Catherine (Kat) Kirkland
speaker
168 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 28 Jul
Catherine (Kat) Kirkland’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Yeah, we have, you know, two case studies, um, both non-expansion states, Florida and Texas.
Um, and both Florida and Texas brought uh lawsuits against CMS about CMS's guidance um bulletins and information they had released about their interpretation of the whole harmless provision.
Basically, CMS's position is that the whole harmless um uh requirements would would prevent private hospitals from participating in any sort of like grant program that Baxter mentioned or private mitigation arrangement.
And we really have, you know, dueling opinions at this point.
So in Florida, the case was eventually brought up to the Eleventh Circuit, and the Eleventh Circuit said, you know, we agree with CMS's reading of the Hold Harmless that you can't have a hold harmless of any type.
And then in Texas, we have a federal district judge opinion saying the opposite.
He's saying that the hold harmless provision only applies to state or local governments.
And so if private parties or private hospitals enter into separate mitigation or grant arrangements, then that is permissible, that the state has no role in that.
ENS appealed that decision.
It is pending with the Fifth Circuit.
It is in active briefing right now.
And so we'll have to see what the Fifth Circuit says.
But the implication of these decisions is huge.
Because that mitigation, that kind of private arrangement between hospitals.
Is really what can kind of stabilize the program.
It makes provider taxes uh politically feasible for these hospitals because otherwise you can have major, you know, winners and losers under programs.
Um, I think, you know, again, obviously Baxter and I have a a hot take on this stuff that is more hospital.
more hospital specific, but you know, my my kind of view of the case is that
You know, CMS's theory is that private hospitals use their Medicaid payments to effectuate a prohibited guarantee via via grant or mitigation or whatever you want to call it.
But incorrectly, in my view, that kind of incorrectly assumes that Medicaid payments retain their character as the government funds, you know, as they're earned and paid to private hospitals.
Showing 81–100 of 168 · page 5 of 9
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