State v. United States

336 F. Supp. 3d 664
District Court, N.D. Texas·Decided August 21, 2018·No. Civil Action No. 7:15-cv-00151-O·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

Reed O'Connor, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

*667Before the Court are Plaintiffs' Motion for Entry of Judgment and to Reconsider the Court's Dismissal of Plaintiffs' Claims for Refunds and Other Rulings (ECF No. 95), filed May 21, 2018; Defendants' Response (ECF No. 98), filed June 11, 2018; and Plaintiffs' Reply (ECF No. 99), filed June 25, 2018. Having considered the motion, briefing, and applicable law, the Court finds that it should be and is hereby GRANTED in part and DENIED in part .

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs are the States of Texas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Wisconsin ("Plaintiffs"). Am. Compl. 1, ECF No. 19. Defendants are the United States of America (the "Government"); the United States Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS"); Alex Azar, in his official capacity as Secretary of HHS; the United States Internal Revenue Service (the "IRS"); and David Kautter, in his official capacity as Acting Commissioner of the IRS (collectively, "Defendants"). Id. at 1-2.

On February 24, 2016, Plaintiffs filed their amended complaint, alleging that Defendants, in violation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the "ACA"), the Administrative Procedure Act (the "APA"), and the United States Constitution, required them to pay the ACA's Health Insurance Provider Fee (the "HIPF").Id. at 3-19. The ACA imposed the HIPF on medical providers but exempted the states from paying it. See Mar. 5, 2018 Mem. Op. & Order 1-9, ECF No. 88. Notwithstanding Congress's exemption of the states in the ACA, HHS enacted a regulation (the "Certification Rule") that empowered a private actuarial board to require Plaintiffs to account for the HIPF in payments to their respective managed care organizations ("MCOs")-the medical providers who contract with Plaintiffs to service their Medicaid recipients. See id. Plaintiffs' amended complaint challenged the legality and constitutionality of both the HIPF and the Certification Rule. See Am. Compl. 19-29, ECF No. 19.

Plaintiffs asserted ten counts in their amended complaint, claiming: (1) the HIPF violates Article I's Spending Clause and the Tenth Amendment, thereby entitling Plaintiffs to declaratory and injunctive relief (Counts I, IV, VI, VIII, IX, and X-collectively, the "HIPF claims"); (2) the Certification Rule violates Article I's Vesting Clause, the APA, and the ACA, thereby entitling Plaintiffs to declaratory relief (Counts II, III, and V-collectively, the "Certification Rule claims"); and (3) Plaintiffs are entitled to a tax refund of their HIPF payments under 28 U.S.C. § 7422 (Count VII-the "Tax Refund claim"). See id. Plaintiffs also made thirteen requests for relief in their concluding prayer, including declaratory relief, injunctive relief, a tax refund, and "such other and further relief to which [Plaintiffs] are justly entitled at law and in equity." Id. at 27-29.

On August 4, 2016, in an order considering a motion to dismiss, the Court dismissed the Tax Refund claim in Count VII. See Aug. 4, 2016 Mem. Op. & Order 18-21, ECF No. 34. The Court found that Plaintiffs were not entitled to a HIPF refund under 28 U.S.C. § 7422 because Plaintiffs "were neither directly subject to the *668HIPF, nor actually paid the relevant tax on behalf of the taxpayer assessed." Id. at 21. Accordingly, the Court found that Plaintiffs-though admittedly required to pay the HIPF indirectly-were not "taxpayers" under the Internal Revenue Code (the "IRC"), and therefore the IRC, as interpreted by the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Williams , 514 U.S. 527, 115 S.Ct. 1611, 131 L.Ed.2d 608 (1995), barred the Tax Refund claim. See Aug. 4, 2016 Mem. Op. & Order 18-21, ECF No. 34.

Next, on March 5, 2018, the Court granted partial summary judgment for Plaintiffs, finding Plaintiffs entitled to judgment as a matter of law on two of their Certification Rule claims in Count V, and finding Defendants entitled to judgment as a matter of law on all other counts except Count VII (which the Court previously dismissed). See Mar. 5, 2018 Mem. Op. & Order, ECF No. 88. Out of Plaintiffs' thirteen prayers for relief, the Court granted only declaratory relief, declaring the Certification Rule unlawful under both the Constitution and the APA. See id.

In its summary judgment order, the Court did not address whether Plaintiffs were entitled to equitable disgorgement. See Mar. 5, 2018 Mem. Op. & Order, ECF No. 88.1 Nor did the Court fully address Plaintiffs' requests for injunctive relief. In Count IX-reiterated in ¶ I of the concluding prayer-Plaintiffs requested a permanent injunction against Defendants from prospectively collecting the HIPF. See Am. Compl. 26, 28, ECF No. 19. The Court denied this request and granted summary judgment for Defendants on Count IX because Plaintiffs did not establish that the HIPF itself was unlawful. See Mar. 5, 2018 Mem. Op. & Order 61, ECF No. 88. However, the Court did not address Plaintiffs' requests in ¶¶ J-K for a permanent injunction against Defendants from either: (1) denying Medicaid funds to Plaintiffs based on their refusal to pay the HIPF; or (2) refusing to approve Plaintiffs' proposed Medicaid capitation rates based on Plaintiffs' failure to account for the HIPF. See id.

Because the Court has not yet entered final judgment in this case, the Court's August 4, 2016 Order dismissing Count VII, and its March 5, 2018 Order rendering summary judgment on all other counts, are both interlocutory. See FED. R. CIV. P. 54(b).

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State v. United States, 336 F. Supp. 3d 664 (N.D. Tex. 2018).

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