Powers recently authored an amici curiae brief in Armstrong v. Exceptional Child Center, Docket No. 14-15 (U.S.), currently pending before the Supreme Court of the United States. The case raises the question of whether Medicaid providers have a private right of action under the Supremacy Clause to challenge whether their Medicaid rates comply with standards in the Medicaid Act.
The brief was filed on behalf of six national associations representing health care providers — the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living, the American Network of Community Options and Resources, the American Pharmacists Association, America’s Essential Hospitals, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, and the National Community Pharmacists Association. The brief argued that Medicaid providers have private rights of action to enforce Medicaid reimbursement requirements under both 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Supremacy Clause based upon 42 U.S.C. §§ 1320a-2 and 1320a-10. These statutory provisions were enacted in 1994 and set the terms upon which private right of action cases involving the Social Security Act are to be resolved.
The Exceptional Child Center case was argued on January 20, 2015, and a decision is expected by the end of June or the beginning of July, 2015.