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Department of Legal Counsel
Health Care
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Community Health Access
CSS is at the forefront of providing community
education and consumer assistance to New York City residents who
must select and navigate health maintenance organizations (HMOs)
as the required form of health care in our neighborhoods. The CSS
Community Health Access Department is the recipient of significant
state and city funding that, in turn, we award to dozens of community
based organizations. CSS lawyers provide legal counsel to CSS and
technical assistance to these organizations to ensure contract
compliance with both state and city requirements. Our work has made
it possible to provide high quality community education programs to
marginalized communities in multiple languages and to ensure that
individuals who need assistance in accessing critical health care
through their HMOs know where to turn. The negotiation of contracts
with funding sources such as the New York City Department of Health
and Mental Hygiene, and Maximus, Inc., the enrollment broker for the
New York Medicaid Choice Program, as well as with our subcontractor
community organizations; contract compliance monitoring; and contract
interpretation are among the tasks that the Department of Legal Counsel
engages in to ensure that CSS is providing assistance to those in need
of health care in the city.
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State Children's Health Insurance Program
CSS partnered with the Empire Justice Center, the
National Health Law Program, and the Center for Medicare Advocacy to
file a federal lawsuit, Miles v. Leavitt (2008), challenging the Bush
Administration's use of the unpublished rules to reject New York State's
proposed plan to provide discounted health insurance to children in
moderate-income families through the State's Children's Health Insurance
Program (SCHIP). If adopted, the State's plan would have offered
discounted health insurance to an additional 70,000 uninsured New York
children. This is the first case that seeks to represent actual children
affected by the new federal rules. New York, Maryland, Illinois and
Washington filed a group lawsuit against the federal government on
October 4, 2007 and New Jersey filed a separate case on October 1, 2007.
Legal Archives
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