Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 746.0

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Unit: $U55

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

671

Opinion of the Court

argument, the United States Court of Appeals for the Elev-
enth Circuit afﬁrmed the convictions. 168 F. 3d 1273 (1999).
It held that funds received by an organization constitute
“beneﬁts” within the meaning of § 666(b) if the source of the
funds is a federal program, like Medicare, which provides aid
Id., at 1276–
or assistance to participating organizations.
1277. Entities receiving federal funding under ordinary
commercial contracts, the court stated, fall outside the stat-
Ibid. (citing and discussing United States v.
ute’s coverage.
Copeland, 143 F. 3d 1439 (CA11 1998) (holding that federal
funds received under a contract to construct military aircraft
did not constitute “beneﬁts” within the meaning of § 666(b))).
The court added that its construction furthered “the stat-
ute’s purpose of protecting from fraud, theft, and undue
inﬂuence by bribery the money distributed to health care
providers, and WVHA in particular, through the federal
Medicare program and other similar federal assistance pro-
grams.”
It rejected the view that the
Medicare program provides beneﬁts only to its “targeted re-
cipients,” the qualifying patients.
Id., at 1278 (disagreeing
with United States v. LaHue, 998 F. Supp. 1182 (Kan. 1998),
aff ’d, 170 F. 3d 1026 (CA10 1999)).

168 F. 3d, at 1277.

We granted certiorari, 528 U. S. 962 (1999), and we afﬁrm.

II
A

The nature and purposes of the Medicare program give
us essential instruction in resolving the present controversy.
Established in 1965 as part of the Social Security Act, 42
U. S. C. § 1395 et seq. (1994 ed. and Supp. III), Medicare is a
federally funded medical insurance program for the elderly
In ﬁscal 1997 some 38.8 million individuals
and disabled.
were enrolled in the program, and over 6,100 hospitals were
authorized to provide services to them. U. S. Dept. of
Health and Human Services, Health Care Financing Admin-
istration, 1998 Data Compendium 45, 75 (Aug. 1998). Medi-