Appeals Court Digs Deep Into Medicare Payments for Treating Poor

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit discussed the finer points of the rule used in Medicare to compensate hospitals for treating low-income patients during oral argument Friday.

A district court ruling went against 200 acute-care hospitals nearly a year ago in the case, Advocate Christ Medical Center v. Becerra. But after the US Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision on a similar issue in the Becerra v. Empire Health Found., issued two weeks after the district court ruling, hospitals revised their strategy in front of the three-judge panel of Gregory Katsas, Karen Henderson, and Florence ...