Ben P. Rybicki v. John Robert Hartley, Elliot Hospital

BREYER, Circuit Judge.

This appeal asks us to interpret a statute that, in essence, forbids a hospital from charging Medicare patients anything over and above what Medicare will pay the hospital. In particular, that statute says that “participating providers” of Medicare services, such as the appellant Elliot Hospital, must agree:

not to charge ... [the Medicare subscriber] ... for items or services for which such individual is entitled to have payments made [by Medicare].

42 U.S.C. § 1395cc(a)(l)(A); see also 42 C.F.R. § 489.21(a).

The Elliot Hospital seeks to recover from Ben Rybicki, the…