{"id":798723,"date":"2026-08-02T05:27:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T05:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/798723\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T05:27:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T05:27:33","slug":"medicaid-update-court-decision-paves-way-for-major-trump-change-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/798723\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicaid Update: Court Decision Paves Way for Major Trump Change Next Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal judge left in place a Trump administration<\/a> rule mandating that “medically frail” patients on Medicaid<\/a> prove they cannot work to maintain their health insurance.<\/p>\n

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sparked a lawsuit from two dozen states with Democratic attorneys general or governors after moving to implement Medicaid work requirements included in President Donald Trump\u2019s signature legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The lawsuit could have major implications for many of the 67 million Americans enrolled in Medicaid.<\/p>\n

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell co-led the lawsuit, writing in a statement that the changes \u201cleave states insufficient time to adjust their implementation plans or effectively communicate to members what is required to navigate the new requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read More on U.S.<\/p>\n

However, a federal judge in Massachusetts on Wednesday declined to block the rule from taking effect as the challenge makes its way through the court, giving a legal win to the Trump administration as much of its agenda has stalled in courts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jake Haselswerdt, a professor of public policy at the University of Missouri, told Newsweek that the ruling means CMS \u201ccan go ahead with the proposed rule for now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsweek reached out to Campbell\u2019s office and CMS for comment via email and press contact form.<\/p>\n

Why States Sued Trump Admin Over Medicaid Work Rule<\/p>\n

CMS announced the rule in June. The rule mandates that \u201capplicable individuals\u201d on Medicaid must engage in at least 80 hours of a qualifying activity each month, including work or community engagement, such as educational programs, community service or work programs.<\/p>\n

There are broad exemptions to the rule, including those who are deemed to be \u201cmedically frail,\u201d having physical conditions that would impair their ability to comply.<\/p>\n

\"CMS<\/p>\n

If a state cannot verify that an individual has met those requirements, they must issue a notice of noncompliance. The individual would have 30 days to provide proof of compliance or an exception. If they fail to do so, they would lose their Medicaid coverage under the rule.<\/p>\n

States are required to implement this requirement no later than January 1, 2027.<\/p>\n

Campbell wrote in a June 29 statement that the requirements are \u201cburdensome\u201d and \u201cthreatens access to healthcare for our most vulnerable residents and families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress made clear that people with serious medical conditions should not lose coverage,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWe are asking the court to block these unlawful provisions to protect Medicaid recipients and prevent needless strain on Massachusetts\u2019 healthcare system.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit argued that the rule goes further than the One Big Beautiful Bill Act allows.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople with disabilities, patients in the middle of cancer treatment, or those struggling with another serious or complex health condition, shouldn\u2019t be at risk of losing the care that helps maintain their health. Nowhere in H.R. 1 does Congress state that individuals\u2019 ability to work must be impaired in order to be \u201cmedically frail or otherwise have special medical needs,\u201d or to have a \u201cserious or complex medical condition,\u201d the lawsuit reads.<\/p>\n

It also raised concerns about limits of self-attestation and renewal timelines. The lawsuit said states would have to build new IT systems and processes by January 1 or risk penalties; doing so would cost states significant staff time and money, the suit claims.<\/p>\n

Under the rule, patients who are \u201cmedically frail\u201d must have a physical, mental or other condition significantly impairing their ability to comply with the requirements. This can include individuals who are blind or disabled, certain individuals with a substance use disability, individuals with a disabling mental disability, individuals with a disability impairing their ability to perform activities of daily living and individuals with a serious or complex medical condition.<\/p>\n

What Does Medicaid Rule Mean for Patients?<\/p>\n

Haselswerdt explained the impact this rule could have on patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you require people to deal with burdens and red tape, a lot of people are going to lose benefits or fail to get benefits in the first place even if they are eligible under the law. The more vulnerable someone is\u2014because they\u2019re poor or don\u2019t have a stable address or have a chronic mental or physical health problem\u2014the harder it is for them to navigate these processes, and the more likely they are to fall through the cracks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The case, he said, does have merit in his view.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn this specific medical frailty issue, I think they have a case because Congress used this existing terminology (medically frail) and did not specify that it meant something different than it does in the context of alternative benefit plans. It seems like a leap for the administration to decide the words must mean something different for the purposes of the work requirement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Why Judge Rules Against Trump Admin Challenge<\/p>\n

Judge Richard G. Stearns on Wednesday ruled in favor of the Trump administration in the case.<\/p>\n

He wrote that courts within the districts have recognized that unrecoverable financial damages resulting from agency action are \u201csufficient\u201d to establish irreparable harm, and the court is \u201cnot convinced\u201d that the states \u201chave shown that their expenditures are likely to be totally irrecoverable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the extent that the States attempt to premise irreparability on the 10% of costs not already subject to reimbursement, the court is not persuaded. The States\u2019 main complaint associated with these costs is the \u2018tight timeline[],\u2019 Mem. at 17, under which they must implement the programmatic changes,\u201d he wrote in the ruling<\/a>. \u201cBut it is not clear how much this harm can fairly be attributed to CMS.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timeline, he wrote, was set by Congress\u2014not CMS.<\/p>\n

The judge noted that the court\u2019s denial is not a \u201creflection or anticipation of its ultimate views on the merits of the underlying litigation.\u201d The cause presents \u201cdifficult issues\u201d regarding the scope of Congress\u2019 \u201cdelegation of interpretative authority to the Secretary and the faithfulness to Congressional intent with which the Secretary performed his task,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis, in turn, requires an examination of the data relied upon by the Secretary and the judgments (some medical) that underlay his amplification of Congress\u2019s legislative outline. These are determinations that, in the view of the court, should be made on a developed record of the kind that informs a court\u2019s decision at the summary judgment stage of a case,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Gabe Whisnant<\/a> and Sam Wilson<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge left in place a Trump administration rule mandating that “medically frail” patients on Medicaid prove…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[10472,2302,97,252,253,2932,6655,1341,644],"class_list":["post-798723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-centers-for-medicare-and-medicaid-services","tag-courts","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-lawsuit","tag-legal","tag-medicaid","tag-trump-administration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}