A coalition led by the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (NAPH), the American Hospital Association (AHA), and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), and supported by the National Association of Children’s Hospitals (NACH), on March 11 asked a federal court to prevent the Bush administration from implementing a proposed Medicaid regulation that would cut $5 billion in funding to safety net hospitals.
Congress last year put in place a moratorium that prevents the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from issuing a final rule, but the moratorium is set to expire May 25, 2008, unless Congress or the courts act soon.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asks the court to reject the CMS regulation on three grounds: CMS has overstepped its authority in dictating to states the governmental status of entities within their jurisdiction; Congress has barred the agency from imposing a cost limit on Medicaid payments to governmental providers; and CMS improperly issued the rule on the very day (May 25, 2007) that a Congressional moratorium blocking the rule took effect. Read the press release.
