Minnesota DHS discriminating against the disabled for YEARS ?

July 30A federal judge ruled Friday that a class action lawsuit filed by people with disabilities can proceed against the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

The four named plaintiffs allege they represent some 5,000 disabled Minnesotans who have been deprived of over $1 billion in services from a Medicaid program managed by DHS. They claim the Home and Community Based Service Waiver program, which is meant to help disabled people live independently rather than in hospitals or nursing homes, was mismanaged to the point where plaintiffs languished on waiting lists for years or were incorrectly told they were not eligible for funds.

Medicare waivers allow states to spend money that would be used for institutionalization on other services that allow disabled people to live on their own, such as housing and caretaking.

“These are services that have been promised to people with disabilities,” said Shamus O’Meara of O’Meara Leer Wagner & Kohl, the Minneapolis-based law firm that represents the plaintiffs. “The state has the money it has been receiving it for two decades and it just isn’t spending it. It doesn’t spend it and it reverts back to the general fund. We’re not sure precisely sure where the money is going.”

O’Meara said some people have been on waiting lists for 15 years without receiving benefits.

DHS had argued the plaintiffs’ claims should be dismissed, or in the alternative that Minnesota counties should be named as parties as well. The judge rejected that argument, finding that DHS controlled the program in dispute.

The lawsuit was originally filed in August 2015.

Filed under: General Problems