Today a federal class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of thousands of Medicaid-eligible children requiring Intensive Home and Community-Based Services. These children, diagnosed with behavioral health disorders and in need of physician-recommended treatment, have yet to receive the services Colorado is required to provide under federal law.

CCLP supports these families in pursuing the treatment their children so urgently need. We also recognize the important role that impact litigation has in bringing relief to not only a limited few plaintiffs, but consistently, to all Medicaid-enrolled families with similar needs.

Over the past decade, CCLP has worked to address deficiencies in the state’s compliance with the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) requirements of the Medicaid program. Those federal requirements aim to ensure that physical, behavioral, and developmental problems are not only identified, but treated promptly and early, so that children can grow into adulthood with the best opportunities for healthy, independent adulthoods.

CCLP and its partners successfully advocated with the state’s Medicaid agency, Health Care Policy and Financing, to provide personal care services to all children in 2014. In 2016, our coalition advocated for behavioral therapies to children with autism spectrum disorder, negotiating for eligibility criteria that were legally sound. CCLP continues to fight alongside families whose children are denied medically necessary care, and to work with community members to understand their rights as Medicaid members.

Read the press release here.

How you can help

The families need your support. If you are willing to speak to others about your support for the lawsuit please reach out to Lynea Hansen at [email protected]. She will be looking for people to talk with lawmakers, media and other decision makers about why this lawsuit was necessary and the right move.

For families interested in getting involved, the legal team expects to have a website up in the coming weeks that will let them know more about the lawsuit and how they can potentially get involved.