A federal appeals court ordered a new hearing for Arizona community health care centers claiming the state’s Medicaid system is wrongly denying reimbursement for dental, optometric & podiatric care.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday reversed a lower court decision that dismissed the Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers’ suit against AHCCCS.
The case was filed in 2019 by the FQHC’s successfully argued that they have “…an enforceable federal right to reimbursement including services of its dentists, podiatrists, optometrists and chiropractors (among others).”
The court ruled that AHCCCS improperly limited reimbursement for dental, podiatric and optometric services for adults (during the Betlach-era) all of which are mandated under Arizona’s Medicaid State Plan.
Finally, the appeals court said the lower court wrongly applied “Chevron deference” to the case, a legal principle that requires courts to generally defer to an administrative agency’s interpretation of the regulations it enforces.
