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http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/14/2694159/disabled-kids-illegally-warehoused.html#morer
Hundreds of children who could receive care at home remain in nursing homes because it is less expensive, violating federal law and a Supreme Court ruling, the suit states.
Florida needlessly and illegally warehouses about 250 severely sick and disabled children in nursing homes rather than pay to help them live at home or in the community, families said in a lawsuit filed this week.
The denial of home nursing care and other services has left the children living for months or years in institutions even after doctors have cleared them to go home with their families, according to the suit, filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.
A second group of families filed a separate suit saying about 3,300 at-risk children still living at home fear the lack of services by Florida Medicaid will force them into nursing homes in the future.
Floridas practices violate the Americans With Disabilities Act and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that require states to provide services that can keep people in the least-restrictive settings, including foster care or group homes, the suits argue.
Officials of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which runs Medicaid, and the Florida Department of Health, which oversees many of the children, declined to comment.
More at link....
Hundreds of children who could receive care at home remain in nursing homes because it is less expensive, violating federal law and a Supreme Court ruling, the suit states.
Florida needlessly and illegally warehouses about 250 severely sick and disabled children in nursing homes rather than pay to help them live at home or in the community, families said in a lawsuit filed this week.
The denial of home nursing care and other services has left the children living for months or years in institutions even after doctors have cleared them to go home with their families, according to the suit, filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.
A second group of families filed a separate suit saying about 3,300 at-risk children still living at home fear the lack of services by Florida Medicaid will force them into nursing homes in the future.
Floridas practices violate the Americans With Disabilities Act and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that require states to provide services that can keep people in the least-restrictive settings, including foster care or group homes, the suits argue.
Officials of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which runs Medicaid, and the Florida Department of Health, which oversees many of the children, declined to comment.
More at link....