The United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Department Secretary Xavier Becerra are being sued by the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC). A civil suit was made by YKHC in U.S. District Court on March 29. It says that Becerra and his department owe almost $26 million in unpaid contract support costs from fiscal year 2016.
The lawsuit says that these costs could include indirect administrative or overhead costs, costs for managing money, or other costs that come up over and over again, such as worker’s compensation insurance.
Another similar suit was made the day before by the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC). It was also against DHHS and Secretary Becerra for $8 million in unpaid costs. Both tribal health care companies had to pay those costs when they billed private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid.
The health consortium had until March 28, 2024, to file its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Alaska. This was the last day they could go to court over the eight-year disagreement. Xavier Becerra, who is Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the United States of America are both linked to the charge.
SEARHC says in the lawsuit that the Indian Health Service didn’t take into account the hidden costs of handling “third-party revenues” when it paid back expenses in 2016. “Third-party revenues” are the money that SEARHC gets from Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance. The Indian Health Service pays most of SEARHC’s costs through a deal called the Alaska Tribal Health Compact. However, the lawsuit says the government should pay “full contract support costs,” which SEARHC says includes the costs of billing outside parties.
There are a few U.S. Supreme Court decisions used by SEARHC to support its claim in its brief, but the Indian Health Service (IHS), which is run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, doesn’t agree. The department wrote to SEARHC CEO Charles Clement in 2023 to deny the claim. They said that IHS had paid SEARHC almost $59 million in 2016, which included over $3 million in direct contract support costs and $17 million in secondary contract support costs. In it, it says, “Neither the parties’ compact nor the Funding Agreement includes an agreement that Contract Support Costs include any costs other than the amount set out in the compact.”
The government agency also says that SEARHC didn’t show any proof that it is owed an extra $8 million for the costs it spent by billing private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Miller, & Monkman is an Anchorage law company that works with SEARHC and YKHC. He or she has sixty days to answer to both cases from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary.
