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| [1] | SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES |
| [2] | No. 99-116 |
| [3] | 2000.SCT.0042097 <http://www.versuslaw.com> |
| [4] | May 15, 2000 |
| [5] | JEFFREY ALLAN FISCHER, PETITIONER V. UNITED STATES |
| [6] | SYLLABUS BY THE COURT |
| [7] | Syllabus |
| [8] | OCTOBER TERM, 1999 |
| [9] | FISCHER v. UNITED STATES |
| [10] | SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES |
| [11] | FISCHER v. UNITED STATES |
| [12] | Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The Eleventh Circuit |
| [13] | No. 99-116. |
| [14] | Argued February 22, 2000 |
| [15] | Decided May 15, 2000 |
| [16] | Petitioner, while president and part owner of Quality Medical Consultants,
Inc. (QMC), negotiated a $1.2 million loan to QMC from West Volusia Hospital
Authority (WVHA), a municipal agency responsible for operating two Florida
hospitals, both of which participate in the federal Medicare program. In
1993 WHVA received between $10 and $15 million in Medicare funds. After
a 1994 audit of WHVA raised questions about the QMC loan, petitioner was
indicted for violations of the federal bribery statute, including defrauding
an organization which receives benefits under a federal assistance program,
18 U. S. C. §666(a)(1)(A), and paying a kickback to one of its agents, §666(a)(2).
A jury convicted him on all counts, and the District Court sentenced him
to imprisonment, imposed a term of supervised release, and ordered the payment
of restitution. On appeal petitioner argued that the Government failed to
prove WHVA, as the organization affected by his wrongdoing, received "benefits
in excess of $10,000 under a Federal program," as required by §666(b).
In rejecting that argument and affirming the convictions, the Eleventh Circuit
held that funds received by an organization constitute "benefits"
within the §666's meaning if the source of the funds is a federal program,
like Medicare, which provides aid or assistance to participating organizations. |
| [17] | Held: Health care providers such as the one defrauded by petitioner receive
"benefits" within the meaning of §666(b). Pp. 3-14. |
| [18] | (a) Medicare's nature and purposes provide essential instruction in resolving
this controversy. Medicare is a federally funded medical insurance program
for the elderly and disabled. The Federal Government is the single largest
source of funds for hospitals participating in Medicare. Such providers
qualify to participate upon satisfying a comprehensive series of statutory
and regulatory requirements, including licensing, quality assurance, staffing,
and other standards. Compliance with these standards provides the Government
with assurance that participating providers possess the capacity to fulfill
their statutory obligation of providing "medically necessary"
services "of a quality which meets professionally recognized standards
of health care." 42 U. S. C. §1320c-5(a). Medicare attains its objectives
through an elaborate funding structure designed not only to compensate providers
for the reasonable cost of the services actually rendered to patients, but
also to enhance health care organizations' capacity to provide ongoing,
quality services to the community at large. In the normal course Medicare
disbursements occur periodically, often in advance of a provider's rendering
services, in order to protect providers' liquidity and thereby assist in
the ongoing provision of such services. The program, then, establishes correlating
and reinforcing incentives: The Government has an interest in making available
a high level of quality of care for the elderly and disabled; and providers,
because of their financial dependence upon the program, have incentives
to achieve program goals. Pp. 3-7. |
| [19] | (b) Medicare provider payments are "benefits," as that term
is used in its ordinary sense and as it is intended in §666(b). The Court
rejects petitioner's argument that Medicare provides benefits only to the
elderly and disabled, not to participating health care organizations. While
standard definitions of the term "benefit" and provisions of Medicare
support petitioner's assertion that qualifying patients rank as the program's
primary beneficiaries, the fact that one beneficiary of an assistance program
can be identified does not foreclose the existence of others. Section 666(b)'s
language specifying that benefits can be in the form of "a grant, contract,
subsidy, loan, guarantee, insurance, or other form of Federal assistance,"
coupled with §666(a)'s broad substantive prohibitions, reveals Congress'
unambiguous intent to ensure the integrity of organizations participating
in federal assistance programs. In removing from the statute's coverage
any "bona fide salary, wages, fees, or other compensation paid, or
expenses paid or reimbursed, in the usual course of business," §666(c)
does not exclude the payments here at issue from the meaning of "benefits"
within §666(b). Medicare payments are not simply compensation or reimbursement.
The payments, in contrast, assist the hospital in making available and maintaining
a certain level and quality of medical care in both its own interests and
those of the greater community. The provider itself is the object of substantial
Government regulation, and adequate payment and assistance to the provider
is itself one of Medicare's objectives. Accordingly, the health care provider
is receiving a benefit in the conventional sense of the term, unlike the
case of a contractor whom the Government does not regulate or assist for
long-term objectives or for purposes beyond performance of an immediate
transaction. Pp. 7-13. |
| [20] | (c) The Court does not suggest that federal funds disbursed under an assistance
program will result in coverage of all recipient fraud under §666(b). Adopting
a broad, almost limitless use of the term "benefits" would upset
the proper federal balance. The statutory inquiry should examine the conditions
under which the federal payments are received. The answer could depend,
as it does here, on whether the recipient's own operations are one of the
reasons for maintaining the program. The Government has a legitimate and
significant interest in prohibiting financial fraud or bribery being perpetrated
upon Medicare providers: Such acts threaten the program's integrity and
raise the risk participating organizations will lack the resources needed
to provide the requisite level and quality of care. Pp. 13-14. |
| [21] | 168 F. 3d 1273, affirmed. |
| [22] | Kennedy, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C.
J., and Stevens, O'Connor, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer, JJ., joined. Thomas,
J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Scalia, J., joined. |
| [23] | Court Below: 168 F. 3d 1273 |
| [24] | The opinion of the court was delivered by: Justice Kennedy |
| [25] | Opinion of the Court |
| [26] | FISCHER v. UNITED STATES |
| [27] | On Writ Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The Eleventh
Circuit |
| [28] | The federal bribery statute prohibits defrauding organizations which "receiv[e],
in any one year period, benefits in excess of $10,000 under a Federal program."
