Supreme Court hears arguments in Medicare DSH case

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday heard oral arguments in an appeal of a D.C. Circuit Court decision that the Department of Health and Human Services violated the Medicare Act when it changed Medicare’s reimbursement adjustment formula for disproportionate share hospitals without providing notice and opportunity to comment. “Although oral argument is an imperfect barometer, the justices’ comments suggest that the hospitals seeking more public participation in HHS policymaking may prevail,” AHA outside counsel Sean Marotta, a partner at Hogan Lovells, writes in an AHA Stat blog post. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed last month, the AHA, Federation of American Hospitals, and Association of American Medical Colleges urged the court to affirm the circuit court’s decision.