Supreme Court Passes on Appeal for Medicare for Psychiatric Hospitals

Even though lower courts have split opinions in three other cases, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to settle the issue on whether the federal government had underpaid states for treating patients in psychiatric hospitals between 2002 and 2008.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Michigan’s appeal that it had been underpaid millions of dollars. According to Thomson Reuters, three other lower courts have split in their respective decisions regarding reimbursement for psychiatric hospital patients. None of the other cases have resulted in opinions that would be considered a legal precedent.

“The dispute arose when a section of the law, which set specific caps on reimbursement amounts, expired in 2002,” the website reported. It took four years for the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services to enact a new set of regulations governing psychiatric hospital reimbursements. During the interim period is when states claim they were not fully reimbursed.

“The state wanted the Supreme Court to revisit its 1997 ruling, Auer v. Robbins, which required courts to defer to a government agency’s interpretation of it own regulations,” according to Thomson Reuters.