18 U. S. C. §666(b). We granted certiorari to determine whether the statute
covers fraud perpetrated on organizations participating in the Medicare
program. Upon consideration of the role and regulated status of hospitals
as health care providers under the Medicare program, we hold they receive
"benefits" within the meaning of the statute. We affirm petitioner's
convictions. |
| [29] | I. |
| [30] | Petitioner Jeffrey Allan Fischer was president and partial owner of Quality
Medical Consultants, Inc. (QMC), a corporation which performed billing audits
for health care organizations. In 1993 petitioner, on QMC's behalf, negotiated
a $1.2 million loan from West Volusia Hospital Authority (WVHA), a municipal
agency responsible for operating two hospitals located in West Volusia County,
Florida. Both hospitals participate in the Medicare program, and in 1993
WVHA received between $10 and $15 million in Medicare funds. |
| [31] | A February 1994 audit of WVHA's financial affairs raised questions about
the QMC loan. An investigation revealed QMC used the loan proceeds to repay
creditors and to raise the salaries of its five owner-employees, including
petitioner. It was determined that petitioner had arranged for QMC to advance
at least $100,000 to a private company owned by an individual who had assisted
QMC in securing a letter of credit in connection with the WVHA loan. QMC,
at petitioner's directive, also committed portions of the loan proceeds
to speculative securities. These investments yielded losses of almost $400,000.
The investigation further uncovered use of the loan proceeds to pay, through
an intermediate transfer, a $10,000 kickback to WVHA's chief financial officer,
the individual with whom petitioner had negotiated the loan in the first
instance. QMC defaulted on its obligation to WVHA and filed for bankruptcy. |
| [32] | In 1996 petitioner was indicted by a federal grand jury on 13 counts,
including charges of defrauding an organization which receives benefits
under a federal assistance program, 18 U. S. C. §666(a)(1)(A), and of paying
a kickback to one of its agents, §666(a)(2). A jury convicted petitioner
on all counts charged, and the District Court sentenced him to 65 months'
imprisonment and a 3-year term of supervised release. Petitioner, in addition,
was ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution. |
| [33] | On appeal petitioner argued that the Government failed to prove WVHA,
as the organization affected by his wrongdoing, received "benefits
in excess of $10,000 under a Federal program," as required by 18 U.
S. C. §666(b). Rejecting the argument, the United States Court of Appeals
for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the convictions. 168 F. 3d 1273 (1999).
It held that funds received by an organization constitute "benefits"
within the meaning of §666(b) if the source of the funds is a federal program,
like Medicare, which provides aid or assistance to participating organizations.
Id., at 1276-1277. Entities receiving federal funding under ordinary commercial
contracts, the court stated, fall outside the statute's coverage. Ibid.
(citing and discussing United States v. Copeland, 143 F. 3d 1439 (CA11 1998)
(holding that federal funds received under a contract to construct military
aircraft did not constitute "benefits" within the meaning of §666(b))).
The court added that its construction furthered "the statute's purpose
of protecting from fraud, theft, and undue influence by bribery the money
distributed to health care providers, and WVHA in particular, through the
federal Medicare program and other similar federal assistance programs."
168 F. 3d, at 1277. It rejected the view that the Medicare program provides
benefits only to its "targeted recipients," the qualifying patients.
Id., at 1278 (disagreeing with United States v. LaHue, 998 F. Supp. 1182
(Kan. 1998), aff'd, 170 F. 3d 1026 (CA10 1999)). |
| [34] | We granted certiorari, 528 U. S. ____ (1999), and we affirm. |
| [35] | II. |
| [36] | A. |
| [37] | The nature and purposes of the Medicare program give us essential instruction
in resolving the present controversy. Established in 1965 as part of the
Social Security Act, 42 U. S. C. §1395 et seq. (1994 ed. and Supp. III),
Medicare is a federally funded medical insurance program for the elderly
and disabled. In fiscal 1997 some 38.8 million individuals were enrolled
in the program, and over 6,100 hospitals were authorized to provide services
to them. U. S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Health Care Financing
Administration, 1998 Data Compendium 45, 75 (Aug. 1998). Medicare expenditures
for hospital services exceeded $123 billion in 1998, making the Federal
Government the single largest source of funds for participating hospitals.
See U. S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Health Care Financing Administration,
Highlights, National Health Expenditures, 1998, Table 9 (May 11, 2000),
http://www.hcfa.gov/stats/nhe-oact/tables/ t9.htm. This amount constituted
32% of the hospitals' total receipts. Ibid. |
| [38] | Providers of health care services, such as the two hospitals operated
by WVHA, qualify to participate in the program upon satisfying a comprehensive
series of statutory and regulatory requirements, including particular accreditation
standards. Hospitals, for instance, must satisfy licensing standards, 42
CFR §482.11 (1999); possess a governing body to "ensure that there
is an effective, hospital-wide quality assurance program to evaluate the
provision of patient care," §482.21; and employ a "well organized"
medical staff accountable on matters relating to "the quality of the
medical care provided to patients," §482.22(b). Medicare's implementing
regulations also require hospitals, among many other standards, to maintain
and provide 24-hour nursing services, §482.23; complete medical record services,
§482.24; "pharmaceutical services that meet the needs of the patients,"
§482.25; and organized dietary services staffed with qualified personnel,
§482.28. The regulations go further, requiring hospital facilities to "be
constructed, arranged, and maintained to ensure the safety of the patient,
and to provide facilities for diagnosis and treatment and for special hospital
services appropriate to the needs of the community." §482.41. Compliance
with these standards provides the Government with assurance that participating
providers possess the capacity to fulfill their statutory obligation of
providing "medically necessary" services "of a quality which
meets professionally recognized standards of health care." 42 U. S.
C. §1320c-5(a). Peer review organizations monitor providers' compliance
with these and other obligations. §1320c-3(a); 42 CFR §466.71 (1999). Sanctions
for noncompliance include dismissal from the program. 42 U. S. C. §1320c-5(b)(1). |
| [39] | Medicare attains its objectives through an elaborate funding structure.
