The US Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County v Talevski, which could determine whether people and health care providers will be able to seek the aid of the courts when official state actions threaten federal Medicaid rights. Community health centers have special payment protections under federal law. Should health centers lose the ability to enforce their right to federally qualified health center (FQHC) Medicaid payments at the full prospective payment system (PPS) rate, we estimate that nationwide, health centers’ lost revenue for one year could be between $643 million and $4.1 billion—translating into between 500,000 and 3.2 million fewer patients served and between 2 million and 13 million fewer patient visits.
