SCOTUS Sides With HHS In Medicare DSH Calculation Lawsuit

Five Supreme Court justices sided with HHS in a Medicare payment case on Friday (June 24), saying the department can exclude patients who have exhausted their Medicare Part A benefits from hospitals’ disproportionate share hospital payments. Siding with hospitals would've meant reinterpreting the entire Medicare statute, the majority said, putting beneficiaries' rights and protections at risk. In Becerra v. Empire Health Foundation , hospitals argued HHS turned Medicare DSH payments into a disincentive when it changed a 20-year-old policy in...