Participating health care organizations, in exchange for rendering services,
receive federal funds on a periodic basis. §§1395g, 1395l. The amounts received
reflect the "reasonable cost" of services rendered, defined as
"the costs necessary in the efficient delivery of needed health services
to individuals covered [by the program]." §1395x(v)(1)(A). Necessary
costs are not limited to the immediate costs of an individual treatment
procedure. Instead they are defined in broader terms: "Necessary and
proper costs are costs that are appropriate and helpful in developing and
maintaining the operation of patient care facilities and activities."
42 CFR §413.9(b)(2) (1999). Allowable costs include amounts which enhance
the organization's capacity to provide ongoing, quality services not only
to eligible patients but also to the community at large. By way of example,
amounts incurred for "certain educational programs for interns and
residents, known as [graduate medical education] programs, are `allowable
cost[s]' for which a hospital (a provider) may receive reimbursement."
Regions Hospital v. Shalala, 522 U. S. 448, 452 (1998) (citing 42 CFR §413.85(a)
(1996)); see also §413.85(b) (1999); Thomas Jefferson Univ. v. Shalala,
512 U. S. 504, 507-508 (1994) (describing regulation of education programs).
"These programs," the Medicare regulations explain, "contribute
to the quality of patient care within an institution and are necessary to
meet the community's needs for medical and paramedical personnel. . . .
[M]any communities have not assumed responsibility for financing these programs
and it is necessary that support be provided by those purchasing healthcare.
Until communities undertake to bear these costs, the program will participate
appropriately in the support of these activities." 42 CFR §413.85(c)
(1999). Medicare also permits, indeed encourages, these providers to deposit
the amounts of reimbursements received for depreciation costs and other
cash into sinking funds called "funded depreciation accounts."
§413.134(e). Investment income earned on these funds does not operate to
reduce a provider's interest expense, §413.153(b)(2)(iii), creating incentives
to maintain modern medical equipment and facilities. |
| [40] | The Medicare regulations, furthermore, afford certain provider organizations
"special treatment," intended to ensure the ongoing availability
of medical services for qualifying patients. See 42 CFR pt. 412G (1999).
Providers qualifying as "Medicare-dependent, small rural hospitals,"
for instance, are entitled to additional, "lump sum" payments
to compensate for significant declines in demand for patient care. §412.108.
The additional funds enable a provider to "maintai[n] [its] necessary
core staff and services" and to satisfy its "fixed (and semi-fixed)
costs." §§412.108(d)(3)(A), (B). So too does the Medicare program authorize
"special treatment" for, among other providers, "sole community
hospitals," "renal transplantation centers," and "hospitals
that serve a disproportionate share of low-income patients." See §§412.92,
412.100, 412.106. The subsidies assist providers in satisfying those financial
obligations necessary to continue as going concerns in accordance with the
program's requirements. See, e.g., §412.92(d)(2). |
| [41] | In the normal course Medicare disbursements occur on a periodic basis,
often in advance of a provider's rendering services, 42 U. S. C. §1395g(a);
42 CFR §§413.60, 413.64 (1999). The payment system serves to "protect
providers' liquidity," Good Samaritan Hospital v. Shalala, 508 U. S.
402, 406 (1993), thereby assisting in the ongoing provision of services.
42 CFR §413.5(b)(1) (1999) (requiring reimbursement method to "result
in current payment so that institutions will not be disadvantaged, as they
sometimes are under other arrangements, by having to put up money for the
purchase of goods and services well before they receive reimbursement");
§413.5(b)(6) (reimbursement system must operate under "recognition
of the need of hospitals and other providers to keep pace with growing needs
and to make improvements"). The program, then, establishes correlating
and reinforcing incentives: The Government has an interest in making available
a high level of quality of care for the elderly and disabled; and providers,
because of their financial dependence upon the program, have incentives
to achieve program goals. The nature of the program bears on the question
of statutory coverage. |
| [42] | B. |
| [43] | Section 666 of Title 18 of the United States Code prohibits acts of theft
and fraud against organizations receiving funds under federal assistance
programs. The statute in relevant part provides as follows: |
| [44] | "(a) Whoever, if the circumstance described in subsection (b) of
this section exists -- |
| [45] | "(1) being an agent of an organization, or of a State, local, or
Indian tribal government, or any agency thereof -- |
| [46] | "(A) embezzles, steals, obtains by fraud, or otherwise without authority
knowingly converts to the use of any person other than the rightful owner
or intentionally misapplies, property that -- |
| [47] | "(i) is valued at $5,000 or more, and |
| [48] | "(ii) is owned by, or is under the care, custody, or control of such
organization, government, or agency; or |
| [49] | "(B) corruptly solicits or demands for the benefit of any person,
or accepts or agrees to accept, anything of value from any person, intending
to be influenced or rewarded in connection with any business, transaction,
or series of transactions of such organization, government, or agency involving
anything of value of $5,000 or more; or |
| [50] | "(2) corruptly gives, offers, or agrees to give anything of value
to any person, with intent to influence or reward an agent of an organization
or of a State, local or Indian tribal government, or any agency thereof,
in connection with any business, transaction, or series of transactions
of such organization, government, or agency involving anything of value
of $5,000 or more; |
| [51] | "shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years,
or both. |
| [52] | "(b) The circumstance referred to in subsection (a) of this section
is that the organization, government, or agency receives, in any one year
period, benefits in excess of $10,000 under a Federal program involving
a grant, contract, subsidy, loan, guarantee, insurance, or other form of
Federal assistance. |
| [53] | "(c) This section does not apply to bona fide salary, wages, fees,
or other compensation paid, or expenses paid or reimbursed, in the usual
course of business." |
| [54] | Liability for the acts prohibited by subsection (a) is predicated upon
a showing that the defrauded organization "receive[d], in any one period,
benefits in excess of $10,000 under a Federal program." §666(b). Those
benefits can be in the form of "a grant, contract, subsidy, loan, guarantee,
insurance, or other form of Federal assistance." Ibid. All agree Medicare
is a federal assistance program, see 42 CFR §400.200 (1999), and that WVHA,
as the organization defrauded by petitioner's actions, received in excess
of $10,000 in payments under the program. The sole point in contention is
whether those payments constituted "benefits," within the meaning
of subsection (b). |
| [55] | Petitioner argues that the Medicare program provides benefits to the elderly
and disabled but not to the health care organizations. Provider organizations,
in petitioner's view, do no more than render services in exchange for compensation.
