Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/693/775/230348/
Timestamp: 2019-09-18 12:03:57
Document Index: 489331847

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 291', '§ 1395', '§ 291', '§ 291', '§ 1395', '§ 1395', '§ 1395', '§ 1395', '§ 1395', '§ 1395', '§ 1395', '§ 1395', '§ 1395', '§ 1395', '§ 1395', '§ 1395', '§ 291', '§ 291', '§ 291', '§ 291', '§ 291', '§ 1395', '§ 1395']

Metropolitan Medical Center and Extended Care Facility, Appellee, v. Patricia Harris, Secretary of the Department of Health Andhuman Services; the United States of America;and Blue Cross and Blue Shield Ofminnesota, Appellants,metropolitan Medical Center and Extended Care Facility, Appellant, v. Patricia Harris, Secretary of the Department of Health Andhuman Services; the United States of America;and Blue Cross and Blue Shield Ofminnesota, Appellees, 693 F.2d 775 (8th Cir. 1982) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Eighth Circuit › 1982 › Metropolitan Medical Center and Extended Care Facility, Appellee, v. Patricia Harris, Secretary of t...
Metropolitan Medical Center and Extended Care Facility, Appellee, v. Patricia Harris, Secretary of the Department of Health Andhuman Services; the United States of America;and Blue Cross and Blue Shield Ofminnesota, Appellants,metropolitan Medical Center and Extended Care Facility, Appellant, v. Patricia Harris, Secretary of the Department of Health Andhuman Services; the United States of America;and Blue Cross and Blue Shield Ofminnesota, Appellees, 693 F.2d 775 (8th Cir. 1982)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit - 693 F.2d 775 (8th Cir. 1982)
Submitted June 15, 1982. Decided Nov. 22, 1982
Metropolitan Medical Center and Extended Care Facility (Metro) received a grant, interest subsidy and loan guaranty under the Hill-Burton Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 291 et seq. As a statutory condition of receiving that Hill-Burton aid, Metro agreed: (1) to make its facilities available to all persons residing in its territorial area--its community service assurance, and (2) to provide a reasonable volume of free medical care to indigents--its free care assurance. Metro also is a provider of medical services under the federal medicare program. 42 U.S.C. §§ 1395 et seq. That program reimburses providers for their "reasonable cost" incurred in treating medicare patients. Metro sought reimbursement from the medicare program for its Hill-Burton free care and community service costs. The Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) denied Metro's claims. The district court1 reversed in part, holding that Hill-Burton free care costs are a reimbursable expense under the medicare program. The Secretary filed a timely notice of appeal. Metro cross-appealed from the district court's denial of its community service claim. We hold that the Secretary properly construed the Hill-Burton and Medicare Acts in denying Metro's claims for medicare reimbursement for both its Hill-Burton free care and community service costs. The district court's judgment is reversed in part, affirmed in part, and remanded for a determination of whether Metro is entitled to Medicare reimbursement of its community service costs on grounds not considered below.2
The Hill-Burton Act was passed in 1946 to help remedy the shortage and inadequacy of hospital facilities in the United States. It authorizes grants, loan guarantees and interest subsidies for hospital construction and modernization. 42 U.S.C. § 291a. The Act requires that health care institutions, as a condition of receiving federal funds, "furnish needed services for persons unable to pay therefor." 42 U.S.C. § 291c(e).3 Pursuant to the Act, the Secretary has issued regulations requiring subsidized hospitals to provide certain levels of "uncompensated care" to indigents. 42 C.F.R. Sec. 53.111.4 The regulations provide several alternative means for hospitals to fulfill their free care obligation, including state approval of the uncompensated services level, "presumptive compliance" through an open door policy and satisfaction of a mathematical formula. 42 C.F.R. Sec. 53.111(d) & (h). The Secretary also has promulgated regulations requiring subsidized hospitals "to give a community service assurance," but unlike the free care regulations, no quantitative compliance provisions have been established.
