Almost a dozen community health centers and an industry advocacy group are suing the State of Arizona for alleged failures to pay actual costs for providing certain services to Medicaid-eligible patients.
The case was filed on Oct. 28 in U.S. District Court of Arizona by plaintiffs who include Sunset Community Health Center, North Country Healthcare, Sun Life Family Health Center, the Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers and Mariposa Community Health Center.
The following day, the Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers asked the court for a preliminary injunction.
The plaintiffs in the case are asking the federal court to order the defendant, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, which is Arizona's Medicaid program, to reimburse health centers for the full costs of providing services to Medicaid patients.
The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer G. Zipps
Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System is supposed to reimburse "federally qualified health centers'' the cost of services those health centers provide, according to the lawsuit. In addition to services provided by physicians, the state should be paying for services furnished by other healthcare providers, such as optometrists, dentists, chiropractors and podiatrists, according to the lawsuit.
The health centers who are plaintiffs in the case are all federally qualified health centers.
Federal law requires health centers provide services that the state may not actually cover, attorney Matthew S. Freedus, a partner with Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell in Washington who represents plaintiffs in the case, told Capitol Media Services shortly after the case was filed.
Freedus argued that states, including Arizona, should reimburse health centers for all of their "reasonable and related costs" in furnishing those services to Medicaid patients.
"The problem here is that Arizona is not recognizing the full extent of what that mandatory set of services includes," Freedus was quoted by Capitol Media Services. "They’re not recognizing, for example, that includes a whole range of preventive dental services."
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