Under petitioner's submission the Medicare program envisions a single beneficiary,
the qualifying patient. The Government, in opposition, urges that a determination
whether an organization receives "benefits" within the meaning
of §666(b) turns on whether the Federal Government was the source of the
payment. Funds received under a federal assistance program, the Government
asserts, can be traced from federal coffers, often through an intermediary
or carrier, to the health care provider. Under its view, the "federal-program
source of the funds" satisfies the benefits definition. Brief for United
States 11. |
| [56] | We reject petitioner's reading of the statute but without endorsing the
Government's broader position. We conclude Medicare payments are "benefits,"
as the term is used in its ordinary sense and as it is intended in the statute.
The noun "benefit" means "something that guards, aids, or
promotes well-being: advantage, good"; "useful aid"; "payment,
gift [such as] financial help in time of sickness, old age, or unemployment";
or "a cash payment or service provided for under an annuity, pension
plan, or insurance policy." Webster's Third New International Dictionary
204 (1971). These definitions support petitioner's assertion that qualifying
patients receive benefits under the Medicare program. It is commonplace
for individuals to refer to their retirement or health plans as "benefits."
So it ought not to be disputed that the elderly and disabled rank as the
primary beneficiaries of the Medicare program. See 42 U. S. C. §§1395c,
1395j; 42 CFR §400.202 (1999) (defining "beneficiary" as the "person
who is entitled to Medicare benefits"); Shalala v. Guernsey Memorial
Hospital, 514 U. S. 87, 91 (1995) ("Under the Medicare reimbursement
scheme ... participating hospitals furnish services to program beneficiaries
and are reimbursed by the Secretary through fiscal intermediaries");
Good Samaritan Hospital, 508 U. S., at 404 (same). |
| [57] | That one beneficiary of an assistance program can be identified does not
foreclose the existence of others, however. In this respect petitioner's
construction would give incomplete meaning to the term "benefits."
Medicare operates with a purpose and design above and beyond point-of-sale
patient care, and it follows that the benefits of the program extend in
a broader manner as well. The argument limiting the term "benefits"
to the program's targeted or primary beneficiaries would exclude, for example,
a Medicare intermediary (such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield), a result both
parties disavow. For present purposes it cannot be disputed the providers
themselves derive significant advantage by satisfying the participation
standards imposed by the Government. These advantages constitute benefits
within the meaning of the federal bribery statute, a statute we have described
as "expansive," "both as to the [conduct] forbidden and the
entities covered." Salinas v. United States, 522 U. S. 52, 56 (1997). |
| [58] | Subsection (b) identifies several sources as providing benefits under
a federal program -- "a grant, contract, subsidy, loan, guarantee,
insurance, or other form of Federal assistance." 18 U. S. C. §666(b).
This language indicates that Congress viewed many federal assistance programs
as providing benefits to participating organizations. Coupled with the broad
substantive prohibitions of subsection (a), the language of subsection (b)
reveals Congress' expansive, unambiguous intent to ensure the integrity
of organizations participating in federal assistance programs. |
| [59] | Subsection (c) of the statute bears on the analysis. The provision removes
from the statute's coverage any "bona fide salary, wages, fees, or
other compensation paid, or expenses paid or reimbursed, in the usual course
of business." §666(c). Petitioner argues that the subsection operates
to exclude the payments in question because they are either "compensation"
or "expenses paid or reimbursed," or some combination of the two,
and that the payments are made in the "usual course of business."
We disagree. |
| [60] | The subsection provides that the specified sorts of payments are not ones
to which the section applies. One inference from this formulation is that
the described payments would have been benefits but for the subsection (c)
exemption. We need not go so far. Even assuming the examples of subsection
(c) bear upon the definition of benefits, statutory examples of non-applicability
do not necessarily give rise to the inference that absent the enumeration
the statute would otherwise apply. To define all subsection (c) payments
as exempted benefits would go well beyond the ordinary meaning of the word.
On the other hand, the statute is not written to say "The term `benefits'
does not include bona fide salary, wages, fees, or other compensation paid,
or expenses paid or reimbursed, in the usual course of business." We
must construe the term "benefits," then, in a manner consistent
with Congress' intent not to reach the enumerated class of transactions.
See S. Rep. No. 98-225, p. 370 (1984) (stating that "not every Federal
contract or disbursement of funds would be covered [under §666]. For example,
if a government agency lawfully purchases more than $10,000 in equipment
from a supplier, it is not the intent of this section to make a theft of
$5,000 or more from the supplier a Federal crime"). |
| [61] | We do not accept the view that the Medicare payments here in question
are for the limited purposes of compensating providers or reimbursing them
for ordinary course expenditures. The payments are made for significant
and substantial reasons in addition to compensation or reimbursement, so
that neither these terms nor the usual course of business conditions set
forth in subsection (c) are met here. The payments in question have attributes
and purposes well beyond those described in subsection (c). These attributes
and purposes are consistent with the definition of "benefit."
