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No. 23-250October Term 2023Decided Jun 6, 2024

Docket 23-250October Term 2023 (2023–2024)

Becerra v. San Carlos Apache Tribe

The Supreme Court ruled that the Indian Health Service must reimburse tribes for overhead costs associated with spending healthcare revenue collected from third-party payers like Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers.

Case status

Current stage
Decided
Latest event
Decision released Jun 6, 2024
Case AcceptedNov 20, 2023
Arguments HeardMar 25, 2024
Decision ReleasedJun 6, 2024
What it's about

The Supreme Court ruled that the Indian Health Service must reimburse tribes for overhead costs associated with spending healthcare revenue collected from third-party payers like Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers. The decision affirmed that the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act requires the government to cover these contract support costs to support tribal self-governance in healthcare administration.

Question presented

Must the Indian Health Service pay “contract support costs” not only to support IHS-funded activities, but also to support the tribe’s expenditure of income collected from third parties?

Case path

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit / Decision released Jun 6, 2024

Area

Business and Regulation