BOSTON, July 15 /PRNewswire/ --

The following was released today by Hill & Barlow:

In a landmark decision, U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock has entered summary judgment in favor of all mentally retarded adults who have been deemed eligible for Medicaid services by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Department of Mental Retardation, but who have been placed on a waiting list for those services for many years, or in some cases, even decades.

Judge Woodlock found that the Commonwealth failed to provide services with reasonable promptness as required by the federal Medicaid Act and has ordered the state to provide services to those on the waiting list within 90 days. The decision, which is the first of its kind in the nation to order a state to provide community-based residential services to eligible mentally retarded adults within 90 days, means that the Commonwealth will have to serve approximately 2,600 individuals who are now believed to be on the waiting list.

The class-action lawsuit (Boulet, et al v. Cellucci) was filed on March 19, 1999 by the families of five mentally retarded adults against the Governor of Massachusetts, the Commonwealth's Secretary of the Executive Office of Administration and Finance, the Commonwealth's Secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, the Commissioner of the Department of Mental Retardation, and the Commissioner of the Division of Medical Assistance based on the failure of these individuals, in their official capacities, to ensure that mentally retarded and developmentally disabled adults receive the Medicaid services for which they are eligible under the federal Medicaid Act and the Commonwealth's Medicaid Program.

"This decision is a victory for the thousands of families who have dedicated their lives to caring for their mentally retarded children, but who now urgently need the state's help," commented Neil McKittrick, an attorney from the law firm of Hill & Barlow who represented the plaintiffs on a pro-bono basis. "The parents and caregivers of this class, many of whom are in their sixties and seventies, have cared for their adult children in their own homes for 30 or 40 years, saving the Commonwealth millions of dollars. This decision forces the Commonwealth to live up to its legal obligation to provide Medicaid services to these people now, not years from now."

In his decision, Judge Woodlock concluded that the state had in fact "recognized that those individuals on the waiting list ... need the services for which they are waiting." He added that, " ... where some of the delays extend more than a decade, I have little trouble finding that the defendants have not been reasonably prompt ... "