The Medicare Act, enacted in 1965, provides funding for hospitals' insurance benefits for the aged and disabled. Social Security taxes fund the medicare program, and payments are made out of the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund. 42 U.S.C. § 1395g. Health service providers participating in the program receive reimbursement from the trust fund for the "reasonable cost"--including both direct and indirect expenses--of covered services. 42 U.S.C. § 1395x(v) (1) (A). "Reasonable cost" is "determined in accordance with regulations" promulgated by the Secretary. Id.
There are several steps in the medicare reimbursement process. To participate in the medicare program, a health service provider must file an agreement with the Secretary. 42 U.S.C. § 1395cc. The provider is usually reimbursed through a fiscal intermediary, which is generally a private third party payer. The intermediary has entered into an agreement with the Secretary pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1395h, and is a statutorily authorized agent of the Secretary. Id.
The primary duty of the fiscal intermediary is to make payment of funds to providers in accordance with the Medicare Act and its regulations. Because payment after any necessary audit would result in a lengthy delay between the date services were rendered and the date of payment, estimated payments are made to providers at least monthly, with a subsequent adjustment for any overpayment or underpayment. 42 U.S.C. §§ 1395g & 1395x(v) (1) (A) (ii); 42 C.F.R. Secs. 405.402(b) (1) & (2) & 405.454. The intermediary makes a final determination of the proper amount of reimbursable cost at the close of the provider's fiscal year. 42 C.F.R. Sec. 405.406(b). The final determination is based upon a "cost report" which the provider is required to file with the intermediary. Id.
If the provider disagrees with the intermediary's decisions, it may request a hearing before the Provider Reimbursement Review Board (PRRB) when the amount in controversy is $10,000 or more. 42 U.S.C. § 1395oo(a). The Secretary, through the Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), may review, on his own motion, the decision of the PRRB. 42 U.S.C. § 1395oo(f) (1). If the final administrative decision is adverse to the provider, it may obtain judicial review in the appropriate federal district court. Id.
The issues presented here arise from the interrelationship between the Medicare Act and the Hill-Burton Act. The two statutes must be construed consistently "to produce a symmetrical whole." Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Co. v. Federal Power Commission, 359 F.2d 675, 679 (8th Cir. 1966).
Issues of statutory construction, of course, are questions of law. An agency's construction of the statute it is charged with administering is entitled to deference by the courts. Medical Center of Independence v. Harris, 628 F.2d 1113, 1117-1118 (8th Cir. 1980); Blue Cross Association v. Harris, 622 F.2d 972, 978-979 (8th Cir. 1980). Nonetheless, courts are the final authorities on such issues of statutory construction. Medical Center of Independence v. Harris, supra, 628 F.2d at 1117. They remain free to set aside an agency's construction of a statute if it does not have a reasonable basis in law or if it frustrates congressional policy. Id. at 1118. With these principles in mind, we turn to the merits of this case.
Under the Medicare Act, Metro is entitled to reimbursement only for the "reasonable cost" of services provided to medicare patients. 42 U.S.C. § 1395f(b). Reasonable cost is defined as "the cost actually incurred, excluding therefrom any part of incurred cost found to be unnecessary in the efficient delivery of needed health services." 42 U.S.C. § 1395x(v) (1) (A). Moreover, reasonable cost is defined to include both direct and indirect costs. Id. The statute, however, explicitly provides that "the necessary costs of efficiently delivering covered services to individuals covered by [medicare] will not be borne by individuals not so covered, and the costs with respect to individuals not so covered will not be borne by [medicare]." Id.
The Medicare Act does not define "indirect costs; " instead, it directs that medicare reimbursement be "determined in accordance with regulations" prescribed by the Secretary. 42 U.S.C. § 1395x(v) (1) (A). The regulations enumerating reimbursable indirect costs include, inter alia, interest and depreciation expenses. They do not include Hill-Burton free care costs. We must sustain the Secretary's decision to include interest and depreciation as reimbursable indirect costs while denying reimbursement for Hill-Burton free care costs as long as this decision has a reasonable basis in law. Although some courts have adopted Metro's position,5 we believe that the Secretary's view is a reasonable one.
