A class-action lawsuit filed this week on behalf of Marylanders with intellectual and developmental disabilities — and a Montgomery County company that supports them — alleges that the state has been illegally removing them from Medicaid benefits.

The suit, filed Wednesday in Montgomery County Circuit Court, names the defendants as the Maryland Department of Health, Secretary of the Department of Health Meena Seshamani and the state of Maryland.

Four Baltimore residents are named as plaintiffs. An additional plaintiff in the suit is identified, The Arc Montgomery Inc.

The nonprofit, based in Rockville, assists people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The organization provided services to plaintiffs, some of whom had been receiving assistance from the organization since the 1990s, according to the lawsuit.

Some of the plaintiffs’ disabilities include cerebral palsy and dementia, according to the suit.

“Since the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency in May 2023, the Maryland Department of Health has arbitrarily disenrolled hundreds of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (“IDD”) from Medicaid programs that support them,” the suit stated. “These programs, often referred to as ‘waiver programs,’ are administered by the Developmental Disabilities Administration (“DDA”), a division of MDH, and pay for residential services, personal supports to assist with activities of daily living, and on-the-job supports to remove barriers to employment.”

A spokesperson with the state’s Department of Health said Friday that the agency “does not comment on litigation.”

The lawsuit was filed by attorneys with Brown Goldstein & Levy, a firm in Baltimore.

A statement from the attorneys bringing forth the lawsuit said that at least 30 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who were receiving services from Arc were disenrolled “despite their continued financial eligibility for Medicaid.”

“MDH took these actions without giving effective notice or a meaningful explanation, routinely sending notices to the wrong address, and mailing out hundreds of termination notices citing, as the basis for termination, a regulation that does not exist,” the statement said.

About 18,000 Marylanders who have intellectual and developmental disabilities and participate in the waiver programs are at risk for “lawless termination of benefits and services,” the statement said.