7 disabled file suit against state
CASH (KATV) -
On the same day the legislature approved a measure to help one group of disabled Arkansans, a lawsuit was filed trying to help another group.
Many of our state's most vulnerable citizens and their families are generally worried about a new, mysterious algorithm.
"I have a good mind mentally,” says Bradley Ledgerwood. “But I can't do anything physically for myself."
Ledgerwood and over 7,000 other disabled Arkansas adults receive Medicaid waivers through the ARChoices program.
It allows most to live at home rather than in a facility.
But a new assessment tool introduced by DHS last year cut ledgerwood's weekly attendant care hours from 56 to 32.
Less cash for this family from Cash (Craighead county) means less freedom...and possibly a move to a nursing facility.
And there are hundreds of others facing the same threat.
"They just want to cut people I think for the sake of cutting,” says Ledgerwood. “And really if this goes forward they are going to destroy the lives of the disabled community."
Ledgerwood and six other disabled Arkansans are plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against DHS.
They argue that the switch to this new system was not done legally.
They believe DHS nurses should again determine the amount of care needed...not a 286 question survey fed into a computer.
"For one thing they don't need to be so secretive,” says Ledgerwood. “They need to have public meetings. They have never talked to anybody in the disability community at all. I honestly feel like...I'm going to be honest with you...not everybody, not the nurses or the people in the local office...but I think the bureaucrats in Little Rock just don't care about people at all."
The new assessment system was successfully challenged in court last year. This new challenge was filed Thursday.
While DHS has no specific response to the lawsuit, a spokesperson tells Channel Seven the new assessment system aims to make level of care decisions more objective.
Air date: January 27th, 2017
