Supreme Court Issues Opinion on Medicaid Rate Cuts in California

Today, the Supreme Court published it's opinion in the case of Douglas v. Independent Living Center of Southern California, Inc. Coming out of the Ninth Circuit in California, the case dealt with the issue of rate reductions to Medicaid providers in California. In a five to four opinion authored by Justice Breyer, the court essentially punted on the question of whether providers and Medicaid recipients have standing to bring lawsuits against the state under the Supremacy Clause in the Constitution. The court ruled that the fact that California and CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) had agreed to the rate reductions sought by California subsequent to the filing of the lawsuits placed things in a different posture such that the Supremacy Clause issue was not properly before the court. The court vacated the Ninth Cicuit's judgments and remanded the cases for further proceedings in the Ninth Circuit. Here's the full text of the decision.