Hospitals Barred From Suing HHS Over Uncompensated Care Pay

Forty-five hospitals that the HHS allegedly underpaid for providing uncompensated care to low-income people can’t challenge the agency’s methodology for calculating those payments.

The Medicare Act bars agency and judicial review of the US Health and Human Services Department’s estimates for determining hospitals’ disproportionate share payments, the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said Friday.

It also renders unreviewable HHS’ instructions for auditing a form that hospitals use to report their uncompensated care for the ultimate purpose of calculating DHS payments, the court said.

The court affirmed a summary judgment for HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.

The “disproportionate share ...