On November 8th, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case of HHC v. Talevski, involving the issue of whether individuals will continue to have the right to sue for enforcement of the Medicaid Act through a federal civil rights law, 42 USC section 1983.  The National Health Law Program, on behalf of Northwest Health Law Advocates and 41 other public interest legal organizations, has filed a friend of the court brief focusing on the need to retain individuals’ rights to sue. Section 1983 has been the primary method for individuals to enforce the Act for more than 40 years. Losing this case would be devastating to individuals’ ability to assert their Medicaid rights.

The case involves a resident of a state-run, Medicaid-funded nursing facility.  His family filed a lawsuit on his behalf to enforce his rights and hold the facility accountable for its inhumane and illegal mistreatment and his eventual discharge against his will. According to his family, the facility provided Mr. Talevski inadequate care and gave him powerful and medically unnecessary drugs to restrain him for the purposes of discipline or convenience. 

The defendants argue that Mr. Talevski does not have the right to enforce the law protecting residents’ rights, and a judge agreed. The Supreme Court is now reviewing this question; the implications are far-reaching. “It’s the ability to enforce your rights that makes them rights,” said George Washington University Health Law and Policy professor Sara Rosenbaum in an interview with the Indianapolis Star. “This case is to Medicaid, what Dobbs was to abortion.”  

Learn more here about the Talevski case in a post from Jane Perkins at the National Health Law Program, one of the authors of the friend of the court (amicus) brief.

You can also learn about Talevski and much more during NoHLA’s upcoming CLE webinar, “Health Care Access: How Are The Courts Are Shaping Our Future?” on October 21, 2022 from 8:45 am to 4:45 pm PDT. Joining us to talk about Talevski will be NHeLP’s Senior Attorney Abbi Coursolle who will present “Implications of Recent Decisions – Where Are Civil Rights Now?” from 2:15 pm to 3:00 pm PDT.

Register for this event now, and review NoHLA’s CLE faculty and agenda. 

5.25 Law and Legal and 1.0 Ethics-Equity credits.

For scholarship information, email leslie@nohla.org.

We hope to see you there!