32 hospitals sue HHS over reimbursement for low-income patients

Alia Paavola -

Thirty-two hospitals that operate in states that didn't expand Medicaid sued HHS in an attempt to adjust their Medicare disproportionate share hospital payments, according to court documents

The plaintiff hospitals, in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Missouri, argue that the "collateral refusal" to recognize these patients as eligible for Medicaid made them receive far less than expansion states that treated an equivalent proportion of low-income patients.

"Allowing the inactions of states acting under the shield of [National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius] to indirectly negate days of persons statutorily eligible for Medicaid in determining their low-income patient volumes under Medicare is counterintuitive and produces a result that is diametrically opposite to what Congress expected and intended in enacting the ACA, and yields bizarre results in contravention of congressional intent and controlling principles of statutory construction," the lawsuit claims. 

Hospitals in the lawsuit include Conway (S.C.) Medical Center, Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Houston Methodist Hospital and Westchester General Hospital in Miami.

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