McGuireWoods Consulting senior vice president Mike Andrews was quoted in Healthcare Finance News for a story on the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 6, 2024, decision in Becerra v. San Carlos Apache Tribe. The 5-4 court ruled that the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act requires the federal Indian Health Service to reimburse tribes for overhead costs for contracted health services from third parties, including private insurers, Medicare and Medicaid.
Becerra is a win for tribal finances, Andrews said. Tribes have been paying for third-party administrative services and, in some cases, third-party billing represents millions of dollars. Since nontribal providers also don’t get reimbursed for administrative expenses, tribes were asking for what other hospitals don’t get, Andrews noted.
The Supreme Court’s four dissenting justices — Brett Cavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — did not want to give tribes a benefit not available to everybody else, he added.
Regarding the federal cost, the administrative reimbursement is a small part of the overall budget. “I thought this one was a resolution for Tribal sovereignty,” Andrews said. “This is a win for tribes.”
Andrews is former chief counsel to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, where he helped pass over 50 bills signed into law. He also served as a senior executive at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where he focused on border security matters.
