Tim Rogers posted on March 29, 2010 16:10
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tim Rogers, CEO
Phone: 919-848-3450
Fax: 919-848-2355
E-mail: timrogers@homeandhospicecare.org
NC Court of Appeals Rules in Favor of Home Care Patients
March 29, 2010. Late Friday, the North Carolina Court of Appeals granted two Petitions filed by the Association for Home & Hospice Care of North Carolina (AHHC) on behalf of 37,000 Medicaid PCS patients. As a result, North Carolina’s Medicaid Agency continues to be barred from implementing a paper review and mathematical formula or other methodologies to reduce personal care hours of services to the elderly, disabled, and chronically ill, who are poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, and thus rely upon Personal Care Services to remain safely in their own home. This Court of Appeals decision extends indefinitely the Temporary Stay that was put in place on March 16th. The Court also considered the Association’s claim that the recent Order of Superior Court Judge Don Stephens, which had reversed the decision entered by Administrative Law Judge Don Overby, was erroneous.
Tim Rogers, the CEO of the Association, commented on this new Court ruling:
“This is a major victory on behalf of 37,000 elderly, disabled and chronically ill North Carolinians as well as registered nurses, home care aides and family caregivers. To have a Medicaid bureaucrat in Raleigh decide the fate of care of citizens using a math formula rather than a review by a Registered Nurse or Physician is just wrong. Home Care and Hospice is more preferred and more cost effective than care in an institution and saves the taxpayers of North Carolina millions of dollars. The Association is dedicated to putting patients and their families first and is very pleased that the NC Medicaid continues to be barred from these unlawful actions. This is a great day for Home Care Services.”
-30-