SCOTUS punts on California Medicaid lawsuit

Excerpt from Politico: (click for entire article)

The Supreme Court is punting on a key question about when Medicaid providers and beneficiaries have the right to sue over cuts to the federal-state health care program.

That was the major question at the heart of Douglas v. Independent Living Center, in which provider and consumer groups claimed that California violated federal law by cutting Medicaid provider payment rates. They went to court under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, essentially saying that provisions of the federal Medicaid statute should block the provider cuts.

But on Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that actions taken since the case was filed made the Supremacy Clause question moot and sent it back to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.