Finally, although the Medicare Act's "reasonable cost" provision permits a hospital to recover the indirect costs of serving medicare recipients, it expressly forbids the Secretary from imposing on the medicare program expenses incurred by non-medicare patients, including presumably Hill-Burton free care beneficiaries. 42 U.S.C. § 1395x(v) (1) (A). Under the broad definition of "indirect cost" advanced by Metro, virtually any expenditure by a hospital that arguably benefits the facility as a whole would be a reimbursable "reasonable cost" of providing service to medicare patients. This result is contrary to 42 U.S.C. § 1395x(v) (1) (A), in which Congress plainly evinced its intent not to make the medicare program an insurer of all costs incurred by participating hospitals, regardless of how tangentially related to treatment for medicare patients.
The Secretary also has interpreted his "charity" regulations to prohibit medicare reimbursement for Hill-Burton free care costs. These regulations, issued pursuant to the Medicare Act, explicitly exclude "charity" care as a reimbursable cost under the medicare program. 42 C.F.R. Secs. 405.402(c) (7), 405.420. "Charity" is defined as "reductions in charges made by the provider of services because of the indigence or medical indigence of the patient." 42 C.F.R. Sec. 405.420(b) (2).
The charity regulations do not contain a voluntary-mandatory distinction. Rather, they apply whenever there are "reductions in charges * * * because of * * * the indigence or medical indigence of the patient." 42 C.F.R. Sec. 405.420(b) (2). Hill-Burton free care plainly fits within that definition.7 Indeed, courts construing the Hill-Burton Act in other contexts have recognized in a commonsense fashion that the free care requirement constitutes "charity." See American Hospital Association v. Harris, 625 F.2d 1328, 1330 (7th Cir. 1980); Cook v. Ochsner Foundation Hospital, 559 F.2d 968, 972-973 (5th Cir. 1977).
Metro also argues that the Hill-Burton Act does not preclude medicare reimbursement for its free care costs because the Act's legislative history and early regulations show that the Act was enacted exclusively as a construction assistance program. The court below agreed, concluding that " [t]here is no evidence of any intent to require a hospital to pay for rendering the free care, only that facilities be made available to all people." We cannot agree. The text of the Act, its implementing regulations, its legislative history and the case law construing it all show that medicare reimbursement for free care costs is inconsistent with the Hill-Burton Act.
The Hill-Burton Act expressly authorizes the Secretary to issue regulations requiring participating hospitals to assure Hill-Burton authorities that "there will be made available * * * a reasonable volume of services to persons unable to pay therefor * * *." 42 U.S.C. § 291c(e). The same statutory section also creates "an exception [to the free care assurance] * * * if such a requirement is not feasible from a financial viewpoint." Id. These provisions of the Hill-Burton Act flatly contravene Metro's argument that Congress intended it to be exclusively a construction assistance program. Besides giving participating hospitals the opportunity to obtain construction aid, the Act's plain language imposes upon them a duty to provide free care to indigents. And the "financial infeasibility" escape provided by Congress shows that it contemplated that the hospitals would have to devote some of their own resources to providing the free care. See Rosenblatt, Health Care Reform and Administrative Law: A Structural Approach, 88 Yale L.J. 243, 267 (1978).
In addition, pursuant to the authority expressly delegated him by the Hill-Burton Act, 42 U.S.C. § 291c(e), the Secretary has promulgated regulations requiring subsidized hospitals to provide certain levels of "uncompensated services" to indigents. 42 C.F.R. Sec. 53.111. See, infra, at 783. They expressly forbid a hospital from counting toward its Hill-Burton free care obligation any services to indigents for which the hospital has received reimbursement from another governmental program, including specifically medicare. 42 C.F.R. Secs. 53.111(b) (4), (d) & (f) (2). These regulations plainly support the Secretary's decision here. Metro and amicus, the American Hospital Association, however, claim that they do not apply to medicare reimbursement for Hill-Burton free care. We disagree.
