- A federal judge has ordered Arizona to continue providing
dialysis services to more than 100 legal and illegal immigrants although
state money for that program is gone.
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- The lawsuit, filed originally in Tucson by five dialysis
patients, was declared a class action by U.S. District Judge William Browning
and now includes 110 plaintiffs across the state.
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- In a ruling filed Thursday, Browning said federal Medicaid
law requires the government to provide emergency services to all regardless
of their legal status. The judge concluded that dialysis is an emergency
service - despite a ruling by federal agencies last year that it is not.
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- Attorneys for both sides said that means the Arizona
Health Care Cost Containment System, Arizona's Medicaid program, must continue
to provide the care but that the federal government is required to pick
up part of the bill.
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- Federal money ran out last year after the decision by
Medicaid officials to reinterpret the law to declare that dialysis is not
an emergency. After some health-care groups exerted pressure, state legislators
in December agreed to provide $2.8 million of state tax money to continue
the care for the close to 160 people receiving it then.
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- With that money set to run out around Tuesday - and with
no additional legislative appropriation likely - attorney Tom Berning of
the William E. Morris Institute for Justice went to court to demand that
the services continue. Browning agreed.
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- Browning's interim ruling ensures that care will continue
while the merits of the case are hashed out in a trial next year. If successful,
Berning would ask for a permanent injunction requiring the dialysis treatment
to continue indefinitely.
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- AHCCCS spokesman Frank Lopez said the federal government
provides about $2 for every dollar spent by the state.
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- http://www.azstarnet.com/border/20928dialysis12f2frjs2fsib.html
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