Nashville CARES has sued the Tennessee Department of Health, arguing that new contract language requiring eligibility verification violates state and federal law and puts patients at risk. The Nashville nonprofit filed suit in Davidson County Chancery Court, asking a judge to block the new language from taking effect.
According to the Nashville Banner, the dispute traces back to August 18, when Robertson Nash, the Tennessee Department of Health’s director of HIV programs, emailed local case managers to announce that the new eligibility rule took effect immediately. Per the complaint, that email stated patients unable to prove citizenship or legal residency were ineligible for federally funded Ryan White and Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS services or benefits. As reported by Tennessee Lookout, the department told HIV-service organizations in August that no patients without documentation of citizenship or legal residency may be newly enrolled in many of these services.
Those same patients could still receive HIV testing, treatment and associated core medical services through the HIV Drug Assistance Program, the complaint states. But Nashville CARES argues the rule otherwise cuts off a broader category of support. Ryan White core medical services include drug and pharmaceutical treatment, home healthcare, mental health services and substance abuse outpatient care, per the complaint, while Ryan White support services cover whatever the Health and Human Services secretary approves as necessary for patients with HIV/AIDS to reach good medical outcomes.
What the Lawsuit Says Is at Stake
Nashville CARES contends that denying patients those support services could undermine their overall success in treatment and limit the benefit of the core medical care they do still qualify for, according to the complaint. The organization describes the rule as imposing burdensome and intrusive verification and record-retention duties, exposing it to arbitrary enforcement, since it requires Nashville CARES and other providers to maintain auditable citizenship-status records for every new program enrollee…