Metro and amicus first state that the free care regulations were issued some thirty years after the Hill-Burton Act was passed in 1946. Thus, in their view, they are inconsistent with the Act's exclusive purpose of providing construction assistance. First, we do not agree that the Hill-Burton Act was adopted solely as a construction assistance program. See, infra, at 783-785. Moreover, although Metro and amicus do not say as much, this argument amounts to a claim that the existing Hill-Burton free care regulations are invalid. These regulations have been repeatedly upheld. E.g., Cook v. Ochsner Foundation Hospital, supra, 559 F.2d at 975; Corum v. Beth Israel Medical Center, 373 F. Supp. 550, 554-556 (S.D.N.Y. 1974).
Metro and amicus alternatively urge the regulations in 42 C.F.R. Sec. 53.111 eliminate from the free care compliance computation only money received by the hospital for direct services provided to medicare beneficiaries. They claim the regulations do not apply to medicare payments to the hospital for services rendered to non-medicare patients which only indirectly benefit medicare recipients. Nothing in the regulations supports this limiting construction. They explicitly exclude from the Hill-Burton free care computation "all actual or estimated reimbursements, as applicable, for services received or to be received pursuant to Title XVIII and XIX of the Social Security [Medicare] Act (42 U.S.C. 1395 and 1396)," 42 C.F.R. Secs. 53.111(b) (4) & (d), and " [a]ny amount which the applicant has received, or is entitled to receive * * * under a governmental program." 42 C.F.R. Sec. 53.111(f) (2) (i). This unqualified language excludes from the Hill-Burton computation "any" and "all" medicare reimbursement--whether for direct care to medicare patients or for free care to non-medicare patients which may indirectly benefit medicare recipients.
The original bill did not include the language requiring hospitals to give free care assurances. In committee hearings, the Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Agriculture's Farm Security Administration commented that the bill should contain safeguards to ensure that aid recipients effectuate the bill's stated purpose of providing facilities to furnish adequate medical services to the people. Proposed Amendments to the Public Health Services Act: Hearings on S 191 Before the Committee on Education and Labor, 79th Cong., 1st Sess. 188-189 (1945) (hereafter 1945 Hearings) . Senator Taft suggested that "a hospital accepting aid of this kind should have an obligation to take care of a certain number of indigent patients." Id. at 190. The Department of Agriculture official responded: " [T]here would certainly be an obligation to meet the needs of all the people of that hospital service area for which the hospital was designed, which would, of course, include many indigent and medically indigent." Id. at 190.
The legislative history after the bill was amended to include the free care and financial infeasibility provisions also suggests that Congress intended to make participating hospitals devote some of their own resources to providing free care to indigents. It frequently refers to communities' needs for subsidized charitable health care, and contains discussions describing private nonprofit hospitals' traditional commitment to community service and charitable care. See, e.g., 91 Cong.Rec. 11724 (1945) (Senator Taft); 1945 Hearings, at 25 (President of the American Hospital Association) and 100 (Senator Taft); Hearings on S. 191 Before a Subcommittee of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 79th Cong., 2d Sess. 14-15 (1946) (hereafter 1946 Hearings) (Surgeon General). Congress recognized that such charitable care by private hospitals would not resolve the nation's problem of providing medical care to the poor. See, e.g., 1945 Hearings, at 64-65 (Senator Pepper), and 194-195 (Senator Taft). Nevertheless, Congress clearly intended to preserve the traditional commitment by private hospitals and their communities to providing community service and charitable care. See Note, Due Process for Hill-Burton Assisted Facilities, 32 Vand. L. Rev. 1469, 1478-1479 (1979); Rosenblatt, Health Care Reform and Administrative Law: A Structural Approach, supra, 88 Yale L.J. at 268-269; Rose, Federal Regulation of Service to the Poor Under the Hill-Burton Act: Realities and Pitfalls, 70 Nw.L.Rev. 168, 170-171 (1975). Indeed, under questioning about whether recipient hospitals could restrict their services to those who could afford to pay, the president of the American Hospital Association assured the Senate Committee on Education and Labor that low-income people "who get into [recipient hospitals] will be taken care of at the Local level," and that the state plan would have to locate hospitals primarily according to the needs of "people that cannot get hospitalization on their own means." 1945 Hearings, at 34. Similarly, one of the Act's authors, Senator Hill, stated that the bill was intended to "serve as a challenge to the States and Local communities to prove that they can and will live up to their responsibilities." 91 Cong.Rec. 11716 (1945).
