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Case Details for "Maryland "
Maryland Settles Class Action on old Medicaid Debts for $16M
Thousands of low-income nursing home patients in Maryland will have millions in old debts wiped out now that the state has settled a years-long case involving Medicaid payments. Much of the $16 million settlement will go directly to nursing homes that had not received payments from those patients. The action involved approximately 12,000 Maryland patients who owed the money to about 160 nursing homes.
In order to qualify for Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor, an individual must deplete his or her assets to reach a $2,000 threshold. Often, that patient needs care before reaching that limit and can accumulate thousands of dollars in nursing home bills.
According to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the program, Maryland and other states had been calculating a patient's contributions incorrectly all along. They had been requiring all Medicaid recipients in nursing homes to make co-pays regardless of their old debts.
Now, state managers of Medicaid will no longer require co-pays from those who accumulated debt at nursing homes in the months leading up to their eligibility for the program. Instead, the patients can use the money to pay their past-due nursing home bills.
Since the patients will no longer be sending co-pays, the state will make up the difference for the nursing homes. Co-pays had been based on the patients' income, mostly from Social Security and pensions.
The state agreed to forgo these co-pays until three months of old debt is repaid.
And to clear the old debt that accumulated on nursing home books, the state and federal governments will make a one-time $16 million payment.
Posted on:2010-08-18
Company: Maryland
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Scope: Maryland
Type of Case: Consumer
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