Arkansas officials have asked a federal judge to reconsider her order directing the department to act on a Medicaid application that a woman submitted more than 11 months ago.
In documents filed Friday, attorneys for the state Department of Human Services said U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker made a "manifest error" when she said in the Oct. 30 order that Anita Walker had supplied the department with copies of the applications she had submitted to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The attorneys said Walker gave the department copies of notices from the federal healthcare.gov website listing the date of her applications and her application numbers. She did not give the department copies of the applications themselves, the attorneys said.
Walker, 53, of Brickeys said in a federal lawsuit that she applied for Medicaid coverage through healthcare.gov on Nov. 24, 2014, and on Jan. 21 but has not received word on whether she's eligible.
Federal Medicaid rules require a determination to be made within 45 days after an application is submitted.
Human Services Department officials say they can't act on Walker's applications because they never received them from the federal government.
In her ruling, Baker rejected that argument, saying the department could get the information from the federal government or directly from Walker.
Kevin De Liban, an attorney with Legal Aid of Arkansas who represents Walker, said the Human Services Department on Friday sent Walker a paper application that she can fill out. Department officials said they will "work with" her to make the coverage retroactive to Nov. 24, 2014.
De Liban said Walker will likely fill out the application and submit it this week.
Metro on 11/12/2015