Hospital parties urge court to void 0.2% rate cut

The District of Columbia federal court cannot properly resolve hospitals’ legal challenge to a 0.2% rate cut by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services by giving the agency another opportunity to impose the cut for fiscal year 2014, hospital parties told the court in a brief filed yesterday. The court requested supplemental briefing on the remedy question at an Aug. 3 hearing on the consolidated cases, which include a challenge by the AHA, four hospital associations and four hospital organizations of the 0.2% cut imposed on FY 2014 inpatient payments in relation to CMS’s two-midnight requirement. “CMS violated the [Administrative Procedure Act] six ways to Sunday here, and the remedy the statute and this Circuit imposes for those violations is [a court order to invalidate the cut],” the brief states. “Fair is as fair does.” Hogan Lovells attorneys representing the AHA, the associations and the four hospital organizations served as lead authors on the brief.