State settles About 220 disabled Hawaii residents or their families will share $7 million that the state will pay to settle lawsuits over the denial of Medicaid benefits in 1994.
Med-QUEST lawsuit
for $7 million
The state was found guilty of
bias against disabled residentsBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com
State Attorney General Mark Bennett and the law firm of Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing announced the settlement yesterday.
Bennett said he informed the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing yesterday morning that the settlement will be added to a funding bill for other state settlements.
"It is a big amount, but it's our belief that settling this for this amount now is in the best fiscal interest of the state, and the governor agrees," he said later in an interview.
U.S. District Judge Alan Kay ruled in 1996 that the state discriminated against more than 300 disabled residents by denying them medical and dental benefits during reforms to the Med-QUEST program.
The state lost an appeal of the decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court in January declined to take up the case.
Shelby Anne Floyd, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said, "We are pleased that the state has acknowledged its responsibility for not giving the disabled the same benefits it gave to other Hawaii residents.
"Without Governor Lingle's personal efforts to reach a fair settlement, the state might have been liable for much more in damages. ... I don't think it would have happened if she hadn't gotten behind it," she said.
Bennett said he discussed the case with Lingle and she "felt we should make a determination whether or not we could reach a fair settlement ... and that's what we tried to do."
About 22 cases went to trial and were appealed and put on hold until the 9th Circuit Court heard the appeal. The settlement pays for these cases and about 180 of 200 disabled people still alive who were involved in other cases, Floyd said. Family members will be awarded the payments in cases where deaths have occurred, she said.
Floyd said payments will range from more than $1,000 to a couple hundred thousand dollars, depending on circumstances in each situation.
An additional 100 cases were settled individually, Floyd said. Those plaintiffs have been paid.
Part of the $7 million will cover judgments already entered in the 22 cases and attorneys' fees, which total about $900,000, she said.
Bennett said: "I am pleased that upon payment of the amount agreed upon, the state will have fulfilled all of its responsibilities in this matter, and will have no further obligations in terms of time, money or expending any other resources."
Bennett and Floyd particularly thanked federal Magistrate Barry Kurren for his help in achieving the settlement. He "worked tirelessly" on settlement conferences, Bennett said.
Med-QUEST
Attorney General