Curt Safranek wants to know what Nebraska's health agency was really doing when it quietly lined up a no-bid contract tied to the assessment system that cut his son's disability funding. DHHS's answer: that search would cost $976,263.77, require 26,017.5 hours of staff time, and not wrap up until September 29, 2076.
That estimate, broken down for three state employees, works out to 650.4 work weeks if each person logged a standard 40-hour week, according to the Nebraska Examiner. The outlet reports DHHS assigned an attorney 14,475 hours at $44.54 an hour to search for, gather, review and potentially redact the records, while a paralegal was estimated at 9,650.3 hours at $28.15 an hour doing similar work. An “administrative programs officer” was then estimated at 1,892.2 hours, at $31.84 an hour, to migrate any responsive records. Safranek has now sued the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services over the estimate, according to the Examiner's reporting, as first covered locally by The Norfolk Daily News.
What Safranek Was Trying to Find Out
On Sept. 23, Safranek requested copies of communications between DHHS employees and the firm Alvarez & Marsal, per the same Examiner account. DHHS had selected Alvarez & Marsal that August to independently review Nebraska's interRAI assessment tool under a no-bid contract, before reversing course and announcing it would instead run a competitive bidding process for the work, the outlet reports.
When the first estimate came back, Safranek submitted a revised request on Sept. 29, narrowing his search terms and the date range to records from Jan. 1 through Sept. 29, 2026, with 11 search terms attached, the Examiner's report states. The new estimate landed at roughly half the first one: $474,383.02 and 12,647.2 working hours, still assigned to the same attorney, paralegal and administrative programs officer rates described in the original response.
Why the interRAI Tool Matters to His Family
The dispute traces back to the interRAI assessment system itself, which has helped calculate funding for Nebraska families receiving Medicaid Home and Community-Based Waivers since July 2025, the Examiner notes. Safranek's family relies on a Medicaid waiver for his son Will's daily care; Will has an intellectual disability and autism, and the interRAI process downgraded his funding determination in 2025. Safranek, who founded the Disability Alliance of Nebraska, said he identified 49 errors in that determination and submitted them in an appeal.
DHHS has defended the broader interRAI rollout, telling the Examiner the assessments “are standardized and validated tools ensuring Nebraskans objectively receive services” based on current behavioral and health-related needs. The agency reported that approximately 80% of funding for families had remained steady or increased, while Nebraska Public Media reported the agency's figure as more than 80% of funding levels staying the same or increasing. Twenty-five other states also use the interRAI tool, per the Examiner.
A Contract That Drew Pushback Before It Started
Families and disability advocates had already raised concerns that interRAI assessments were inappropriately changing necessary funding levels, KSNB Local 4 reported. That pressure preceded DHHS's decision to drop its plan to award Alvarez & Marsal a $420,000 contract outright and instead pursue a formal Request for Proposals to select an independent firm to evaluate the state's use of the interRAI tools.
The Lawsuit's Ask
Safranek's lawsuit, filed in Lancaster County District Court, asks a judge to force DHHS to issue a new public-records estimate reflecting the actual added cost of making the copies available, according to the Examiner's reporting. He has also requested expedited handling of the case under Nebraska's public-records law and asked that DHHS cover his attorney fees and legal costs if he prevails.
The case lands against a backdrop of prior friction over how Nebraska agencies price out records requests. The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that state agencies can impose a “special services charge” to review public records requests, a decision that grew out of a dispute involving the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy and Flatwater Free Press, according to the Examiner. In that case, the agency initially estimated a $2,000 cost before a narrowed request came back at 927 hours of staff time and $44,103; the state's high court sent that matter back to Lancaster County District Court to determine whether the fee conformed with the special-fee allowance. It is unclear how, or whether, that precedent will bear on Safranek's case.