While the payments might have similarities to payments an insurer would
remit to a hospital quite without regard to the Medicare program, the Government
does not make the payment unless the hospital complies with its intricate
regulatory scheme. The payments are made not simply to reimburse for treatment
of qualifying patients but to assist the hospital in making available and
maintaining a certain level and quality of medical care, all in the interest
of both the hospital and the greater community. |
| [62] | Here, as we have explained, the provider itself is the object of substantial
Government regulation. Medicare is designed to the end that the Government
receives not only reciprocal value from isolated transactions but also long-term
advantages from the existence of a sound and effective health care system
for the elderly and disabled. The Government enacted specific statutes and
regulations to secure its own interests in promoting the well being and
advantage of the health care provider, in addition to the patient who receives
care. The health care provider is receiving a benefit in the conventional
sense of the term, unlike the case of a contractor whom the Government does
not regulate or assist for long-term objectives or for significant purposes
beyond performance of an immediate transaction. Adequate payment and assistance
to the health care provider is itself one of the objectives of the program.
These purposes and effects suffice to make the payment a benefit within
the meaning of the statute. |
| [63] | The structure and operation of the Medicare program reveal a comprehensive
federal assistance enterprise aimed at ensuring the availability of quality
health care for the broader community. Participating health care organizations,
as our above discussion shows, must satisfy a series of qualification and
accreditation requirements, standards aimed in part at ensuring the provision
of a certain quality of care. See 42 CFR pt. 482 (1999). By reimbursing
participating providers for a wide range of costs and expenses, including
medical treatment costs, overhead costs, and education costs, Medicare's
reimbursement system furthers this objective. This scheme is structured
to ensure that providers possess the capacity to render, on an ongoing basis,
medical care to the program's qualifying patients. The structure, moreover,
proves untenable petitioner's assertion that Congress has no interest in
the financial stability of providers once services are rendered to patients.
Payments are made in a manner calculated to maintain provider stability.
§413.5(b); Good Samaritan Hospital, 508 U. S., at 406. Incentives are given
for long-term improvements, such as capital costs and education. §§413.85,
413.134(e), 413.153(b)(2)(iii). Subsidies, defined as "special treatment,"
are awarded to certain providers. Id., pt. 412G. In short, provider organizations
play a vital role and maintain a high level of responsibility in carrying
out the program's purposes. Medicare funds, in turn, provide benefits extending
beyond isolated, point-of-sale treatment transactions. The funds health
care organizations receive for participating in the Medicare program constitute
"benefits" within the meaning of 18 U. S. C. §666(b). |
| [64] | Our discussion should not be taken to suggest that federal funds disbursed
under an assistance program will result in coverage of all recipient fraud
under §666(b). Any receipt of federal funds can, at some level of generality,
be characterized as a benefit. The statute does not employ this broad, almost
limitless use of the term. Doing so would turn almost every act of fraud
or bribery into a federal offense, upsetting the proper federal balance.
To determine whether an organization participating in a federal assistance
program receives "benefits," an examination must be undertaken
of the program's structure, operation, and purpose. The inquiry should examine
the conditions under which the organization receives the federal payments.
The answer could depend, as it does here, on whether the recipient's own
operations are one of the reasons for maintaining the program. Health care
organizations participating in the Medicare program satisfy this standard. |
| [65] | The Government has a legitimate and significant interest in prohibiting
financial fraud or acts of bribery being perpetrated upon Medicare providers.
Fraudulent acts threaten the program's integrity. They raise the risk participating
organizations will lack the resources requisite to provide the level and
quality of care envisioned by the program. Cf. Salinas, 522 U. S., at 61
(stating that acceptance of bribes by an official of a jail housing federal
prisoners pursuant to an agreement with the Government "was a threat
to the integrity and proper operation of the federal program"). |
| [66] | Other cases may present questions requiring further examination and elaboration
of the term "benefits." Here it suffices to hold that health care
providers such as the one defrauded by petitioner receive benefits within
the meaning of the statute. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed. |
| [67] | It is so ordered. |
| [68] | Thomas, J., dissenting |
| [69] | FISCHER v. UNITED STATES |
| [70] | SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES |
| [71] | No. 99-116 |
| [72] | JEFFREY ALLAN FISCHER, PETITIONER v. UNITED STATES |
| [73] | on writ of certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the eleventh
circuit |
| [74] | [May 15, 2000] |
| [75] | Justice Thomas, with whom Justice Scalia joins, dissenting. |
| [76] | In my view, the only persons who receive "benefits" under Medicare
are the individual elderly and disabled Medicare patients, not the medical
providers who serve them. Payments made by the Federal Government to a Medicare
health care provider to reimburse the provider for the costs of services
rendered, rather than to provide financial aid to the hospital, are not
"benefits." I respectfully dissent. |
| [77] | I. |
| [78] | The jurisdictional provision of 18 U. S. C. §666(b) requires that an "organization,
government, or agency receiv[e], in any one year period, benefits in excess
of $10,000 under a Federal program involving a grant, contract, subsidy,
loan, guarantee, insurance, or other form of Federal assistance." As
the Court notes, an organization is not a beneficiary of a federal program
merely because the organization receives federal funds. Ante, at 9, 13.
Rather, as the Court admits, a "benefit" is something that "guards,
aids, or promotes well-being"; "useful aid"; or a "payment,
gift [as] financial help in time of sickness, old age, or unemployment."
Webster's Third New International Dictionary 204 (1971). Therefore, the
Court acknowledges, an organization "receives ... benefits" within
the meaning of §666(b) only if the federal funds are designed to guard,
aid, or promote the well-being of the organization, to provide useful aid
to the organization, or to give the organization financial help in time
of trouble. In my view, payments made by the Federal Government to a Medicare
health care provider as part of a market transaction are not "benefits."*fn1 |
| [79] | The statutory and regulatory scheme governing Medicare reimbursements
leaves no doubt that hospitals do not receive "benefits" from
the Federal Government within this meaning of the term, but merely receive
payments for costs pursuant to a market transaction. Although the Medicare
reimbursement scheme is quite complex, it suffices to point out a few critical
components.*fn2 |
| [80] | Under the "reasonable cost" reimbursement provisions relied
on by the Court, ante, at 5-7, the Federal Government reimburses providers
for "the cost actually incurred, excluding therefrom any part of incurred
cost found to be unnecessary in the efficient delivery of needed health
services." 42 U. S. C. §1395x(v)(1)(A). The Social Security Act that
created Medicare instructed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to
promulgate regulations establishing the methods of determining "reasonable
costs" and specifically directed the Secretary to consider, among other
things, reimbursement methods used by private insurers. Ibid. See also Shalala
v. Guernsey Memorial Hospital, 514 U. S. 87, 91-92 (1995). |
| [81] | Under these regulations, the Federal Government reimburses medical providers
based upon the lower of the provider's reasonable cost of furnishing these
services to beneficiaries or the provider's customary charges for the services.
