Today's deep dives look at a Congressional Research Service review of the Justice Department's retreat on Olmstead enforcement and at Oregon's plan to let its paid-parent CEN waiver serve 230 children at a time. Below are the day's other stories, each linked to its source.
Today's deep dives
Olmstead: CRS maps DOJ exits in Florida, Texas, N.C. cases. A new CRS Legal Sidebar lays out the June legal opinion, the July guidance reversal and the cases DOJ has dropped or reversed since. We explain what still binds states and what the shift could mean for home and community-based services providers.
Oregon CEN waiver to serve 230 kids; comments due Nov. 25. Oregon wants federal approval to raise the cap on its Children's Extraordinary Needs program from 155 to 230 children, backdated to July 1. We cover who qualifies, how parent providers are employed through provider agencies, and how to comment.
More news today
Illinois: Choate to keep 25 psychiatric beds as state drops its permit request. The Illinois Department of Human Services has withdrawn its certificate-of-need application with the state Health Facilities and Services Review Board, saying in a mid-October letter that it will reduce Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center's beds from 75 to 25 rather than remove them all, so no permit is needed. Capitol News Illinois reports that the other 50 beds will be phased out by July 2027, that Choate will still lose about 250 positions, that the general developmental disabilities program serving 11 people will close with those residents moving to community, family or other state settings, and that Choate's 40 forensic beds for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities will stay. IDHS says it plans to reopen about 200 psychiatric beds at Alton, Chester and Madden in Hines and to add 410 jobs in southern Illinois, including 87 at Choate and 113 at Murray Developmental Center. Two local state senators called the plan "wholly inadequate," and two lawsuits over the downsizing are pending. Our Oct. 22 digest first reported the withdrawal. Sources: Capitol News Illinois, Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board
Minnesota: appeals court reinstates guilty verdict in $7.2 million Medicaid fraud case. The Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed a district judge's acquittal of Abdifatah Abdulkadir Yusuf, whose agency, Promise Health Services LLC, claimed to provide home- and community-based services but, according to Attorney General Keith Ellison's office, had no office and operated out of a mailbox. A Hennepin County jury had convicted Yusuf in August 2025 on six counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle; the nonprecedential opinion sends the case back to district court to reinstate the verdicts. Sources: Minnesota Attorney General's Office, Minnesota Court of Appeals opinion, via KSTP
New Hampshire: mental health centers brace for Medicaid work rules. Starting in 2027, adults on Granite Advantage, the state's expanded Medicaid program with about 46,900 enrollees, will have to document 80 hours a month of work, volunteering or school, with some exemptions, and renew coverage every six months. NHPR reports that Monadnock Family Services in Keene has doubled its benefits-specialist staffing to help clients keep coverage, and that about 4,000 Granite Advantage members, roughly 7% of clients, use the state's 10-center community mental health system. Read our Oct. 20 story on projected coverage losses. Source: New Hampshire Public Radio
Massachusetts: documentary follows a former Judge Rotenberg Center resident. "The Fish Don't Care When It Rains," which premiered at the Heartland International Film Festival, centers on Jennifer Msumba's seven years at the Canton facility, the only one in the country known to use electric shock devices on people with disabilities, and her accounts of repeated shocks and food deprivation. JRC told MassLive the film presents a "false, distorted and incomplete picture." As of 2024, more than 300 people attended or lived at JRC and about 55 had court approval for the devices. Source: Disability Scoop (via MassLive)