Health Care Law Blog
The Medicaid program, a public insurance program serving approximately 66 million low-income Americans, is at risk for losing participating providers who claim they are not being compensated fairly for their services. On January 19, 2015, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Armstrong v. Exceptional Child Center, a case that could impact the rights of healthcare providers to sue states for higher Medicaid payments. Five private companies brought suit against the director of Idaho’s health department, arguing that the state unfairly reimbursed them at rates set in 2006, despite the fact that higher rates have since been approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”).
Federal law provides that state Medicaid programs must ensure payments are “sufficient to enlist enough providers,” but states have discretion to decide what that means. 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(30)(A) (the “Medicaid Statute”). Central to this case is whether providers have a cause of action that allows them to seek enforcement of a federal statute.
Reduced reimbursements. A shift toward global payment. A demand for integration, quality of care and medical specializations. In order to compete amidst today’s healthcare market pressures, independent hospitals in Michigan and around the nation are increasingly deciding that they cannot go it alone. A recent Detroit News article reveals how this trend is playing out in Metro Detroit, with one of the region’s last two independent hospitals poised for acquisition.
Observers of Detroit’s healthcare environment are reportedly not surprised by the news that Crittenton Hospital Medical Center has signed a letter of intent to join St. Louis-based Ascension Health, the largest Catholic and nonprofit health system in the nation. With Monroe-based Mercy Memorial Hospital announcing on January 6 that it is joining the ProMedica health care company, the Crittenton deal will leave Doctors’ Hospital in Pontiac as the region’s last remaining independent hospital.
Laura Wotruba, spokeswoman for the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, said that this is not a Michigan issue, but rather a widespread pattern. “[It is] a national trend [and] something we’ve been seeing around the country.”
