A UDW-backed lawsuit challenging last year’s reductions of  IHSS services based upon Functional Index (FI) scores was recently heard by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.  Click here to listen to the hearing. 

The service reductions were passed by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor last year. Among other things, they would have cut off IHSS services to anyone with an FI score of less than 2.00. They also would have limited domestic and related services to recipients with FI scores of at least 4.00.  A federal judge issued a temporary injunction last fall to stop these reductions

The plaintiff argue in their lawsuit that this law violates requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Medicaid, and other federal laws.  In March, the U.S. government filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the plaintiffs.