Court Tosses Medicare Reimbursement Boost for Low-Wage Hospitals

Congressionally required adjustments in Medicare reimbursements designed to account for regional differences in labor costs cannot be further adjusted to give an extra boost to low-wage hospitals, a federal district judge ruled.

The lawsuit was filed by a group of hospitals challenging a 2019 regulation issued to address wages disparities among hospitals. The hospitals claimed they would receive reduced reimbursements as a result of the regulation.

The Medicare statute requires the Department of Health and Human Services to adjust the proportion of its payment to hospitals attributable to wages for “area differences in hospital wage levels,” Judge Carl Nichols of ...