Tyler Hospital Loses Round in Fight against Affordable Care Act

TYLER — It was always a bit of a long shot. But one local doctor-owned hospital decided to take on the new health care law and its restrictions on facilities like theirs. KETK reports Texas Spine and Joint Hospital was in the midst of a $22 million expansion when the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare, was passed. It restricted hospitals owned by doctors, who take Medicare and Medicaid money, from expanding beyond a certain point. The feeling is, such facilities have a vested interest in ratcheting up the bill for treatment.

Now, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the hospital should have used the standard procedure for challenging a Medicare rule. That involves finishing your expansion, treating your first patient, being denied reimbursement, and then challenging the rule. The expansion continues within the rules allowed by the healthcare law, and the hospital’s owners have some decisions to make. They could ask the 5th Circuit for a review by the entire 5th Circuit, not just one panel. Or they could appeal directly to the Supreme Court.