Federal judge orders Medicaid funding restored for medical equipment

ST. LOUIS -- A federal judge has ordered the state to restore Medicaid coverage for medical equipment for a month and to submit a new plan for what will be covered.

The state cut the program in 2005, dropping coverage for such things as feeding tubes, crutches and hospital beds for low-income Missourians.

Opponents said the reductions made little sense because some things were covered while others weren't. For example, wheelchairs were covered, but canes weren't; blind people could get hearing aids, but deaf people couldn't.

"I think a reasonable person could conclude that it was senseless, other than they thought it would save money," said Thomas E. Kennedy III, a lawyer involved in a lawsuit against the state's Department of Social Services.

States do not have to provide Medicaid coverage for any of the items, called durable medical equipment. But Judge Dean Whipple ruled Friday that if Missouri decided to cover only some of the equipment, it needed to follow a Medicaid requirement that it use a reasonable standard to decide what is covered.

The ruling will restore durable medical equipment for 370,000 Missourians, according to a news release from the Saint Louis University School of Law.

Whipple ruled that the state was unreasonably denying benefits to some disabled Missourians. He ordered the state to restore coverage for the next 30 days until it submits a new plan for coverage.

A spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Social Services said the agency would review the ruling and then decide what to do next.

Kennedy acknowledged that the state could comply with the ruling by cutting coverage of all durable medical equipment. He and other lawyers for the plaintiffs said because the state has a better budget situation than in 2005, they hoped the state would instead restore the program completely.