42 CFR §413.1(b) (1999). The regulations are designed to provide reimbursement
for the actual cost of providing care to elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries.
See §413.5(a) ("Thus, the application of this approach, with appropriate
accounting support, will result in meeting actual costs of services to beneficiaries").
The regulations make clear that the Federal Government will reimburse hospitals
only for the costs of providing medical care to Medicare patients, as opposed
to nonbeneficiary patients. §413.80(d) ("Under Medicare ... costs of
services provided for other than beneficiaries are not to be borne by the
Medicare program"); §413.9(a) ("All payments to providers of services
must be based on the reasonable cost of services covered under Medicare
and related to the care of beneficiaries"); §413.9(c)(3) ("The
determination of reasonable cost of services must be based on cost related
to the care of Medicare beneficiaries"). |
| [82] | Although these reimbursement provisions permit hospitals to recover capital
costs, such as the cost of maintaining building facilities, §413.9(c), the
allowable reimbursement for these expenditures is only the amount reasonably
attributable to Medicare patients as opposed to general maintenance of the
facilities. See §413.9(b) ("The objective is that under the methods
of determining costs, the costs with respect to individuals covered by the
program will not be borne by individuals not so covered, and the costs with
respect to individuals not so covered will not be borne by the program"). |
| [83] | The "prospective payment system" adopted by Congress in 1983
to increase efficiency and reduce costs operates somewhat differently than
the "reasonable cost" provisions but is also designed to reimburse
hospitals for the cost of providing care to Medicare beneficiaries. 42 U.
S. C. §1395ww; 42 CFR pt. 412 (1999). Under this system, the Medicare program
pays hospitals a fixed price for each case based on the patient's diagnosis
related grouping (DRG), which is assigned based on the patient's diagnosis,
age, and sex, among other things. 42 U. S. C. 1395ww(e); 24 CFR §412.60
(1999). The DRG figure represents the average cost of treating patients
within the DRG. 42 U. S. C. §1395ww(d)(2); 49 Fed. Reg. 251 (1984). Significantly,
because hospitals are paid fixed amounts based on the DRG, the hospital,
like any other private contractor, bears the risk of higher costs. See Kinney,
Making Hard Choices under the Medicare Prospective Payment System: One Administrative
Model for Allocating Medical Resources under a Government Health Insurance
Program, 19 Ind. L. Rev. 1151, 1151-1152 (1986). |
| [84] | Thus, the statute and regulations make clear that medical providers are
entitled only to reimbursement for the actual or estimated cost of services
rendered to Medicare patients and that individual elderly and disabled patients
-- not hospitals -- are the beneficiaries of the Medicare program. Indeed,
the Social Security Act explicitly says so. See 42 U. S. C. §1395a(b)(5)
(1994 ed., Supp. III) ("The term `medicare beneficiary' means an individual
who is entitled to benefits" (emphasis added)). The Act repeatedly
refers to Medicare "benefits" as assistance provided to individual
participants, rather than to medical providers. See, e.g., §1395a ("Any
individual entitled to insurance benefits under this subchapter");
§1395b-2 ("Such notice shall be mailed annually to individuals entitled
to benefits under part A or part B of this subchapter and when an individual
applies for benefits under part A of this subchapter or enrolls under part
B of this subchapter"); §1395b-4(a) ("health insurance coverage
to individuals who are eligible to receive benefits under this subchapter");
§1395b-4(b)(2)(A)(i) ("information that may assist individuals in obtaining
benefits"). In contrast, the Act commonly refers to "payments"
to providers of medical services. See, e.g., §1395g(a) ("no such payments
shall be made to any provider unless it has furnished such information as
the Secretary may request"); §1395f(a) ("payment for services
furnished an individual may be made only to providers of services");
§1395n(a) (1994 ed. and Supp. III) ("payment for services ... furnished
an individual may be made only to providers of services which are eligible").
This terminology, and the Medicare regulations defining allowable costs,
reflect the fact that Medicare is a program for providing "financial
help" to individual elderly and disabled patients rather than to the
health care providers who treat them. Medicare's provisions for reimbursing
providers' costs do nothing more than establish a market exchange of payment
for services, and so cannot be said to provide "benefits" within
the meaning of 18 U. S. C. §666(b). |
| [85] | II. |
| [86] | Although the statutory provisions and regulations cited above demonstrate
that Medicare operates as a reimbursement scheme with respect to health
care providers, and not as a means of providing them "useful aid"
or "financial help," the Court finds in the statute and regulations
evidence that health care providers are, along with the individual elderly
and disabled patients, also target beneficiaries of the program. I think
that the Court's reasoning is both unpersuasive and boundless; any funds
flowing from a federal assistance program could be deemed "benefits"
under the Court's rationale, notwithstanding the Court's concluding disclaimer
of such a result. Thus, although the Court purports to reject the Government's
argument that "benefits" means "funds that originate in a
federal assistance program," the Court, in practice, adopts it. |
| [87] | A. |
| [88] | First, the Court describes Medicare's elaborate funding structure and
notes that Medicare's reasonable cost recovery system allows recovery of
certain capital costs and the costs of education and training. Ante, at
5. These provisions of Medicare do not establish that hospitals receive
"benefits." To the contrary, the capital costs recoverable under
those provisions of Medicare are the costs tied to the treatment of Medicare
patients. See supra, at 3. In this sense, the cost provisions of Medicare
expressly defeat any suggestion that they are meant to provide a "benefit"
to the hospital. These provisions are not designed to provide financial
assistance to the hospital; they are designed to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries
receive quality medical care. And again, the Medicare program picks up only
the portion of the costs attributable to the care of Medicare beneficiaries.
