The federal authorities owes tens of tens of millions of {dollars} to dozens of safety-net hospitals for alleged delays in correcting Medicare disproportionate share hospital funds, hospitals alleged in a brand new lawsuit.
Nearly 4 dozen hospitals in California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Minnesota filed the swimsuit Tuesday in opposition to the Health and Human Services Department Secretary Xavier Becerra in a Washington, D.C., federal court docket. While regulators conceded in 2010 the DSH fee calculations had been incorrect, HHS has delayed the amended funds, the hospitals allege.
“The agency’s unreasonable delay has cost the plaintiff hospitals tens of millions of dollars in funds that should have been paid to them many years ago for the higher costs that they incurred to treat low-income patients more than a decade ago,” the grievance alleges.
HHS didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
DSH payments are meant to offset the prices incurred by hospitals that largely serve low-income sufferers. Following a Washington, D.C., federal court docket’s 2008 ruling that affirmed a Massachusetts hospital’s problem of the DSH fee methodology, HHS was required to ship DSH fee appeals to the company’s contractors, who had been tasked with making the hospitals complete.
But the company’s contractors haven’t made these fee redetermination calculations nor paid any of the hospitals, the grievance alleges.
The hospitals’ lawsuit alleges HHS has unjustly used a associated swimsuit as justification for delaying the amended funds. Minneapolis-based Allina Health Services filed a lawsuit in 2010 in opposition to HHS, centered on utilizing Medicare Advantage sufferers in DSH fee calculations and the associated rulemaking efforts. In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of hospitals, ordering HHS to vacate the legislation and carry out a extra thorough notice-and-comment rulemaking course of.
According to the grievance, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services mentioned it has not accomplished the suitable public notification course of and thus has needed to delay the amended funds.