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.

Arizona’s Medicaid agency filed illegal liens against people who received medical treatment and later won personal-injury settlements, a lawsuit filed July 27 alleges.

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.

The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System finally received approval from the federal government for its partial enrollment freeze, though the one-day delay will push back freeze by an extra week.

The Arizona Supreme Court refused to hear a lawsuit against the impending cuts to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, but attorney Tim Hogan is hoping he’ll fare better in Superior Court.

Gov. Jan Brewer’s deputy policy director left for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, setting off a round of staff changes on the Ninth Floor.

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.

Attorney Tim Hogan on Monday filed a request for a special action with Arizona Supreme Court aimed at blocking cuts to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, a move that could unbalance the fiscal year 2012 budget by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Attorney Tim Hogan said he will file his long-awaited lawsuit against an upcoming round of Medicaid cuts by the end of month, giving the courts a chance to stop the proposal before the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System can implement a partial enrollment freeze on July 1.