Hospitals Lose Fight Over Uncompensated Care Reimbursements

The Affordable Care Act bars hospitals from challenging HHS Secretary Alex M. Azar II’s calculation of adjustments to Medicare reimbursements for uncompensated care provided to low-income Americans, a federal court in Washington said.

The Health and Human Services Department’s Provider Reimbursement Review Board lacked jurisdiction to consider the hospitals’ objections to their payments, and thus properly dismissed their request for review, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said Thursday.

An ACA section that changed the way a Medicare adjustment—known as the disproportionate share hospital payment—is calculated expressly precludes administrative and judicial review of the factors the secretary ...