IN SIXTH CIRCUIT BRIEF, HEALTH CARE GROUPS URGE REVERSAL IN LOWER COURT MEDICAID CASE

A block of national and state groups representing health care providers have urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in a legal brief to reverse a lower court's decision that Michigan is immune from a lawsuit seeking to force changes in the state's Medicaid program ("Westside Mothers v. Haveman, "6th Cir., No. 01-1494, "brief filed" 6/25/01). The 18 groups that filed the June 25 friend-of-the-court brief argued that the decision would fundamentally alter Medicaid, and that participation by providers in Medicaid would likely suffer if the lower federal court decision stood. In that ruling, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan held March 26 that it lacked jurisdiction to decide a claim brought by advocates for the needy against Michigan Medicaid officials under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, because the state, as the real party in interest, was entitled to sovereign immunity.