Good Samaritan Medical Center v. Secretary of Health and Human Services

CORNELIA G. KENNEDY, Circuit Judge.

This case involves a challenge to the constitutionality of disparate reimbursement, under the Medicare program, of urban and rural medical care providers. Plaintiffs-appellants are eleven non-profit hospitals that have been classified as “rural” health care providers under the new Medicare Prospective Payment System. They complain that the Department of Health and Human Services’ system for determining the amount plaintiffs will be reimbursed for services provided to Medicare patients unfairly penalizes them by paying less than “urban” providers receive for…