The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services has apologized to a federal judge and is asking him to drop a contempt order against the agency. U.S. Senior Judge Karl Forester held the agency in contempt last month after ruling that the cabinet did not comply with his order to process thousands of requests from Appalachian Regional Healthcare patients who wanted to switch Medicaid managed-care companies.
The issue stems from a lawsuit ARH filed against Coventry Cares, a Medicaid managed-care company that has decided to cut ties with the ARH system.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports an attorney for the state agency filed a motion on Friday that said the judge's order wasn't clear and specific and the cabinet's failure to abide by it was "inadvertent."
