by Sarah Ladd, Kentucky Lantern
June 26, 2025

Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball has asked the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) to share information about “a significant number” of denials under Medicaid’s Home and Community Based Waiver (HCBW).

Ball sent a letter to the cabinet asking for more information on Tuesday, saying “these denials have raised serious concerns” about waiver eligibility “as well as the broader implications for vulnerable individuals who depend on these critical services.” 

A CHFS spokesperson said the cabinet learned earlier this year of an increase in denials and said a subcontractor wasn’t “correctly examining the Medicaid criteria used to determine if someone requires long-term care services.” 

The cabinet then “required the subcontractor to take action and correct their error,” it says. 

A spokeswoman for Ball said the Ombudsman’s Office, which investigates and resolves complaints about agencies in CHFS, including protective services for children and elderly Kentuckians, received 47 waiver denial appeals since January. 

Joy Pidgorodetska Markland, the communications director for the auditor, said information from the cabinet will help the office to “have a better idea of how to reach families and get a deeper sense of exactly how widespread this problem is.” 

“We were made aware that despite some children having more severe health conditions than when they originally were approved for the waiver, they were nonetheless denied,” Markland said. “It appears that all families received a boilerplate letter with the same language and general reason for denial without any specifics about the child. But beyond that written correspondence, we do not yet know what exactly families have been told about this entire situation.” 

A cabinet spokeswoman said that as of Wednesday, after addressing the subcontractor error, it had “corrected” 112 cases involving children and 67 involving adults. 

“Team Kentucky believes that health care is a basic human right and works to ensure everyone has access to quality care,” Beth Fisher, the deputy executive director in the cabinet’s Office of Public Affairs, said in an email. “We have been transparent with both the public and families about an issue with a subcontractor that has since been resolved.”

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Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

This article presents a straightforward report on the Kentucky Auditor’s inquiry into Medicaid waiver denials, including responses from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. The tone is factual and neutral, focusing on statements from both the auditor’s office and the cabinet without editorializing or inserting ideological commentary. It emphasizes transparency and government accountability without framing the issue in a partisan manner. The coverage neither advocates strongly for expanded government intervention nor critiques it harshly, reflecting a balanced approach to public service oversight and health care access concerns.