In a series of cases, federal courts recognized that indigent patients had a right to challenge Hill-Burton hospitals for failing to fulfill their statutory free care obligation.11 The implication of these cases was that in accepting federal construction assistance, Hill-Burton hospitals were assuming the burden of providing a certain amount of uncompensated service to indigents. For example, in Euresti v. Stenner, 458 F.2d 1115, 1118-1119 (10th Cir. 1972), the Court said " [n]othing could be clearer: In receiving federal funds, [defendant hospitals] obligated themselves to dispense a reasonable amount of free hospital services to those unable to pay." Similarly, in Cook v. Ochsner Foundation Hospital, supra, 559 F.2d at 972, the Fifth Circuit commented that " [t]he service to indigent patients is a quid pro quo exacted in return for the benefaction received from the taxpayers."
Second, Metro and amicus contend that if free care costs are not reimbursable, hospitals--including presumably Metro--will be in a worse financial position than they would have been without the original Hill-Burton subsidy. The record here simply does not show that Metro is the poorer for having accepted Hill-Burton aid. In any event, if Metro could in fact establish a sufficient financial hardship, the Hill-Burton Act contains an exception which would permit it to avoid its free care obligation. 42 U.S.C. § 291c(e). Finally, hospitals and hospital associations have repeatedly attempted to persuade courts that the Hill-Burton free care obligation is too burdensome. Courts have uniformly rejected that claim, and upheld the Secretary's regulations establishing quantitative compliance requirements. See, e.g., Cook v. Ochsner Foundation Hospital, supra, 559 F.2d at 575; Wyoming Hospital Association v. Harris, 527 F. Supp. 551, 554-561 (D. Wyo. 1981); Corum v. Beth Israel Medical Center, supra, 373 F. Supp. at 554-556.
The Hill-Burton Act requires a participating hospital to give a community service assurance in addition to its free care promise. The Act states that a hospital must promise that "the facility or portion thereof to be constructed or modernized will be made available to all persons residing in the territorial area of the applicant." 42 U.S.C. § 291c(e). The Secretary's regulations also state:
(1) (i) Make the services it furnishes available to the general public, or
(ii) Limit the availability of such services only on the basis of age, medical indigency, or type or kind of medical or mental disability [.]
In Simkins v. Moses H. Cone Hospital, 323 F.2d 959 (4th Cir. 1963), cert. denied, 376 U.S. 938, 84 S. Ct. 793, 11 L. Ed. 2d 659 (1964), the Fourth Circuit struck down an exception to section 622(f)'s community service obligation that permitted "separate-but-equal" facilities. Thereafter, Congress amended the community service provision to require participating hospitals to give assurances that their facilities "will be made available to all persons residing in the territorial area of the applicant." 42 U.S.C. § 291c(e).
Finally, courts construing the community service requirement have also recognized--at least implicitly--that it imposes upon Hill-Burton hospitals a duty not to discriminate, not a financial obligation. For example, in Lugo v. Simon, 426 F. Supp. 28 (N.D. Ohio 1976), and Cook v. Ochsner Foundation Hospital, Civ. No. 70-1969 (E.D. La. 1975), federal courts struck down the twenty-year durational limit that the Secretary had included in his community service regulations. Both courts expressly premised their holdings, at least in part, on their conclusion that the hospitals incurred no major financial liabilities in serving all persons in their communities in a nondiscriminatory manner.
