Home Health & Hospice Week

A San Francisco federal judge has sided with the California Attorney General in a lawsuit blocking the Trump administration from preventing the collection of union dues.

Reminder: Last May, the Centers for Medicare & Medi-caid Services finalized a rule that removed “a state’s ability to divert portions of Medicaid provider payments to third parties outside of the scope of what the statute allows.” The effect was to disallow automatic payments to unions from home care workers’ wages. CMS finalized the rule after its proposal drew more than 7,000 comment letters.

AGs in five states quickly filed a suit to block the rule (see HCW by AAPC, Vol. XXVIII, No. 18). Now U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco has issued a summary judgment doing just that. CMS’ interpretation is “erroneous” and “contrary to the overall purpose of the Medicaid statute,” he said in the ruling.