The Arc of California v. Toby Douglas

This case concerns California’s generous program of home- and community-based care for developmentally disabled residents. To fund its program, California relies in large part on federal money provided under the Medicaid Act (“the Act”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 1396 -1396w-5. California has reduced the funding for this program, as it has for other Medicaid-funded programs at various times, and, as in the past, affected groups have challenged the reductions. We therefore are obliged to address once again the scope of the state’s federal obligations under the Act to compensate for covered services. See, e.g., Managed Pharmacy Care v. Sebelius, 716 F.3d 1235 (9th Cir.2013); Developmental Servs. Network v. Douglas, 666 F.3d 540 (9th Cir.2011).

In this instance, beginning in 2009, the California legislature enacted a series of statutes reducing the state’s compensation, partially funded under the federal Medicaid Act, of home- and community-based services provided to developmentally disabled persons. The plaintiffs in this case, Arc of California and the United Cerebral Palsy Association of San Diego (together, “Arc”) — non-profit organizations representing developmentally disabled…