United States Ninth Circuit

In a case involving Medicare reimbursement of indirect medical education expenses (IME) incurred by a public teaching hospital with an approved intern and resident program, a judgment rejecting county's challenge to the calculation of an IME payment is affirmed where: 1) it was not arbitrary and capricious for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to interpret the Medicare statute and regulations providing for IME payment on the basis of "available beds" as presumptively meaning physical beds, when the hospital's fiscal intermediary had previously accepted a calculation based on budgeted beds; and 2) the Secretary's findings in this case were supported by substantial evidence.

Appellate Information

• Argued 11/06/2007
• Decided 03/31/2008
• Published 03/31/2008

Judges

• Before:  B. FLETCHER, STEPHEN REINHARDT, and PAMELA ANN RYMER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Tami S. Smason, Foley & Lardner LLP, Los Angeles, CA, for the plaintiff-appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• John S. Koppel, United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Washington, D.C., for the defendant-appellee.