Catholic Health Initiatives Iowa Corp. v. Sebelius

Catholic Health filed suit under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. 500 et seq., challenging the agency's interpretation of the Medicare statute and its application to the 1997 cost-reporting period. The district court held that the Secretary's decision was unlawful because the agency, in calculating reimbursements owed for a 1997 cost-reporting period, had retroactively applied a 2004 rulemaking without congressional authorization. The court concluded that the policy on which the agency relied was first announced in an adjudication in 2000, not in the 2004 rulemaking; the agency's interpretation of the statute was permissible; the denial of reimbursements was not arbitrary and capricious; and Catholic Health had not shown that it relied to its detriment on the position the agency allegedly held before 2000. Accordingly, the court reversed the judgment of the district court. View "Catholic Health Initiatives Iowa Corp. v. Sebelius" on Justia Law