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Massachusetts Hospitals Win Suit on Medicare: Reimbursement Must be Refigured
By Jeffrey Krasner, Boston Globe
February 29, 2008
A group of Massachusetts hospitals are closer to collecting up to $200 million from the federal government after a federal judge ruled in favor of the hospitals in a long-running dispute over Medicare reimbursement rates.
Sixty-two hospitals sued US Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt, claiming his department used the wrong method to calculate Medicare reimbursements. In particular, the hospitals said the government used the wrong wage index.
In the ruling, the federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the government to recalculate the wage index and pay the hospitals based on the larger amount.
Hospitals that sued the government include Anna Jacques Hospital in Newburyport, Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.
"The hospitals are gratified by the court's ruling that all wage data should be used when HHS calculates the wage index," said Ankur Goel, an attorney who represented the hospitals.
Jeff Nelligan, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the branch of Health and Human Services that oversees the payments, said, "We are disappointed that the court didn't agree with our position, and we are studying the order and reviewing our options."
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