Settlement Provides Speech-Generating Devices for Californians with Severe Communication Disabilities
October 27, 2004
Zachary R. Potter- Jacksonville
SACRAMENTO – Attorneys for Holland & Knight LLP have negotiated an
agreement with the California Department of Health Services that will enable 53
Californians with profound speech disabilities to be able to speak. The
agreement will allow these individuals, who all are recipients of California
Medicaid, or Medi-Cal, to receive specialized “speech generating devices,” or
SGDs, that will give them this ability. This agreement resolves a lawsuit
between Medi-Cal and these individuals over the amount Medi-Cal is willing to
pay for these devices.
“Individuals who need speech-generating devices are the most vulnerable
members of our community,” commented Zachary Potter, a Chesterfield Smith Fellow
within Holland & Knight LLP’s Community Services Team, and the plaintiffs’
pro bono attorney. “Without the ability to communicate, people are trapped
in solitary confinement within their own bodies and, as a result, are unable to
speak up for themselves when they are in pain, when they are hot or cold, or
hungry or thirsty, or for any other matter. As a result of this settlement, our
clients, and over 50 others who need SGDs, will be able to speak to their
friends, family, care providers and others by the end of the week.”
Medi-Cal, a joint federal-state health benefits program, provides payments
for necessary health care for many Californians with disabilities, including
funding for durable medical equipment like SGDs. Last fall, California cut the
Medi-Cal payment rates for this type of equipment by 20 percent. As a result,
many companies that manufacture and distribute SGDs stopped shipping their
products to Medi-Cal recipients, reporting that they could not operate in
California at the new rates.
“After we filed the lawsuit and brought the problem to the attention of the
Attorney General’s office, we immediately started working together to find a
solution,” noted Potter. “The case was never adversarial – the Department of
Health Services and the Attorney General’s office recognized the emergency for
what it was. We are grateful that the Department made sure that everyone whose
devices had been approved but withheld will now be getting them.”
Contact: Christina Calhoun, 813-769-4355