Court Opinion

ID: 9475458
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:27:54.845702+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:43.753943
License: Public Domain

LEVIN H. CAMPBELL, Chief Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the court’s opinion. I think the district court reasonably found that the Department was not adhering to the terms of the injunction contained in the Partial Final Judgment.
I wish to emphasize, however, that our opinion should not be read as tying the state to cumbersome, wheel-spinning administrative procedures. We say that appellant violated the injunction because it sought a whole new application from an applicant without first checking his or her file to see if, on the basis of existing data, medicare benefits should be continued. But I do not read our opinion as preventing the Department from requesting a beneficiary to furnish additional information when existing file data is inadequate or is questionable, nor from cutting off benefits *42if new data is not provided by some reasonable deadline.
I also do not read our opinion as preventing the Department from moving to amend the terms of the Partial Final Judgment or the district court’s present contempt order if it believes that the mandated procedures are technically unworkable or ambiguous, and that better procedures can be implemented consistent with the intent of Massachusetts Ass’n of Older Americans v. Sharp, 700 F.2d 749 (1st Cir.1983). It was not the purpose of Sharp to cause medicare benefits to be paid to ineligible receivers for any longer than strictly necessary to ensure that all eligible receivers enjoy their entitled benefits without needless interruption. Nor is it the purpose of Sharp or the present opinion to prevent the implementation of efficient cost-effective administrative procedures provided only they do not cut off the substantial rights of medicare recipients. Thus, if the Department feels that changes in the present court orders must be made, consistent with the law as laid down in Sharp, in order to provide better administration, it should feel free to bring such proposed changes to the attention of the district court, and the district court should give the matter careful attention.