Public Health — medicare reimbursements

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United States Court of Appeals

Civil

Public Health — medicare reimbursements

It is not unreasonable for the Department of Health and Human Services to include paid lunch hours in calculating the average hourly wage of employees.

“[T]the Secretary has provided a coherent and reasonable justification for her policy of counting all paid hours: It is a bright-line rule that is comparatively easy to administer. It avoids the costs associated with tracking certain kinds of paid unworked time that payroll systems do not record. And it avoids the slippery slope that comes with trying to exclude certain types of paid leave but not others. In sum, the Secretary’s justifications for the paid-hours policy are ‘“rational and consistent with the statute.”’ See Bd. of Trs. of Knox Cnty. Hosp. v. Sullivan, 965 F.2d 558, 564 (7th Cir. 1992) (quoting Sullivan v. Everhart, 494 U.S. 83, 89 (1990)).

Affirmed.

10-3460 Adventist GlenOaks Hospital v. Sebelius

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Guzmán, J., Sykes, J.