NYSACRA

PRIVATE SERVICE PROVIDERS REQUEST COURT ACTION

Individuals with mental retardation and developmental disabilities and private providers of services today asked the Franklin County Common Pleas Court to ensure that Ohio’s Medicaid laws guaranteeing individuals’ right to freely choose their providers – and providers’ right to render services in Ohio – are fully enforced. COLUMBUS, OH - Individuals with mental retardation and developmental disabilities and private providers of services today asked the Franklin County Common Pleas Court to ensure that Ohio's Medicaid laws guaranteeing individuals' right to freely choose their providers - and providers' right to render services in Ohio - are fully enforced. According to the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) and the Ohio Department of MRDD (ODMRDD) have failed to ensure the uniform statewide administration of Medicaid, and county MR/DD boards have tried to force private providers to sign illegal contracts and have otherwise interfered with their right to render services."This is not simply a dispute among bureaucratic agencies," said Maureen Corcoran, executive director of the Ohio Providers Resource Association (OPRA), o­ne of the plaintiffs in the case. "What's at stake here is the ability of individuals with mental retardation and developmental disabilities to get the care and support services they need - and to get them from the providers of their choice. In addition, this case is about the ability of private providers to offer those services without unlawful interference by county MR/DD boards and the associations that represent them."In addition to OPRA, the plaintiffs in this case are Nickolaus B. Thompson of Troy; Guernsey Residential, Inc. in Cambridge; St. John's Villa in Carrollton; and Champaign Residential Services, Inc. in Urbana.The plaintiffs are asking the Court to declare that the state has violated its legal obligation to promulgate rules governing service contracts and general operating agreements with providers. Instead, County Boards of MR/DD and the associations that represent them have sought to impose their own contracts and agreements o­n providers, and in some cases they have told providers to sign unlawful contracts or risk termination of their right to provide service. County boards and their associations also have tried to renew existing unlawful service contracts, even though they have no authority to enforce, renew, implement or promulgate such contracts and agreements. The plaintiffs also told the Court that some county boards are terminating or delaying services to individuals, and interfering with longstanding relationships between individuals with mr/dd and their support providers, thereby creating substantial risks to health and safety through disputed care."Federal law is very clear o­n this point," Corcoran said. "Medicaid must be administered uniformly across the state. The fact that the State of Ohio has abdicated its responsibility to write uniform administrative rules does not mean that county boards, which also are substantial service providers in addition to their Medicaid administration roles, can assume powers that are not properly theirs. What we have here is an attempt by county boards and their associations to hijack state law for their own purposes, even though the result will be that individuals with mental retardation and developmental disabilities will not get the same quality of service from county to county." The plaintiffs also are requesting injunctive relief to prevent county boards from imposing illegal service contracts o­n private care providers, withholding payment for services under approved service plans or reducing without notice the amount of service an individual with mr/dd can receive.Defendants in the case include: Tom Hayes, Director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services; Kenneth W. Ritchey, Director of the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities; the Ohio Association of County Boards of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Ohio Association of County Boards of MR/DD, Ohio Superintendents of County Boards of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities; John Pekar, Superintendent of the Fairfield County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities; Randy Beach, Superintendent of the Pickaway County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities; Tom Armstrong, Superintendent of the Summit County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, Mid-East Ohio Regional Council; and Dee Zeffiro-Krenisky at the Huron County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.