State Appeals Court Decision Requires Medi-Cal to Cover Chair Lifts for Some Beneficiaries
A three-judge state Court of Appeal panel has ruled that Medi-Cal must cover motorized stairway chair lifts for some beneficiaries, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. In the decision, which overturned a state regulation that barred Medi-Cal coverage for chair lifts, the court said that the devices, which help patients ascend flights of stairs, "are medical equipment that should be provided to needy patients." The ruling also overturned a decision by San Francisco Superior Court Judge David Garcia, who ruled in favor of the state. The state argued that a "chair lift is not medical equipment because it does not cure a medical condition." The appeals court ruled that medical equipment includes devices that prevent "significant disability," such as the "inability to move between floors" (Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/3).
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