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Dear USET/USET SPF Family,
We write to make you aware of our participation, along with partner Tribal organizations and Tribal Nations, in a Tribal amicus brief in the cases of Becerra v. San Carlos Apache Tribe and Becerra v. Northern Arapaho Tribe. These consolidated cases are now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
These cases involve the important question of whether the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) owes contract support costs (CSC) related to funding reimbursed by third-party payors, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers. These cases ask whether HHS owes CSC not only to support HHS-funded activities, but also to support Tribal Nations’ expenditure of program income collected from third-party payors. Both types of funding are utilized by Tribal Nations to finance Indian health care programs contracted for through the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth and Tenth Circuits held in the Tribal Nations’ favor, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari to review those decisions. Oral arguments are now scheduled for March 25.
The Tribal amicus brief in which USET SPF participated focuses on the history and evolution of ISDEAA CSC provisions. It discusses ISDEAA provisions designed to compensate Tribal Nations for all CSC incurred in operating a federal program, and it describes how obtaining and spending reimbursements from third-party payors is part of the federal program for which Tribal Nations contract pursuant to ISDEAA.
As we have previously reported, USET SPF also participated in a Tribal amicus brief filed in the San Carlos Apache Tribe case when it was before the Ninth Circuit. That brief similarly explained that Congress assigned third-party revenues to serve as an integral funding stream for these federal programs.
We will continue to follow these cases and will provide further updates as they develop.
For more information, please contact Liz Malerba, USET SPF Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs, at lmalerba@usetinc.org or Katie Klass, USET SPF General Counsel, at kklass@usetinc.org.
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