HHS Must Redo Medicare Pay for Physician Training Programs

Hundreds of hospitals throughout the country will receive a boost in their Medicare reimbursements for training medical residents, as the government unlawfully changed how those payments are calculated, a federal court said.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services acted arbitrarily and capriciously, and in contravention of the Medicare Act, when he adopted a regulation that effectively changed the weighting factors statutorily assigned to residents and fellows, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said.

The court granted summary judgment for the hospitals and sent the five consolidated cases back to the secretary to recalculate their direct graduate ...