A Travis County judge said Tuesday he will block the state from cutting $350 million in Medicaid funding scheduled to take effect on Oct. 1.
After two days of testimony, state District Judge Tim Sulak said the cuts represented an “imminent and irreparable injury” to children with disabilities. Parents told the judge the cuts would put their children’s therapy providers out of business.
“The law requires me to [side] truthfully, favorably and liberally on behalf of the plaintiffs,” Sulak said.
The Legislature this year ordered the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to cut $150 million in state funding to the Texas Medicaid Acute Care Therapy Program, which served 242,364 Texans last year, according to state figures. The state cuts would result in an additional $200 million in cuts from federal matching funds.
But the agency never studied the impact the cuts would have on access to medical care, according to testimony this week. Officials had contracted Texas A&M University to conduct a study to determine if Texas was paying more for certain Medicaid services than other states. According to the university, the state never asked researchers to consider the cuts’ impact on medical care.
The study compared Texas to Arizona, Florida, Minnesota and California during fiscal year 2013.
“It’s frightening and worrisome that they knew that the [Texas] A&M documents were faulty and they still continued to go forth with these cuts,” said Dena Dupuie, a plaintiff in the case whose daughter suffers from a form of cerebral palsy.
Despite letters from several key Republican and Democratic lawmakers asking the commission to reconsider the cuts, state lawyers argued to keep the cuts in place, saying that children will still have access to care and arguing that the court did not have jurisdiction over the Health and Human Services Commission.
“HHSC has done its job, and done its job well,” said Eugene Clayborn, a lawyer representing the state, during closing arguments.
Although Sulak said appeals were likely, it’s unclear if or when the state will appeal. The parties will reconvene at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Another state district judge in Travis County previously dismissed a lawsuit from families fighting the cuts.
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