Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Leslie Goldsmith provided insight about the ongoing litigation related to Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments. In the latest case – Advocate Christ Medical Center v. Becerra – the Supreme Court will review how the Department of Health and Human Services has applied the “entitled to” phrase when calculating DSH reimbursement for patients receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. The “entitled to” language has been applied differently to both Medicare Part A and SSI and has caused discrepancies.

“To the extent the court finds ‘entitled’ to mean something different in the SSI context versus the Medicare Part A context, it will need to explain why a different interpretation is warranted, especially in light of the fact ‘entitled’ to SSI and ‘entitled’ to Medicare Part A are used in the same controlling statute,” Leslie told Law360.

The full article, “High Court On Familiar Ground In Hospital Pay Row,” was published by Law360 Healthcare Authority on June 11 and is available online (subscription required).