Blue

In this case we conclude the state Department of Health Services (Department) wrongly excluded stairway chair lifts from the scope of health coverage for the medically indigent, under the terms of the California Medical Assistance (Medi-Cal) program, Welfare and Institutions Code section 14000 et seq.

Appellants Vera Blue (Blue) and two nonprofit organizations, the Center for Independent Living (CIL) and the Independent Living Resource Center (ILRC), brought a petition for writ of mandate, in which appellants sought to compel respondent Director of the Department to pay for the costs of providing stairway chair lifts to certain medically indigent and disabled persons covered by the Medi-Cal program. The superior court initially ruled that a stairway chair lift was a covered Medi-Cal benefit, and that Blue was entitled to relief. However, after the Department amended its regulations to " specifically exclude such coverage, the court ruled that other medically indigent patients were not generally entitled to this coverage.

We hold that the Department could not exclude such coverage by its new regulation, and we therefore reverse the ultimate legal ruling of the trial…