Georgia Online Justice Community

(ATLANTA, GA. June 2009) Ms. Dorothy Weldon and Ms. Ina Price are nursing home residents and clients of the Georgia Legal Services Program who were being threatened with discharge from their facilities. The Georgia Medicaid agency would not allow the two elderly and disabled Georgians to use their current income to pay their old nursing home bills. Under the Georgia policy, they had to pay all their income for the current month’s nursing home bill. Their nursing homes told them they’d have to leave.

Georgia Legal Services Program attorneys argued that federal law requires the Medicaid agency to allow residents to pay their old nursing home bills incurred prior to their Medicaid eligibility and stay in their placements. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Mel Westmoreland agreed that federal law required that the Georgia Medicaid agency allow the women to pay their old bills with their current income and stay in their nursing facilities. The Judge declared the Georgia Medicaid policy in violation of federal law.

Ms. Weldon’s son, Joseph Weldon contacted Georgia Legal Services when his mother received a notice that she was being discharged from the nursing home. “My mother needs the medical care that she receives at her facility. I don’t know where she’d go if they made her leave.” GLSP Gainesville attorney, Patrick Cates represented Ms. Weldon in her discharge case. “I was able to convince the nursing home to dismiss the discharge case until after the Medicaid case was decided by the court. Otherwise, she would have been at risk of losing her nursing home bed.” Ms. Price’s nursing home also sent her a discharge notice. If we had not won the Medicaid case, Ms. Price had no way to pay her old bill. Her health and safety, her very life, would have been threatened if she had to leave with nowhere to go,” said Vicky Kimbrell, GLSP’s Health Law Specialist Attorney.

Georgia Legal Services Program attorneys represent clients with legal problems in the 154 counties outside of metropolitan Atlanta. Legal Services are provided free-of-charge to eligible persons in civil matters. Cases involve family/domestic violence; housing; public benefits; consumer; healthcare; education; and employment. Services include advice and counsel; brief service; representation in administrative hearings and court; educational programs; and referrals to private attorneys and to other services. Callers are also referred to www.legalaid-GA.org for information and other resources dealing with legal problems.

Georgia Legal Services Program’s mission is to provide access to justice and opportunities out of poverty for low-income Georgians. “Our work changes lives, saves lives, and strengthens our communities. Without Georgia Legal Services, many of our clients could not get access to our legal system because they are isolated, ill, elderly, or abused. We help our clients become self-sufficient and able to take care of themselves and their children,” said Executive Director Phyllis J. Holmen.

For more information on the Georgia Legal Services Program, log onto www.glsp.org or contact the Georgia Legal Services Program office in your area.