13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |Family sues FSSA over dropped coverage

Family sues FSSA over dropped coverage

Sandra Chapman/13 Investigates

Indianapolis - A local attorney wants a judge to step in and stop the state's welfare agency from cutting off any more disability benefits.

"They went ahead and canceled her insurance," said Melissa Grant, Kokomo mother.

When we last spoke to Melissa Grant, her daughters, who suffer from a rare genetic disease, were going without seizure medication. She couldn't afford the $800 price tag and state Medicaid dropped the girls' insurance when they turned 19. For over a year and a half, they were denied coverage.

"I figured my kids are going to die because I can't afford their medicine," said Grant.

Melissa Grant and her girls are now part of a lawsuit filed this week against the Family and Social Services Administration.

Carmel attorney Scott Severns says the agency is breaking the law by terminating benefits 50 percent of the time for patients in the appeals process, and simply failing to act for others. He wants a judge to step in and stop it.

"Here's somebody going through seizures every day that they don't have to go through if they've got proper medical care. And this system, for a year and a half, has her pending. We're asking that they not terminate people who are currently on Medicaid," said Severns.

Severns says he can't believe the decision by Gov. Mitch Daniels to fire IBM, yet keep its troubled subcontractor ACS on board. According to the lawsuit, ACS call center employees confirm a practice of closing mass numbers of cases by failing to complete the necessary tasks.

"They were asked to simply close out up to 3,500 tasks in a day without doing it. When they get overloaded, they just mass delete them," said Severns.

FSSA refused to comment about the lawsuit or the allegations. But according to Severns, just this week he asked an ACS official about the process in a hearing.

"She took the Fifth Amendment against self incrimination. I've never encountered such a thing in an administrative hearing," he said.

IBM is expected to have its bags packed and moved out by mid-December. Severns is hoping that a judge will hear his case by the first of the year.