A plan to cut state funding for disability services threatens to disrupt the lives of thousands of vulnerable Minnesotans who depend on state services to live and work in the community, according to a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court.
Two large organizations that represent hundreds of disability service providers are seeking an emergency court order to prevent a 7 percent cut to the rates paid through the state's Medicaid "waiver" program, which helps people with disabilities pay for transportation, personal caregiving and other support services that help them live more independently. The cuts were scheduled to go into effect on July 1.
"This cut will cause irreparable harm to our members and the people with disabilities they support as we are already in the midst of a workforce crisis due in large part to lack of wage competition," said Sue Schettle, chief executive of the Association of Residential Resources in Minnesota (ARRM), a plaintiff in the 39-page lawsuit, which represents more than 200 providers.
Minnesota Department of Human Services Commissioner Emily Piper, the defendant in the lawsuit, said in a written statement that her agency is required by the federal government to adjust some rates for disability-related services under a complicated new rate-setting methodology. She said her agency will carefully review the lawsuit.
This spring, disability advocates and trade groups for providers joined in an aggressive push to prevent the 7 percent cut, which they estimate will cost disability service providers more than $80 million in lost funding in the next two fiscal years. At the last moment, however, a negotiated fix failed to survive Gov. Mark Dayton's veto pen, as he nixed a 990-page budget bill that included funding for disability service providers, but was full of unrelated and controversial measures he opposed.
According to the lawsuit, the cuts will affect about 32,000 individuals across the state who rely on Medicaid waivers, a coveted form of Medicaid assistance that pays for services that would enable them to live more independent lives.
The cuts, advocates warn, also could imperil the state's efforts to improve access to community services for people with disabilities and to comply with a landmark 1999 Supreme Court ruling, known as the Olmstead decision, which requires states to ensure that people live and work in the most integrated settings possible.
In 2015, the Dayton administration and disability service providers began to implement a detailed blueprint, known as the "Olmstead plan," for expanding community services for people with disabilities and integrating more people into the mainstream workforce and housing of their choosing. Meeting the state's requirements under the Olmstead plan would now be more difficult, providers maintain.
