FYI: City and state officials have acknowledged as part of a lawsuit settlement that Medicaid is responsible for making sure that enrollees receiving home-based care have adequate services for recurring and unscheduled needs. A group of Medicaid recipients sued the city and state in 1997 to challenge a policy that allocated payment for services based on the amount of hands-on time a medical assistant spends with a patient. The policy did not account for the fact that the person may need that service periodically throughout a day, often without notice. In the settlement, Medicaid officials agreed to broaden the policy to cover a time-span over which assistance may be needed, as determined by doctors and nurses. [1/29/03]