Chicago Hospital Loses Appeal Over Late Medicaid Payments

A full federal appeals court panel ruled Friday that a Chicago-area safety-net hospital doesn’t have a private right to sue the Illinois Medicaid program over late payments made by the program’s insurance contractor.

Saint Anthony Hospital argued before the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit that it had a right to sue the state directly for the payment failures of its managed care organization under 42 USC § 1983 and Section 1396 of the Medicaid Act, which according to the hospital, granted providers a privately enforceable right to prompt payment from the state.

However, a 9-3 opinion by ...