Kentucky regulators say they’ll go to court to keep from handing over documents related to the state’s plan to reconfigure its Medicaid insurance program. But legal experts say Kentucky’s argument — that it doesn’t have to turn over emails and other communications because they are preliminary and about negotiations — doesn’t hold up.
Since they were first proposed in August 2016, Gov. Matt Bevin’s planned changes to Medicaid have been controversial. Medicaid is the federal program for disabled and low-income people — a program which Kentucky expanded under the Affordable Care Act and previous Gov. Steve Beshear.
Bevin’s plan includes a broad reworking of Medicaid, including for people making below the poverty limit and others who weren’t affected by Medicaid expansion. This includes co-pays or premiums for almost all Medicaid enrollees, except for pregnant women, caregivers and some others.
Kentucky regulators say they’ll go to court to keep from handing over documents related to the state’s plan to reconfigure its Medicaid insurance program. But legal experts say Kentucky’s argument — that it doesn’t have to turn over emails and other communications because they are preliminary and about negotiations — doesn’t hold up.
Since they were first proposed in August 2016, Gov. Matt Bevin’s planned changes to Medicaid have been controversial. Medicaid is the federal program for disabled and low-income people — a program which Kentucky expanded under the Affordable Care Act and previous Gov. Steve Beshear.
Bevin’s plan includes a broad reworking of Medicaid, including for people making below the poverty limit and others who weren’t affected by Medicaid expansion. This includes co-pays or premiums for almost all Medicaid enrollees, except for pregnant women, caregivers and some others.
Attorney Michael Abate said the court will likely not side with the state. Abate is a Louisville lawyer who specializes in First Amendment issues; as a comparison, he cited a 1992 case where the University of Kentucky failed to disclose documents about an investigation the NCAA was conducting.
“The court declared it irrelevant that the response was submitted prior to the NCAA decision because the University in that case was the agency subject to the [request] and its submission to the NCAA was its official action,” Abate said.
In this case, he said the proposed Medicaid changes Bevin submitted last year would be the state’s official action — and thus subject to a request under the state’s Open Records Act.
Bevin has maintained that the result of the state’s Medicaid negotiations will be released soon. But he’s also said some of the changes would take effect on January 1, 2018, which is less than three months away. This likely means the finished waiver will be released before a court decides whether the Cabinet for Health and Human Services has to hand over documents to the Kentucky Equal Justice Center.
But Abate said when the communications are eventually made public, they can still be of use.
“The federal government may well take action on the waiver before this dispute is decided, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a compelling interest in knowing what the state was staying to the federal government,” Abate said. “It’s important that the people know what agencies are doing in their name.”
Until then, the wait leaves Medicaid enrollees and health care advocates in the dark on what could be a very complicated shift in health insurance.
