High court won’t consider Ward’s election challenge
Arizonans on Medicaid can access car service
The U.S. Supreme Court will not consider Arizona Republican Party leader Kelli Ward’s claim she was denied due process when challenging the state’s presidential election results.
Nor will justices review Ward’s constitutional challenge of the federal “safe harbor” deadline, the cutoff by which states must resolve election disputes to guarantee Congress will count their electors’ votes.
The court announced its decision Monday without explanation. Ward did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ward, chair of the state party and an avid supporter of former President Donald Trump, initially filed the lawsuit Maricopa County Superior Court, seeking to have a judge void President Joe Biden’s 10,457-vote win in Arizona.
She questioned the signature verification process used by Maricopa County to authenticate mail-in ballots — as well as the duplication process election officials used to count ballots that tabulation machines couldn’t read — and asked to inspect thousands of Arizona ballots for irregularities.
Superior Court Judge Randall Warner granted Ward only a limited review, as the federal “safe harbor” deadline for election challenges was fast approaching. Of the more than 1,700 ballots Ward’s team inspected, six contained errors that hurt Trump and two contained errors that hurt Biden.
Over a day and a half of testimony and oral arguments, Ward’s team failed to prove anything beyond a handful of garden variety mistakes, the judge ruled. If the error rate identified in the sample held statewide, government attorneys said, Trump would’ve gained fewer than 200 votes.
Ward appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court next, but justices sided with the lower court. Chief Justice Robert Brutinel wrote that Ward had failed to present evidence of misconduct or illegal votes, “let alone establish any degree of fraud or a sufficient error rate that would undermine the certainty of
the election results.”
After that, Ward shifted her focus, attacking the safe harbor deadline as unconstitutional in her appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. She also argued she’d been denied due process, because “the trial court allowed only two days to discover and inspect the ballots in a presidential-electors race in which over three million votes were cast.”
The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately declined to weigh in on those arguments, leaving the Arizona Supreme Court ruling untouched. But another election-related lawsuit involving Ward is still pending.
In that case, Ward and other wouldbe Trump electors claimed “massive election fraud” in Arizona involving Dominion voting machines, foreign interference and illegal votes.
U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa had issued a scathing ruling dismissing those claims as “sorely wanting of relevant or reliable evidence” and reprimanding the plaintiffs for “forum-shopping” their broad allegations in multiple courts.
The group nonetheless took the case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with Ward saying she would “always fight for our republic.”
Arizona on Monday removed what had been a significant obstacle to getting the COVID-19 vaccine to people enrolled in Medicaid.
Arizona’s Medicaid program, which enrolls about 30% of the state’s population, said Monday morning that it will cover members’ transportation costs to and from COVID-19 vaccine appointments.
The transportation coverage, achieved through a temporary rate change, ideally will make it easier for the 2.2 million Arizonans who are enrolled in Medicaid to get vaccinated, state officials said.
Since Arizonans enrolled in Medicaid are such a large segment of the state’s population, getting the vaccine to enrollees is critical for Arizona when it comes to having herd immunity, which occurs when enough people are vaccinated to ward off future pandemics.
Health experts say they’d like to have 70% to 90% of the population vaccinated, though the precise threshold for socalled herd immunity remains unclear for COVID-19.
AHCCCS enrollment has jumped by 16%
Medicaid in Arizona is called the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System and is a government health insurance program for low income people. Eligibility limits for the program work out to an annual household income $30,305 or less for a family of three. Enrollment in the program has increased by 16% over the past year.
The state’s announcement means AHCCCS enrollees may travel to their COVID-19 vaccine appointments in cars contracted by the state agency, and AHCCCS will pick up the tab, including for time when the car has to wait in line at one of the drive-thru vaccination sites.
“This change will make it easier for our most vulnerable Arizonans, individuals with disabilities and those with chronic and long-term care needs, to get vaccinated,” Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said in a written statement.
AHCCCS has long covered what it calls “non-emergency medical transportation,” in accordance with federal guidelines, for members who cannot provide or arrange their own transportation. The rides, arranged through a contracted service, are reimbursed as separate one-way trips to and from health care appointments.
The COVID-19 vaccine presented AHCCCS with a reimbursement problem: How to account for time cars spend in line during the drive-thru vaccination process, AHCCCS spokeswoman Heidi Capriotti told The Arizona Republic.
“The way that non-emergency medical transportation traditionally works is door-to-door, it’s a one-way trip. So you get picked up from your house and taken to your doctor’s appointment and they don’t wait for you while you are at your doctor’s appointment,” she said.
“So we had no way to pay the providers for drive-thru time or wait time, which was critical for these drive-thru vaccination sites. We recognized that was a barrier that could prevent some members from being able to get transported to the vaccination sites.”
Adults on Medicaid often employed in restaurants and food service positions
The temporary rate change that will cover AHCCCS members’ car rides to, during and home from the COVID-19 vaccine process is a “big deal” for the agency, Capriotti said. AHCCCS officials said they will present their vaccination strategy to other state Medicaid programs on Friday.
“We think we’re the first Medicaid program to make this kind of drive-thru rate change,” she said.
AHCCCS officials don’t know how many of its members have received the COVID-19 vaccine so far, citing a sixmonth delay in receiving that data.
Some AHCCCS members could be part of the health care workforce and be among those already eligible to receive a vaccine. The agency’s latest demographic report shows that 133,274 AHCCCS members are age 65 and older, which is an age group that’s eligible for COVID-19 vaccines at state-operated vaccine sites, as well as in most counties.
To date, those eligible for the vaccine in Arizona include health care workers, first responders, long-term care facility staff and residents, K-12 and child care staff, protective services employees and people 65 and over.
Other AHCCCS members could be employed in jobs expected to be next in line for the vaccine in most counties, including those working in restaurants and grocery stores. Coconino County has already started vaccinating that group of workers.
A breakdown of how many AHCCCS members are employed and in what kinds of jobs was not immediately available on Monday, Capriotti said.
Prior to the pandemic, most adults enrolled in Medicaid nationally who did not face a barrier to work were working, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey analysis showed. Survey data from 2019 showed that, overall, 63% of non-elderly, non-disabled adults with Medicaid were working full- or part-time.
Medicaid members often work in restaurants and food services and top occupations include cashiers, drivers, janitors, and cooks, the analysis found.
How AHCCCS members should arrange transportation to vaccination appointments
AHCCCS beneficiaries who have a scheduled COVID-19 vaccination appointment at a drive-thru site should contact their health plan to schedule non-emergency transportation to attend that appointment, agency officials said.
For COVID-19 vaccine information, a map of all COVID-19 vaccination sites and eligibility criteria, visit azhealth.gov/ findvaccine. Those without computer access or needing extra help registering can call 844-542-8201 to be connected with an operator who can assist. Anyone may use the online registration system to make an appointment for someone else in a prioritized group, such as someone 65 and older.
AHCCCS on Monday announced two other initiatives to get the COVID-19 vaccine to its members:
In collaboration with the Arizona Department of Health Services, AHCCCS will train and equip additional staff as vaccine navigators to assist AHCCCS members with scheduling vaccine appointments. Vaccine navigators will also be able to help in coordinating transportation for Medicaid members to and from vaccination appointments, officials said.
AHCCCS officials say the agency is leveraging mobile vaccine providers to administer COVID-19 vaccine doses to individuals in congregate care settings, including members with developmental and/or intellectual disabilities.