42 CFR §§413.50, 413.85 (1999). In fact, the Court does not grapple with
the evidence that Medicare systematically under-compensates health care
providers, evidence that would further undermine the notion that hospitals
are receiving some form of financial assistance from the program. See Utz,
Federalism in Health Care: Costs and Benefits, 28 Conn. L. Rev. 127, 138-139
(1995). |
| [89] | Second, the Court relies on the numerous obligations imposed on health
care providers participating in Medicare. Ante, at 4-7. The Court notes
that health care providers must satisfy licensing standards, provide a laundry
list of particular health care services, and ensure an effective quality-assurance
program. I assume, however, that the same could be said of most Government
contractors. The defense contractor who agrees to build the military's equipment
is, no doubt, subject to an extensive list of statutory and regulatory requirements,
not because the Government intends to provide "benefits" to the
contractor, but because the Federal Government intends to place controls
on the expenditure of federal dollars. See United States v. Copeland, 143
F. 3d 1439, 1442 (CA11 1998) (discussing regulatory burdens on defense contractors).
Similarly, private insurers no doubt impose various requirements on those
who receive reimbursements from them. In requiring hospitals to meet certain
standards, the Federal Government is no different from these private insurers,
except that the Federal Government exercises vastly greater market power.
In other words, the imposition on health care providers of an intricate
regulatory scheme is irrelevant to the question whether funds paid pursuant
to that scheme are benefits. |
| [90] | Third, the Court contends that some health care providers receive "special
treatment" in the form of lump sum payments designed to ensure the
providers' ability to satisfy financial obligations. Ante, at 6. This feature
of Medicare is also insufficient to show that any "benefits" were
received by West Volusia Hospital Authority. These payments, which are part
of the prospective payment system, see supra, at 3-4, are based on estimated
costs of providing services to Medicare beneficiaries. See, e.g., 42 CFR
§412.108 (1999). Like the standard reimbursement schemes outlined above,
this payment system does not subsidize the hospital, it pays the hospital
prospectively for performing a service. |
| [91] | Finally, the Court concludes, based on its observations of Medicare, that
"Medicare operates with a purpose and design above and beyond point-of-sale
patient care," namely, "ensuring the availability of quality health
care for the broader community." Ante, at 10, 12. According to the
Court, Medicare guarantees that "providers possess the capacity to
render, on an on-going basis, medical care to the program's qualifying patients."
Ante, at 13. In other words, Medicare exists to guarantee patients' access
to quality medical care. Quality medical care is available only if medical
providers remain financially viable. Medicare payments create demand for
medical services and, therefore, provide "benefits" to health
care providers. This syllogism, however, amounts to nothing more than the
self-evident point that Medicare aims to ensure that the beneficiaries of
the program -- patients -- are able to receive the program's intended benefits.
It does not establish that Medicare exists to put hospitals on the dole. |
| [92] | In short, none of the components of Medicare cited by the Court establishes
that benefits flow to hospitals. It is significant that, although the Court
repeatedly invokes, mantra-like, its conclusion that Medicare exists for
a purpose above and beyond reimbursing hospitals for treating Medicare patients,
see, e.g., ante, at 10, 11, 12, 13, when the Court comes around to actually
identifying this purpose, it can only state: "The structure and operation
of the Medicare program reveal a comprehensive federal assistance enterprise
aimed at ensuring the availability of quality health care for the broader
community." Ante, at 12. The Court cannot bring itself to say, as it
must, that Medicare exists for the hospital.*fn3 |
| [93] | B. |
| [94] | Although the Court disclaims the Government's argument that "benefits"
means only funds provided under a federal assistance program, the Court,
in practice, adopts it. The Court's expansive rationale could be applied
to any federal assistance program that provides funds to any organization.
This result is inconsistent with the plain meaning of the statute. If Congress
had meant to apply §666 to any organization that receives "funds"
totaling more than $10,000 per annum, it would have said so. Cf. 18 U. S.
C. §665 ("Whoever, being ... connected in any capacity with any agency
or organization receiving financial assistance or any funds under [a certain
federal program] knowingly enrolls an ineligible participant, embezzles,
willfully misapplies, steals, or obtains by fraud any of the moneys, funds,
assets, or property which are the subject of a financial assistance agreement
or contract pursuant to such Act shall be [punished]"). Congress, for
that matter, could have omitted the word "benefits" from the statute
and provided simply that any organization that "receives, in any one
year period, in excess of $10,000 under a Federal program involving a ...
form of federal assistance" is covered by the statute. That Congress
did not do so suggests that the word "benefits" has a meaning
separate and apart from the words "under a Federal program involving
a ... form of federal assistance." I am doubtful that the Court's interpretation
gives any meaning at all to the word "benefits" in §666(b) because,
under the Court's rationale, any organization that receives $10,000 under
a Federal program involving Federal assistance receives "benefits"
in such an amount. |
| [95] | This expansive construction of §666(b) is, at the very least, inconsistent
with the rule of lenity -- which the Court does not discuss. This principle
requires that, to the extent that there is any ambiguity in the term "benefits,"
we should resolve that ambiguity in favor of the defendant. See United States
v. Bass, 404 U. S. 336, 347 (1971) ("In various ways over the years,
we have stated that when choice has to be made between two readings of what
conduct Congress has made a crime, it is appropriate, before we choose the
harsher alternative, to require that Congress should have spoken in language
that is clear and definite" (internal quotation marks omitted)). |
| [96] | C. |
| [97] | I doubt that there is any federal assistance program that does not provide
"benefits" to organizations under the Court's expansive rationale,
but will illustrate my point with just one example employed by two lower
courts. See United States v. Wyncoop, 11 F. 3d 119, 123 (CA9 1993); United
States v. LaHue, 998 F. Supp. 1182, 1187 (Kan. 1998), aff'd, 170 F. 3d 1026
(CA10 1999). Many grocery stores accept more than $10,000 per annum in food
stamps distributed to individual beneficiaries as part of the Federal Food
Stamp and Food Distribution Program. Like Medicare providers, stores participating
in the Food Stamp Program are required to satisfy a comprehensive series
of statutory and regulatory requirements. See 7 CFR pt. 278 (1999). For
example, stores are qualified to participate only if they sell an adequate
percentage of staple foods such as meat, cereal, and dairy products. §278.1(b)(1).
