Ruling lets couple live in the same care home

A federal judge handed down an order Friday that temporarily blocks the state from preventing an elderly couple from living together in the same licensed care home.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin S.C. Chang issued the order after meeting with lawyers for Noboru and Elaine Kawamoto and the state.

The Kawamotos maintain that state laws and related administrative rules for community care foster family homes that favor Medicaid clients over private-pay clients are unconstitutional and are suing to block Gov. David Ige, state Health Director Virginia Pressler and state Human Services Director Rachael Wong from enforcing them.

Chang’s order says that it is a temporary accommodation that applies only to the Kawamotos and will remain in place until the court decides the constitutionality of the state law.

Lawyers for the Kawamotos and the state said they will issue a joint statement Tuesday and declined further comment on Chang’s order.

The Kawamotos’ son, Norman, said he’s pleased with the order. “We’ve been working for this for a long time,” he said, declining further comment.

Care home limits

Noboru Kawamoto, 95, a World War II veteran with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and his wife of 68 years, Elaine, 89, had been living together in a hospital-like group care facility in Punaluu that provided them the nursing-level care they both required. About two years ago Noboru’s condition declined, and the facility operators told him they could no longer accommodate him. He now lives in a residential care home in Kaneohe.

Chang’s order prohibits the state from taking any action to prevent the care home operator from admitting Elaine Kawamoto to live with her husband.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser did not receive any response from telephone messages left with the care home operator.

State-licensed community care foster family homes can accommodate up to three clients, but state law and administrative rules limit the number of private-pay clients, like the Kawamotos, to one. They can accommodate spouses if both are on Medicaid.

State lawmakers approved a temporary exception to the private-pay limit for a Big Island couple in 2009. It allowed Sidney and Terry Kaide to live together; Sidney Kaide died later that year. The exception expired after two years, and lawmakers did not renew it.

Upon learning of the Kawamotos’ situation, lawmakers last year proposed renewing the exception and making it permanent. The measure stalled, so legislators took up the proposal again this year. It died after opposition from Pressler and Wong.

In a letter to lawmakers in April, Pressler and Wong said they could not support changing the law when there are other options that would allow the Kawamotos to live together. They said the couple could move into an expanded adult residential care home similar to the home where Elaine Kawamoto now lives. Also, they said, the Kaneohe care home operator can seek re-licensing as an expanded adult residential care home.

The Kawamotos’ lawyer, Jeffrey Portnoy, has contended that it is unconstitutional to allow spouses on Medicaid to live together in a state-licensed care home but deny the same access to private-pay clients. He also said the Punaluu facility does not provide the level of care Noboru Kawamoto requires.