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Supreme Court hears dispute over whether ‘entitled to benefits’ in Medicare DISH formula means program enrollment or monthly SSI payment
Summary
At oral argument in Advocate Christ Medical Center v. Becerra, petitioner urged the Court to read “entitled to benefits” in the DISH Medicare fraction to mean program eligibility under Supplemental Security Income (SSI), while the government urged a narrower reading limited to month‑of‑hospitalization cash‑payment entitlement; the case was submitted after rebuttal.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard argument in Advocate Christ Medical Center v. Becerra over whether the phrase "entitled to benefits" in the Medicare DISH (disproportionate share hospital) formula refers to broad program enrollment under Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or instead to a patient's entitlement to a monthly SSI cash payment in the month of hospitalization.
Petitioner counsel told the justices that the identical phrase should carry the same meaning in the same sentence and that Congress intended the SSI proxy in DISH to capture the class of people enrolled in the SSI program, including those who do not receive a cash check in a particular month. "A DISH proxy that does not measure the low income population is no proxy at all," petitioner argued, pressing…
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