Bidstrup v. Wisconsin Dept. of Health and Family Services

APPEAL from an order of the circuit court for Jefferson County: RANDY R. KOSCHNICK, Judge. Affirmed in part; reversed in part. 1. The Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS) appeals from an order directing it to grant Medical Assistance benefits to the eight Respondents, after some of the Respondents prevailed in a related federal suit. DHFS argues that the Respondents' claims for these benefits are barred by a number of statutory and common law rules. The Respondents counter that they should be allowed to maintain their claims because they did not receive proper notice of their appeal rights in an initial termination. We agree that the Respondents received improper notice. However, we conclude that the issue of defective notice became moot with regard to five of the eight Respondents who challenged the termination despite DHFS's initial failure to notify them of appeal rights. With respect to those five Respondents, we also conclude that they cannot now make claims relying on constitutional arguments that they should have raised in circuit court when they first challenged their terminations. We therefore affirm in part and reverse in part.