Regional Home Health Care, Inc. v. Becerra, No. 20-3239 (8th Cir. 2021)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of Regional's declaratory judgment claims alleging that defendants' procedures in suspending Regional's Medicare payments and forcing it out of business without notice, a hearing, or an opportunity to appeal violated its Fifth Amendment rights to procedural and substantive due process. The court concluded that no actual controversy exists between Regional and defendants within the meaning of the Declaratory Judgment Act. The court explained that, having abandoned any claim for damages, Regional seeks nothing more than a judicial pronouncement that its constitutional rights were violated. Therefore, the possibility of Regional re-establishing a business that is certified to receive Medicare reimbursements, again submitting documentation insufficient to meet Medicare requirements for billed services, and again having Medicare payments suspended is too conjectural or hypothetical to pose a real and immediate threat of injury sufficient to confer subject matter jurisdiction in federal court.
Court Description: [Wollman, Author, with Shepherd and Kobes, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Medicare. The district court did not err in dismissing for lack of subject matter jurisdiction plaintiff's declaratory judgment claims that defendant's action in suspending it from receipt of Medicare payments violated its constitutional rights; plaintiff's relationship with the HHS has ended and the mere possibility that it might seek to re-establish a business relation for receiving Medicare reimbursements and again have them suspended (allegedly in violation of its constitutional rights) was simply too hypothetical to pose a real and immediate threat of injury.
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