Hospitals Score Big Win on Appeal of Medicare Payment Rule

An HHS rule that affects how Medicare Advantage patients are accounted for in Medicare payments to hospitals with high shares of low-income patients was invalidated July 25 (Allina Health Servs. v. Price, 2017 BL 256447, D.C. Cir., No. 16-5255, 7/25/17).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the rule, which is worth potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicare reimbursements to hospitals nationwide, wasn’t exempt from standard notice and comment procedures before taking effect. The rule said Medicare Advantage patients were deemed as entitled to Part A benefits for purposes of calculating ...