The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services told an Omaha father that fulfilling his public records request would cost nearly $1 million and would not be finished until 2076, according to court filings and reporting by the Nebraska Examiner. The requester, Curt Safranek, has filed a lawsuit challenging DHHS’s estimate.
What DHHS estimated
Safranek sought communications between DHHS staff and Alvarez & Marsal, the consulting firm the agency hired Aug. 18 to review how DHHS is using the interRAI assessment instrument to determine Medicaid Home and Community-Based Waiver funding. Nebraska began using interRAI in July 2025.
In response, DHHS provided an initial projected cost of $976,263.77 and an estimated completion date of Sept. 29, 2076, the Nebraska Examiner reported. The agency said the request would require 26,017.5 hours of work by three employees: 14,475 hours by an attorney, 9,650.3 hours by a paralegal and 1,892.2 hours by an administrative programs officer.
- Safranek narrowed his request on Sept. 29 to records from Jan. 1, 2026, through the revision date; DHHS cut the estimate roughly in half.
- The revised total was $474,383.02 and an estimated 12,647.2 working hours.
Why Safranek sought the records
Safranek co-founded Disability Alliance of Nebraska and said his family relies on a Medicaid waiver for care of his son, who has autism and an intellectual disability. He told the Nebraska Examiner that his son’s funding was determined under interRAI even though the family was dealing with behavior-related issues and DHHS’s crisis team had been involved.
Safranek narrowed his request after receiving the original estimate and identified 49 alleged errors in his case that he included in an appeal, the Examiner reported. His legal team argues in the lawsuit that DHHS’s cost estimate is unreasonable and inconsistent with the agency’s use of automated search tools.
“Little about DHHS's cost estimate makes sense,” the legal filing said.
Claims about agency processes
The lawsuit, as described in reporting, contends DHHS routinely runs search terms through automated systems that generate responsive documents, and that those processes were not reflected in the agency’s time and cost estimate. Under Nebraska law the first eight hours of work for a public records request are free.
The filings and public reporting do not provide a detailed, line-by-line breakdown of how DHHS calculated the initial or revised estimates beyond the hours attributed to staff roles. The Nebraska Examiner provided the account of Safranek’s request and the figures cited in the lawsuit.
The case centers on access to records about the relationship between DHHS and Alvarez & Marsal and on how the agency handles high-volume or complex public records requests. Court documents named in reporting are the basis for the claim that the estimate was excessive and that the agency could use automated searches to produce responsive material more efficiently.
The lawsuit remains pending in state court. Filing dates and the next hearing date were not included in the public reporting reviewed for this article.
Reporting for this article relied on the Nebraska Examiner’s coverage of the public records dispute and court filings described in that coverage.
