A hearing officer on Friday reversed a decision by state Medicaid officials to reduce the reimbursement for home-based services provided to a Cash alderman with cerebral palsy who has filed a federal lawsuit over the issue, the alderman's attorney said.
Hearing officer Wayne Davis found that the state Department of Human Services did not issue a notice that adequately explained why it was reducing the number of hours for which it would pay Bradley Ledgerwood's parents to help him with daily living tasks, such as eating, dressing and bathing, Kevin De Liban, an attorney with Legal Aid of Arkansas, said.
The reduction, from 56 hours per week to 32 hours per week, came as a result of an annual assessment using a tool, known as the ArPath, that involves asking more than 280 questions about a person's physical limitations and medical condition.
When a hearing officer makes such a finding, the Human Services Department will typically issue a new notice containing the required information, department spokesman Amy Webb said.
Webb said federal privacy laws prohibit her from discussing what action the department plans to take in Ledgerwood's case.
Ledgerwood said he was "tickled to death" by the ruling, which he said would allow him to continue serving on the city council and attending monthly meetings of the Craighead County Republican Committee and Northeast Arkansas Political Animals club.
If the reimbursement hours were reduced, he said, his mother would have to get a job outside of the home and wouldn't be able to take him to the meetings.
"It would literally take my life away," he said.
The ruling came less than two weeks after another hearing officer, Otis Hogan, reversed the department's decision to cut off services provided to a 79-year-old Parkin man as a result of an annual ArPath assessment.
Hogan said the assessment was incorrect in finding that Bennie King, who suffers from end-stage renal disease and heart disease, no longer required extensive assistance with "transferring" activities, such as moving from his bed to a wheelchair.
The Human Services Department on Thursday filed a motion asking Hogan to reconsider the ruling.
Ledgerwood and King are among about 10,000 Arkansans who receive services under the ARChoices program, which is meant to provide an alternative to nursing home care for the elderly and disabled.
In the lawsuit filed last month, Ledgerwood and Ethel Jacobs of Helena-West Helena, who has Alzheimer's disease, say the ArPath assessments violate their rights under federal laws and the U.S. Constitution, in part because the department hasn't provided them with information about how the tool works.
The Human Services Department has used the ArPath to determine eligibility for the services since 2013, according to the suit.
U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. has suspended proceedings in the lawsuit while the administrative appeals are pending.
Metro on 06/25/2016