U.S. District Judge Richard A. Schell of Plano has rejected Texas' bid to be freed from a dental corrective action plan and more study of poor children's dental health in the long-running Frew lawsuit.
Lawyers for Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Tom Suehs argued that Texas has achieved the objectives of a 1996 consent decree because 58 percent of poor children on Medicaid participated in dental screening in 2009, up from 14 percent in 1993. Also, Suehs' lawyers said Texas ranked third among the states in percentage of kids screened in a 2008 study.
But plaintiffs' lawyer Susan Zinn of San Antonio argued that the state did a flawed study of the children's dental health in 2009, which she said conflicts with other studies and the views of Texas dentists.
"The number of Texas children with Medicaid who have no basic preventive dental care has increased to almost 1.5 million," she said Wednesday. At any given time, there about 2.5 million children on Medicaid.
In his ruling, Schell said a planned second study must go forward to see if the improvements have been lasting. He noted that demonstrating such progress "over time" is a requirement of a 2007 plan of improvements agreed upon by the state and Zinn. He said the state hasn't yet "proved changed circumstances in the dental health" of the youngsters. He ordered it to give Zinn a proposed "dental corrective action plan" within 120 days.
Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/03/federal-judge-wont-let-texas-o.html
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