On July 31, 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the fiscal year (FY) 2026 Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) Prospective Payment System...more
Hospitals that serve a high number of indigent patients are faced with a dilemma: they must provide high-quality care but fixed Medicare reimbursement rates often do not take into account the higher operating costs that they...more
This post is the first in a series dedicated to Colorado’s Medicaid finance and payment systems, challenges faced by those programs, and opportunities for expansion. The Colorado Healthcare Affordability and Sustainability...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Aug. 1, 2022, released the final rule for the federal fiscal year (FY) 2023 inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) and long-term care hospital (LTCH) payment system....more
This issue of McDermott’s Healthcare Regulatory Check-Up highlights significant activity between June 21 and July 20, 2022. During this period, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade, which historically...more
This is a big legal week for hospitals and health systems as the U.S. Supreme Court heard not one, but TWO different oral arguments related to federal government payments to hospitals and health systems. In both cases, the...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Nov. 18, 2019, published a proposed Medicaid Fiscal Accountability rule that would amend existing regulations related to 1) base and supplemental payments, 2)...more
For hospitals that “serve a disproportionate number of indigent patients” Medicaid allows for supplemental payments to help ensure their financial viability. The calculation of those supplemental payments recently became the...more
On July 23, 2019, Judge Rosemary Collyer of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued an opinion ruling in favor of ten Florida hospitals in their case challenging the calculation of their Medicare...more
In a major win for providers that serve a disproportionate share of indigent patients, the Supreme Court today upheld the D.C. Circuit’s earlier decision invalidating CMS’s policy to treat beneficiaries enrolled in Part C...more
On January 15, 2019, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Azar v. Allina Health Services, a prominent case involving a challenge by hospitals over when Medicare’s instructions to its contractors impact a “substantive...more
On January 15, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a hotly-contested case involving a challenge by hospitals over when Medicare’s instructions to its contractors impact a “substantive legal standard” and thus...more
On December 31, 2018, the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services issued a notice indicating that CMS was altering its prior audit guidance for Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) audits that had previously been...more
In an opinion issued December 27, 2018, a Federal District Court ruled that the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) exceeded its authority by reducing Part B drug reimbursement to certain hospitals in the 340B drug...more
Is the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS or the government) required to engage in notice and comment rulemaking when it changes a requirement that has an important impact on hospitals' reimbursement? As we reported...more
The Medicare program is once again looking to reduce payments to 340B hospitals for Part B drugs and biologicals. As part of its proposed payment regulation for hospitals under the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS)...more
In Northeast Hosp. Corp. v Sebelius, 657 F.3d 1 (D.C. Cir. 2011), the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld hospitals' challenge to CMS's disproportionate share hospital (DSH) calculation...more
On April 2, 2018, CMS issued updated guidance related to the dramatic Medicare payment reductions that went into effect this year for certain 340B hospitals. The guidance explains the planned application of the payment cuts...more
Hospitals affected by HHS's 2014 decision to include Medicare Part C enrollees as part of the Medicare fraction of the disproportionate share calculation obtained relief late last month when that position was voided by the...more
In April 2015, CMS issued Ruling 1498-R2 addressing the calculation of the Medicare fraction of the disproportionate share hospital (DSH) adjustment for patient discharges prior to October 1, 2004. CMS has now issued...more
On July 26, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided Fla. Health Sciences Ctr. v. Burwell. In that case, the Court analyzed a statutory bar against judicial review of estimates...more
On August 17, 2016 the United States District Court for the District of Columbia granted summary judgment in favor of HHS in a dispute over whether Part C days can be treated as “days entitled to benefits under Part A” for...more
On April 17, 2015, CMS released a copy of its proposed changes and updates to the Medicare inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) for fiscal year 2016. The official version appears in the April 30th Federal Register, and...more
In the fiscal year 2014 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rule published in the Federal Register on August 19, 2013, CMS took two steps of note regarding the Medicare disproportionate share hospital (DSH)...more
A number of recent developments affecting the Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) percentage calculation methodologies will likely have significant impact on 340B covered entities. DSH hospitals that participate in the 340B...more