D.C. Appeals Court Upholds Government’s Plan To Change Payments To Safety Net Hospitals
But the court decision is far from final. Lawsuits by hospitals in several jurisdictions are challenging the rule and appeals are also pending before other federal courts. Elsewhere, a Tennessee judge granted class action status to a lawsuit against Community Health Systems and other hospital news from California, Kentucky and Maryland.
CQ:
Appeals Court Upholds Safety Net Hospital Payment Rule
A federal appeals court reinstated a 2017 Medicaid rule meant to change how federal payments to safety net hospitals are calculated .... Tuesday’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit may not be the final word on the payment policy, as lawsuits in several jurisdictions challenged the rule and parallel appeals are pending before the 5th and 8th circuits. ... Some hospitals could lose millions of dollars because of how the rule changes calculations for federal uncompensated care payments. Eva Johnson, a senior adviser at the health law and policy firm Eyman Associates, said some children's hospitals in particular could be at risk of losing all of the federal payments they receive to offset uncompensated costs. (Siddons, 8/13)
Modern Healthcare:
CHS' $891 Million Securities Fraud Lawsuit Gets Class
A federal judge granted class-action status to shareholders suing Community Health Systems over the hospital chain's leaders failing to disclose an alleged fraud scandal that hurt its stock price and downplaying the scandal's impact. The U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee certified the class in the $891 million securities fraud lawsuit to include anyone who bought stock in Franklin, Tenn.-based CHS between July 27, 2006, and April 8, 2011, excluding company executives, officers and directors and their immediately family members and legal representatives, among others. (Bannow, 8/13)
Los Angeles Times:
$13 Million Awarded To Sexual Abuse Victims At Ventura Hospital
In a case experts say rarely goes to trial, a jury this week awarded more than $13 million to three women who were sexually assaulted while patients at a private psychiatric hospital in Ventura County. Three years ago, Juan Valencia, a mental health worker at Aurora Vista del Mar Hospital in Ventura, pleaded guilty to sex crimes involving female patients in 2013. He was sentenced to more than six years in jail. (Karlamangla, 8/13)
The Associated Press:
Kentucky Nursing Home To Pay $2.2M In Negligence Lawsuit
A jury has ordered a Kentucky nursing home to pay more than $2.2 million in damages for acting negligently and failing to properly care for a 92-year-old patient with dementia. ... The nursing home was sued in 2017 over the death of Mary Opal Moore, who lived at the center from December 2014 to March 2015. The lawsuit says Moore wasn’t properly treated during her time at the facility and was kicked out over switching to Medicaid. She died weeks after leaving the facility. (8/13)
The Baltimore Sun:
Big Retail, Office Development Begins Adjacent To New University Of Maryland Hospital In Prince George’s
When developers of a large complex of offices, shops, restaurants and apartments in the Washington suburbs open its first phase in 2021, they will be banking on a special draw: the University of Maryland Medical System’s newest hospital. The University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center is slated to open at about the same time on an adjacent site in Largo in Prince George’s County. It will replace the long-struggling Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly, about nine miles away, on 25 acres of land acquired in a three-way deal with the developer and county. (Cohn, 8/14)
