The Center For Transitional Living (CTL), a home care agency in Connecticut, filed a discrimination complaint against the Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS), and Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) and a state contractor, Advanced Behavioral Health (ABH) that administers Medicaid home- and community-based services (HCBS). DSS oversees the state Medicaid program, and DMHAS contracts with ABH. CTL alleges that ABH honored discriminatory staffing requests by Medicaid beneficiaries. Specifically, some beneficiaries receiving HCBS asked ABH to avoid sending home care workers of particular races and/or national origins.
CTL alleges that when it refused to comply with the discriminatory staffing requests, ABH no longer referred consumers to CTL. CTL alleges that ABH’s compliance with discriminatory HCBS staffing requests violated the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act and CTL’s federal 14th Amendment right to equal protection. CTL requested a jury trial, and a permanent injunction to prevent the state and ABH from engaging in discrimination, as well as unspecified damages and fees. No hearing date has been set yet.
This was reported by Hartford Courant on October 29, 2020.
Contact information: Center For Transitional Living, LLC, 148 East Avenue, Suite 2G, Norwalk, Connecticut 06851; 800-285-1135; Website: www.ctl-ct.com
Contact information: Connecticut Department of Social Services, 25 Sigourney Street, Hartford, Connecticut 06106-5033; 860-424-5024; Website: www.portal.ct.gov/dss
Contact information: Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Post Office Box 341431, Hartford, Connecticut 06134; 860-418-7000; Web site: www.portal.ct.gov/DMHAS/Divisions/Behavioral-Health-Division/BHRP
Contact information: Advanced Behavioral Health, Inc., 213 Court Street, Middletown, Connecticut 06457; 860-638-5309; Fax: 860-638-5302; Website: http://www.abhct.com/ContactForm/
