Photo: Health Rights Law Clinic Student Attorneys Akshara Anirjita (top left), Clare Choi (top right) , Kaitlin Lee (bottom left), and Hanadi Chidiac (bottom right).
The Health Rights Law Clinic, directed by Professor Drake Hagner, recently won an important victory for client Noah Harrison, a low-income gentleman with physical and cognitive disabilities. The client’s names and certain details have been changed to respect client confidentiality.
Mr. Harrison, like thousands of other DC Medicaid beneficiaries require daily help from home health aides in order to live independently. DC Medicaid pays for this at-home care when seniors and/or individuals with disabilities need help with their personal care needs such as bathing, toileting, eating, dressing, and/or moving safely throughout their home.
Unfortunately, in Mr. Harrison’s case, the DC Medicaid program significantly cut the number of home health aide hours he could receive each day. With annual income of less than $12,000, he was not able to hire an aide for the additional hours of help he needed. His case worker helped him appeal the decision, and the presiding Judge referred his case to the Health Rights Law Clinic.
Mr. Harrison’s student attorneys in the fall 2023 semester, Akshara Anirjita (Class of ‘25) and Clare Choi (Class of ‘24), worked tirelessly to learn about Mr. Harrison’s needs and secure evidence. After pouring over his records, the student attorneys discovered DC Medicaid was largely unaware of his cognitive disability and its impact on his daily needs. Concluding that it was crucial to supplement the factual record in his case, the student attorneys went above and beyond to track down Mr. Harrison’s physician for additional evidence. For example, when their calls to their client’s doctor’s office went unanswered, Akshara and Clare traveled in person to three different medical offices until they were finally able to meet face-to-face with his doctor. Obviously impressed by their commitment to Mr. Harrison’s case, his doctor later provided a detailed letter describing Mr. Harrison’s personal care needs and his underlying medical conditions.
Akshara and Clare prepared a brief describing the new evidence and arguing that Mr. Harrison required 8-hours of daily care.
New student attorneys for the spring 2024 semester, Kaitlin Lee (Class of ‘24) and Hanadi Chidiac (Class of ‘24), took over representation of Mr. Harrison. Kaitlin and Hanadi represented him with compassion and persistence. They doggedly pursued the DC Medicaid representative to move Mr. Harrison’s case forward.
Fortunately, their diligence paid off and DC Medicaid granted full restoration of his home health aide services after reviewing the brief and new evidence. Congratulations to all four student attorneys who represented Mr. Harrison – Akshara Anirjita (Class of ‘25), Clare Choi (Class of ‘24), Kaitlin Lee (Class of ‘24), and Hanadi Chidiac (Class of ‘24).