Stores must document an ability to attract food stamp business and demonstrate
the business integrity and reputation of the store owners and managers.
§§278.1(b)(2)-(3). Like Medicare, the Food Stamp Program monitors the providers'
compliance with the program's requirements. See §278.1(n). Like Medicare,
the Food Stamp Program sanctions noncompliance with dismissal from the program.
§278.1(l). And, the Food Stamp Program is like Medicare in that it can be
described as having "a purpose and design above and beyond point-of-sale"
of food. Ante, at 10. Undoubtedly, the Food Stamp program helps to address
the "grocery gap," that is, the lack of availability of reasonably
priced nutritional foods in some low-income and rural areas. See Note, Food
Stamp Trafficking: Why Small Groceries Need Judicial Protection from the
Department of Agriculture (And from Their Own Employees), 96 Mich. L. Rev.
2156, 2176-2177 (1998); Department of Agriculture, Office of Analysis &
Evaluation, Food Retailers in the Food Stamp Program: Characteristics and
Service to Program Participants 15 (Feb. 1997) (Table 6). There is ample
evidence on the face of the statute and regulations that Congress and the
agency had in mind the need to ensure that low-income communities have access
to grocery stores. See 7 U. S. C. §2021(a) (1994 ed., Supp. IV) (requiring
the Secretary to consider hardship to the community in making disqualification
determinations); 7 CFR §278.1(b)(1)(ii)(C) (1999) (listing availability
of food stores in the community as a factor relevant to a firm's application
to participate in the program). It could be said, therefore, that the grocery
store's "own operations are one of the reasons for maintaining the
program." Ante, at 13. |
| [98] | To my mind, the reason that a corner grocery does not receive "benefits"
is simply that it merely receives payment from the Government in a market
transaction. I fail to see, however, how the Court could reach the same
conclusion that I would. Although the Court assures us that its holding
today is narrow and factbound, depending on the "structure, operation,
and purpose" of Medicare, ibid., the consequences of the Court's reasoning
are far reaching. In fact, the Court candidly acknowledges that its interpretation
is expansive when it reads 18 U. S. C. §666(b) to suggest that "Congress
viewed many federal assistance programs as providing benefits to participating
organizations." Ante, at 10 (emphasis added). In contrast, I think
that the plain language of §666(b) reflects a congressional intent to reach
only those organizations that are themselves the beneficiaries of "useful
aid" or "financial help in time of sickness, old age, or unemployment,"
rather than organizations that merely receive funds as part of a market
transaction for goods or services. |
| [99] | For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent. |
|
|
|
| Opinion Footnotes | |
|
|
|
| [100] | *fn1 Even if I thought that, under a
reading of §666(b) standing alone, a market exchange of payment for services
might amount to "benefits," §666(c) would eliminate that doubt.
Section 666(c) makes clear that "bona fide ... expenses paid or reimbursed,
in the usual course of business," are not covered by the statute. As
discussed below, Medicare payments to health care providers are precisely
this type of payment. |
| [101] | *fn2 In 1993, the year relevant to the
instant case, Medicare consisted of two separate programs, Parts A and B.
Part A provides insurance for certain elderly or disabled persons to cover
the costs of inpatient hospital care, nursing facility care, home health
services, and hospice care. See generally 42 U. S. C. §§1395c -- 1395i-4.
Part B is a voluntary program that provides supplemental benefits to elderly
or disabled Medicare participants to cover the costs of, among other things,
physician services, laboratory and diagnostic tests, ambulance services,
and prescription drugs. See generally §§1395j -- 1395w-4. The Government
did not present evidence at petitioner's trial regarding which provisions
of Medicare accounted for the payments made to the West Volusia Hospital
Authority in 1993. |
| [102] | *fn3 And even if I were to accept that
some provisions of Medicare -- the special treatment provisions, for example
-- provide a benefit to health care providers, there is no evidence in the
record that West Volusia Hospital Authority received any such payments.
Without such evidence, the Court's reliance on special provisions to uphold
petitioner's conviction is improper. Title 18 U. S. C. §666(b) is, after
all, a jurisdictional provision that allows federal prosecution only if
the specific organization at issue received more than $10,000 in "benefits."
The Court treats the provision as window dressing. It is not necessary,
under the Court's view, to show that this organization received benefits.
It is sufficient to show that some hospitals receive them. This approach
is particularly inappropriate because §666(b), or some similar jurisdictional
provision, is constitutionally required. Section 666 was adopted pursuant
to Congress' spending power, Art. I, §8, cl. 1. We have held that the spending
power requires, at least, that the exercise of federal power be related
"to the federal interest in particular national projects or programs."
South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U. S. 203, 207 (1987) (internal quotation marks
omitted). See id., at 213 (O'Connor, J., dissenting). Arguably, if Congress
attempted to criminalize acts of theft or bribery based solely on the fact
that -- in circumstances unrelated to the theft or bribery -- the victim
organization received federal funds as payment for a market transaction,
this constitutional requirement would not be satisfied. Without a jurisdictional
provision that would ensure that in each case the exercise of federal power
is related to the federal interest in a federal program, §666 would criminalize
routine acts of fraud or bribery, which, as the Court admits, would "upse[t]
the proper federal balance." Ante, at 13. Cf. United States v. Lopez,
514 U. S. 549, 561 (1995) ("[Section] 922(q) contains no jurisdictional
element which would ensure, through case-by-case inquiry, that the firearm
possession in question affects interstate commerce"). |
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