Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 752.0

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Unit: $U55

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Cite as: 529 U. S. 667 (2000)

677

Opinion of the Court

whether an organization receives “beneﬁts” within the
meaning of § 666(b) turns on whether the Federal Govern-
ment was the source of the payment. Funds received under
a federal assistance program, the Government asserts, can
be traced from federal coffers, often through an intermediary
or carrier, to the health care provider. Under its view, the
“federal-program source of the funds” satisﬁes the beneﬁts
deﬁnition. Brief for United States 11.

We reject petitioner’s reading of the statute but without
endorsing the Government’s broader position. We conclude
Medicare payments are “beneﬁts,” as the term is used in its
ordinary sense and as it is intended in the statute. The
noun “beneﬁt” means “something that guards, aids, or pro-
motes well-being: advantage, good”; “useful aid”; “payment,
gift [such as] ﬁnancial help in time of sickness, old age, or
unemployment”; or “a cash payment or service provided
for under an annuity, pension plan, or insurance policy.”
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 204 (1971).
These deﬁnitions support petitioner’s assertion that qualify-
ing patients receive beneﬁts under the Medicare program.
It is commonplace for individuals to refer to their retirement
or health plans as “beneﬁts.” So it ought not to be disputed
that the elderly and disabled rank as the primary beneﬁciar-
ies of the Medicare program. See 42 U. S. C. §§ 1395c, 1395j;
42 CFR § 400.202 (1999) (deﬁning “beneﬁciary” as the “per-
son who is entitled to Medicare beneﬁts”); Shalala v. Guern-
sey Memorial Hospital, 514 U. S. 87, 91 (1995) (“Under the
Medicare reimbursement scheme . . . participating hospitals
furnish services to program beneﬁciaries and are reimbursed
by the Secretary through ﬁscal intermediaries”); Good Sa-
maritan Hospital, 508 U. S., at 404 (same).

That one beneﬁciary of an assistance program can be iden-
tiﬁed does not foreclose the existence of others, however.
In
this respect petitioner’s construction would give incomplete
meaning to the term “beneﬁts.” Medicare operates with a
purpose and design above and beyond point-of-sale patient