hook not only to ensure that Medicaid recipients are paid for, but that they’re seen by a doctor.

Medicaid recipients have found it increasingly difficult to be seen by doctors, as states in extreme economic duress have cut payment rates. the rest

“With the expanded definition, it leaves every state vulnerable to a new wave of lawsuits any time someone cannot access a service, even if that service is limited by virtue of the rates we pay,” said Alan Levine, Louisiana’s secretary of health and hospitals, in a recent memo prepared for fellow state government officials.