A gavel in a courtroom. Credit: Getty Images
JACKSONVILLE — State agencies received more than 11,000 requests for hearings from people challenging their loss of Medicaid benefits between April of last year and this May, but held only 484 hearings, according to evidence presented in federal court Thursday.
The office overseeing the hearings reversed the Florida Department of Children and Families’ decision to revoke people’s Medicaid benefits in just 52 appeals. At that time, DCF was reviewing the Medicaid eligibility of millions after the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, making errors that led to children and postpartum women losing benefits.
Some 70% of the hearings were canceled after the people who filed appeals withdrew them. Most of those people said DCF altered their case files after they submitted the formal complaints, according to the data. But Brandy Jones, a supervisor in charge of hearing requests who testified on Thursday, couldn’t say whether the people who withdrew their appeals did so because they’d gotten their benefits back.
“I believe there’s a part on the form for explaining the withdrawal, but it’s not required,” Jones said in court about a form people can fill out to drop their request for a hearing.
In short, the Office of the Inspector General, which acts as an arbitrator between Floridians and DCF, doesn’t track what happens to appeals people drop or abandon. Thirty-three people work in that office, Jones said.
Jones is one of several state employees who have taken the stand in the federal class action filed by Medicaid patients alleging Florida violated their constitutional right to due process when it took away their health care coverage without proper notice. Their testimony has provided insight into Florida’s management of the subsidized health care program through its notices and call center .
DCF blocked more than 700,000 calls in April from people who wanted to speak to a real person
How long does the appeals process take?
People who disagree with DCF’s decision to revoke their benefits can request a hearing, and the agency must provide those people a packet with information about their cases seven days before the hearing. But hearings can take time.
It took the state two months to schedule a hearing for an Orlando woman DCF wrongly kicked out of Medicaid while she was seven months pregnant, according to the notices she received. The agency restored her benefits in August.
If someone has an urgent medical need, that person can request an expedited hearing. The frequency of requests for expedited hearings has increased from one or two per month to 10 per week since the review of eligibility post-COVID started, Jones said.
She suggested the system works insofar as clients are aware of their rights.
“The number of appeals we receive states the fact that it’s well known,” she said.
Wording of notices
But the agency has changed the wording describing the right to a fair hearing in the notices it sends people. DCF must provide continued Medicaid coverage to people who appeal. Notices previously stated that people would have to pay the state back for the coverage provided during that time if they didn’t win the appeal.
In October, the statement was changed to read that benefits may have to be paid back, but that sentence only changed in the footer of the notice. It took the agency until April to make that change throughout the entire notice.
The bench trial is scheduled to end on Friday but the judge presiding over it, U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard, indicated on Thursday that the dispute won’t be solved soon.
“I just want to make sure that when this ends up in the Court of Appeals we have an appellate record,” she said to the attorneys, referring to the labeling of exhibits. Attorneys from the Florida Health Justice Project and the National Health Law Program represent the plaintiffs.
If the plaintiffs succeed, all the people the state kicked off Medicaid without proper notice could have their coverage restored. Approximately 1.9 million lost Medicaid benefits in Florida, according to KFF’s tracker of the situation .
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