The Arizona Supreme Court will decide on Feb. 15 whether to hear a case challenging $1.6 billion in cuts to the state Medicaid system.

For years, Holy Cross Hospital managed to keep the doors open to the only nursing home in Nogales, despite losing up to a reported $100,000 per month on its 26 residents, all of whom rely on Medicaid for health insurance.

The Arizona Court of Appeals upheld massive cuts to the state’s Medicaid program, keeping Arizona’s precariously balanced budget intact and dealing a severe blow to advocates who said the partial enrollment freeze violated voter mandates.

Three Arizona hospital systems are pooling their money to take advantage of a federal program that will cover nearly 20,000 more children under the KidsCare program while also providing millions of dollars to offset the cost of covering uninsured patients.

Rep. Matt Heinz said he sees more and more patients who are unable to afford treatment for their catastrophic health conditions. He called for the Legislature to restore funding to the Medical Expense Deduction program.

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge upheld a partial enrollment freeze for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, rejecting a liberal advocacy group’s claims that the cuts violated a voter mandate.

The federal government will start reviewing proposed health-insurance rate increases in Arizona next month, after determining that the state has an “ineffective” rate-review plan.

In a bid to overturn a partial enrollment freeze to the state’s Medicaid program, the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest amended its lawsuit in response to a judge’s ruling that the original plaintiffs did not have standing to sue.

Lawmakers made a difficult decision when they cut more than $200 million from the state’s health care system for the poor, but doing so wasn’t unconstitutional, Senate President Russell Pearce and House Speaker Andy Tobin argued yesterday in a brief opposing a lawsuit that aims to block the cuts.

Citing the Arizona Constitution, a 2000 ballot measure and even a dictionary definition of the word “available,” attorneys for Gov. Jan Brewer have asked the Arizona Supreme Court to reject a lawsuit filed by a liberal advocacy group against an upcoming Medicaid enrollment freeze.