A federal trial focused on whether Florida illegally terminated residents’ Medicaid coverage has been delayed from its scheduled Monday morning start.
An emergency order filed late Saturday night said the judge overseeing the case had a death in her family and needed to re-schedule the trial’s start. “As soon as possible, the court will schedule a status conference to discuss when to reset the trial,” the order said.
The lawsuit contends that Florida improperly terminated Medicaid coverage for individuals without providing the specific reasons for each termination, challenging the state’s approach to handling these cases.
The trial, if the judge agrees with the plaintiffs, could force Florida’s government to reinstate Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of people and overhaul the way it notifies recipients that it plans to disenroll them from the health insurance program.
If the court decides those actions are necessary, the state would face what it has described as “a staggering price tag” totaling hundreds of millions – potentially billions – of taxpayer dollars, The Tributary previously reported.
The looming trial stems from a class-action lawsuit filed last August by the National Health Law Program and the Florida Health Justice Project, now representing five named plaintiffs and a sweeping class of other Floridians statewide. The class includes anyone Florida has cut from Medicaid since March 31, 2023, based on the amount of money the state believes they made.
While it’s unclear when a new trial date can be expected, the judge has thus far agreed with the plaintiffs’ argument that resolving this case should be prioritized with a sense of urgency.
In a motion last month, the defendants – Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration and its Department of Children and Families – asked U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard to push the trial to a later start date than May 13. They argued that “the current trial date affords insufficient time” for the state to “prepare effectively for trial once the court resolves [pretrial] issues.”
The judge rejected that motion in an April 23 order.
“Given the importance of the issues raised in this case, and the substantial risk of harm to the class members,” Howard wrote, “the Court has endeavored to move this case to a final judgment on the merits as expeditiously as possible.”
Two questions will decide the outcome of the case: Beyond a prewritten list of “reason codes,” is Florida required by the U.S. Constitution to give Medicaid recipients more specific information when it decides to disenroll them based on income? And, is it required to give those recipients a clearer explanation of their rights to challenge the decision than it currently offers?
Florida’s total count of Medicaid enrollees had ballooned to more than 5.7 million people when a national unwind began in March of last year. Within one year, the state had slashed more than a million of those enrollees, with AHCA reporting less than 4.7 million people on the state’s Medicaid rolls by the end of March.
Charlie McGee covers poverty and the safety net for The Tributary. He’s also a Report for America corps member with The GroundTruth Project, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to supporting the next generation of journalists in the U.S. and worldwide. McGee may be reached at charlie.mcgee@floridatrib.org. Follow him on Twitter @bycharliemcgee.
