KANSAS CITY, Mo.--A federal appeals court has overruled a 2005 court decision that denied a preliminary injunction to stop enforcement of a new law restricting Missouri Medicaid's coverage of certain DME.

A number of disabled state residents and advocacy groups had filed a lawsuit after the state Medicaid program--citing budget constraints--discontinued coverage last year of equipment such as parenteral nutrition, catheters, wheelchair batteries, hospital beds and lifts for all beneficiaries except children, pregnant women and the blind.

In September, U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple ruled that the state government's move was legal since the federal government does not require Medicaid to cover DME. But last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said Whipple must reconsider the ruling.

The appeals court found that "while a state has discretion to determine the optional services in its Medicaid plan, a state's failure to provide Medicaid coverage for non-experimental, medically necessary services within a covered Medicaid category is both per se unreasonable and inconsistent with the stated goals of Medicaid."