Alternatively, Metro argues for the first time on appeal that its outreach programs are reimbursable indirect costs because they were required as a condition of obtaining a certificate of need from state authorities. Under Minnesota law, a hospital must obtain such a certificate before constructing new facilities. Minn.Stat. Secs. 145.832 et seq. Medicare reimbursement for such certificate of need costs apparently would not be contrary to Minnesota law in the manner that reimbursement for free care costs contravenes the Hill-Burton Act. See Faulkner Hospital Corp. v. Schweiker, 537 F. Supp. 1058 (D. Mass., 1982) (finding costs incurred as a result of state imposed certificate of need requirements eligible for medicare reimbursement).
On September 8, 1982, the President signed into law the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, Pub. L. No. 97-248 (1982). Section 106 of that Act provides:
(a) Section 1861(v) (1) of the Social Security [Medicare] Act is amended by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
E.g., Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas v. Harris, 638 F.2d 1381 (5th Cir.), cert. denied on other grounds, 454 U.S. 940, 102 S. Ct. 476, 70 L. Ed. 2d 248 (1981); Iredell Memorial Hospital v. Schweicker, 535 F. Supp. 795 (W.D.N.C. 1982); St. James v. Harris, 535 F. Supp. 751 (N.D. Ill. 1981)
Several provisions of the Medicare Act deny reimbursement to health care providers for expenses for which they receive other federal subsidies. See 42 U.S.C. § 1395y(a) (2) (health care services furnished directly to medicare patients for which no person has an obligation to pay); 42 U.S.C. § 1395y(a) (3) (health care services furnished directly to medicare patients which are paid by a governmental entity); 42 C.F.R. Sec. 405.421(g) (educational costs); 42 C.F.R. Sec. 405.422 (research costs). The Secretary concedes that these exclusions do not apply directly to Hill-Burton free care costs, but we, nonetheless, believe that they evince a congressional intent not to provide medicare subsidies to health care providers for activities for which they have received federal assistance in one form or another. We also believe, contrary to Metro's contentions, that Hill-Burton construction aid is an indirect subsidy to hospitals in exchange for the free care that they provide. See Corum v. Beth Israel Medical Center, 359 F. Supp. 909, 912 (S.D.N.Y. 1973) ("There is no dispute that under Federal law and by contract, part of the quid pro quo for the [Hill-Burton] grant is the requirement that [the hospital] afford poor persons a reasonable amount of free or below cost services.")
Metro also relies on the first Hill-Burton regulations, enacted in 1947, which provided: " [Free] care may be paid for wholly or partly out of public funds or contributions of individuals and private and charitable organizations such as Community Chest or may be contributed at the expense of the hospital itself." 12 Fed.Reg. 6179 (1947). Metro claims that the reference to "public funds" shows a congressional intent to authorize medicare reimbursement for its free care costs. We cannot agree with this construction. This regulation simply provided that the free care could be financed through state or local efforts (public or private) or through the hospital's own resources. The reference to "public funds" could not have contemplated additional federal funds beyond the Hill-Burton construction subsidy because no federal assistance was available for that purpose in 1947
See Saine v. Hospital Authority of Hall County, 502 F.2d 1033, 1034-1035 (5th Cir. 1974); Euresti v. Stenner, 458 F.2d 1115-1119 (10th Cir. 1972); Corum v. Beth Israel Medical Center, 359 F. Supp. 909, 914-915 (S.D.N.Y. 1973); Organized Migrants in Community Action, Inc. v. James Archer Smith Hospital, 325 F. Supp. 268, 270-271 (S.D. Fla. 1971); Cook v. Ochsner Foundation Hospital, 319 F. Supp. 603 (E.D. La. 1970)
For a discussion of the development of the Secretary's regulations regarding the Hill-Burton free care and community service assurances, see Note, Due Process for Hill-Burton Assisted Facilities, 32 Vand. L. Rev. 469 (1979); Rosenblatt, Health Care Reform and Administrative Law: A Structural Approach, 88 Yale L.J. 243 (1978); Rose, Federal Regulation of Service to the Poor Under the Hill-Burton Act; Realities and Pitfalls, 70 Nw.L.Rev. 168 (1975); Comment, Provision of Free Medical Services by Hill-Burton Hospitals, 8 Harv.Civ.Rts.--Civ.Lib.Rev. 351 (1973)