DC Circuit Post-Chevron Ruling Reverses Hospital Payment Denial

A federal appeals court reversed a lower court determination that a rural Minnesota hospital was ineligible for volume-based compensation, using post-Chevron doctrine precedent to decide that the method the HHS used to calculate payments didn’t fully compensate the hospital for its fixed costs.

In a Tuesday opinion, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with Lake Region Hospital in its battle to win a “volume decrease adjustment” payment of $1.9 million after patient volume decreased by more than 5% in 2013.

The Medicare statute allows rural hospitals access to volume-based payments if a ...