Florida faces Medicaid lawsuit over refusing payments for incontinence

TALLAHASSEE — A judge has cleared the way for a class-action lawsuit alleging that Florida's Medicaid program has violated federal laws by denying coverage for incontinence supplies for adults with disabilities.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard granted a request by attorneys for two women and the organization Disability Rights Florida to handle the case as a class action. While it is not clear how many people the case could affect, the decision cited one estimate that at least 480 Medicaid beneficiaries a year turn 21 and lose coverage for incontinence supplies that they received as children.

The lawsuit, filed in July in federal court in Jacksonville on behalf of Duval County resident Blanca Meza and St. Johns County resident Destiny Belanger, contends that the state is violating federal Medicaid law and laws including the Americans with Disabilities Act.

It said the state provides incontinence supplies, such as briefs, diapers and underpads, for Medicaid beneficiaries under age 21 and for certain adults, including people in nursing homes.

But the lawsuit said the state stopped providing the supplies to Meza and Belanger after they turned 21, though they are incontinent and unable to care for themselves. As an example of their disabilities, the lawsuit said Meza "is diagnosed with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, muscle spasticity, neuromuscular scoliosis and partial epilepsy."

"Plaintiffs are medically fragile adults each with bladder and bowel incontinence," the lawsuit said. "As low-income Florida residents with significant disabilities, they receive their health services through Florida's Medicaid program. Plaintiffs’ physicians have prescribed certain incontinence supplies, including briefs and underpads, as medically necessary to treat plaintiffs’ incontinence, keep their skin dry and clean, prevent skin breakdowns and infections and maintain their ability to live in the community."

The state has fought the lawsuit and the request to make it a class action. In a document filed in September, attorneys for the state argued, in part, that the Medicaid program operates under regulations approved by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

While the case will move forward as a class action, it remains far from being resolved, Morales Howard, who was appointed to the bench by former President George W. Bush, issued an order in February that said a trial is scheduled in January 2024.

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