Southeast Arkansas Hospice, Inc. v. Sebelius

1 F. Supp. 3d 915, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21059, 2014 WL 656736
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 20, 2014
DocketNo. 2:13-cv-00134-KGB
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1 F. Supp. 3d 915 (Southeast Arkansas Hospice, Inc. v. Sebelius) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southeast Arkansas Hospice, Inc. v. Sebelius, 1 F. Supp. 3d 915, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21059, 2014 WL 656736 (E.D. Ark. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

KRISTINE G. BAKER, District Judge.

Plaintiff Southeast Arkansas Hospice, Inc. (“SEARK”) brings this action against Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), alleging that the Secretary’s regulation purportedly prohibiting SEARK from discharging hospice patients who exhaust their hospice benefits operates as a regulatory taking and that the provider agreement is an unconscionable contract of adhesion, requiring SEARK to continue to serve hospice patients even after their benefit period has ended while making no provision for payment to the hospice after the benefit period ends. Pending before the Court is SEARK’s application for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction to stay collection of all demands for repayment pending final adjudication (Dkt. No. 8). The Court opted to consider SEARK’s request as one for a preliminary injunction (Dkt. No. 10). The Secretary responded to SEARK’s motion (Dkt. No. 12), and SEARK filed a “trial brief’ for the preliminary injunction hearing (Dkt. No. 13). A preliminary injunction hearing was conducted on February 7, 2014. For the following reasons, SEARK’s request for a preliminary injunction is denied (Dkt. No. 8).

I. Background

SEARK operates hospice-care facilities in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Helena, Arkansas, and receives reimbursement for hospice care provided to Medicare beneficiaries pursuant to the hospice benefit included in Medicare Part A. See 42 U.S.C. §§ 1395c, 1395f(a)(7). A Medicare beneficiary may elect hospice care if at least two physicians certify that he or she is terminally ill, with a life expectancy of six months or less. See 42 U.S.C. §§ 1395f(a)(7)(A), 1395x(dd)(3)(A). Medicare generally pays hospice providers a fixed amount for each day the provider provides care to an eligible beneficiary. 42 U.S.C. § 1395f(i)(l); see also 42 C.F.R. § 418.302 (establishing rates). When the hospice benefit was established in 1982, beneficiaries were generally limited to six months of hospice care. See Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, § 122, Pub.L. 97-248, 96 Stat. 324, 356 (1982). However, under an amendment included in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, Pub.L. No. 105-33, § 4443(a), 111 Stat. 251, 423 (1997), if a beneficiary lives longer than six months, coverage may be extended for an unlimited number of 60-day periods. See 42 U.S.C. § 1395d(d)(l).

To ensure that hospice care payments do not exceed the costs of treatment in a [918]*918conventional setting, there is a “cap” on the total amount paid in reimbursements to hospice providers for all eligible patients in any given fiscal year. 42 U.S.C. § 1395f(i)(2)(A); H.R.Rep. No. 98-333, at 1 (1983), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News 1983, p. 1043. A provider’s annual cap is calculated by multiplying a per-patient amount defined by statute and indexed for inflation, times the number of Medicare beneficiaries in the hospice program during that fiscal year. 42 U.S.C. § 1395f(i)(2)(A). For purposes of this calculation, the number of beneficiaries in a hospice program in a fiscal year is adjusted to reflect the portion of care provided in a previous or subsequent reporting year or in another hospice. Id. § 1395f(i)(2)(C).

Although not at issue in this case, the Court notes that the regulation implementing the cap, 42 C.F.R. § 418.309(b), previously included a “streamlined methodology” that several courts, including one in this district, have found invalid for implying a calculus contrary to the legislative intent of 42 U.S.C. § 1395f(i)(2)(C). Southeast Arkansas Hospice, Inc. v. Sebelius, 784 F.Supp.2d 1102, 1109 (E.DArk.2011) (collecting cases).1 In 2011, SEARK obtained a permanent injunction enjoining the Secretary from enforcing 42 C.F.R. § 418.309(b) against SEARK as to fiscal year 2009. 784 F.Supp.2d at 1109. The regulation was amended as a result of the litigation surrounding the streamlined methodology. See 42 C.F.R. § 418.309(b)-(d) (eff. Oct. 1, 2011); Aggregate Cap Calculation Methodology, 76 Fed.Reg. 47308 (Aug. 4, 2011). As amended, 42 C.F.R. § 418.309(c) now includes a “proportional” methodology consistent with the requirements of the governing statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1395f(i)(2)(C).

Hospice providers typically receive Medicare payments through a fiscal intermediary. The fiscal intermediary is responsible for calculating the hospice cap for the relevant accounting year. When it is determined that a provider exceeded its aggregate cap for an accounting year, the fiscal intermediary issues a demand for the overage known as a Notice of Program Reimbursement (“NPR”). See 42 C.F.R. § 418.308(d). Under 42 U.S.C. § 1395oo(a), a hospice provider may challenge an NPR and seek a hearing before the Provider Reimbursement Review Board (“PRRB”), so long as the amount in controversy is at least $10,000.00 and the provider requests a hearing before the PRRB within 180 days after receipt of the NPR demand. If the provider is dissatisfied with the PRRB’s ruling, it may obtain judicial review by filing a civil action within 60 days of the PRRB’s final determination. Id. § 1395oo(f)(l). The PRRB has the authority to affirm, modify, or reverse a final determination of the fiscal intermediary, 42 U.S.C. § 1395oo(d), and the PRRB’s decision constitutes a final agency ruling, unless it is appealed to the Secretary, id., § 1395oo(f)(l). When the provider challenges the validity of a regulation itself, however, the PRRB lacks the authority to declare regulations invalid. See Bethesda Hosp. Ass’n v. Bowen, 485 U.S. 399, 406, 108 S.Ct. 1255, 99 L.Ed.2d 460 (1988) (“Neither the fiscal intermediary nor the Board has the authority to declare regulations invalid.”). “In this situation, once the PRRB has determined ‘that it is without authority to decide the question’ [919]*919because the ‘action of the fiscal intermediary ...

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1 F. Supp. 3d 915, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21059, 2014 WL 656736, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southeast-arkansas-hospice-inc-v-sebelius-ared-2014.