8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Digest: March 14.

Byline: admin

CIVIL OPINIONS

Administrative

Medicare Reimbursement

Volume-Decrease Adjustment

Where rural hospitals challenged the method that the government used to calculate the volume-decrease adjustment for payment amounts, the interpretation was not arbitrary or capricious and was consistent with the regulation, and the judgment is affirmed because the decision to classify certain costs that are directly tied to patient volume as variable was neither arbitrary nor capricious. Judgment is affirmed.

18-1316 Unity HealthCare v. Azar, appealed from the Northern District of Iowa, Erickson, J.

Administrative

Supplemental Security Income

Denial of Application; Residual Functional Capacity Determination

Plaintiff appealed the District Court's upholding of the denial of plaintiff's application for supplemental security income, challenging the administrative law judge's determination of plaintiff's residual functional capacity

Where the ALJ gave valid reasons to discount plaintiff's subjected mental complaint and discounted plaintiff's psychologist's opinion where he had examined plaintiff only once, the ALJ's RFC determination was proper where consistent with plaintiff's treatment records. Judgment is affirmed.

18-1705 Riley v. Commissioner, Social Security Administration, appealed from the District of Minnesota, per curiam.

Civil Practice

Forfeiture

Specificity Requirement; Traffic Stop

Where a trucking company asserted it was the owner of two boxes of cash found in the cab of a tractor-trailer truck during a traffic stop, the statement that it was the owner of the currency and that it had "a claim to, interest in, and right to the property" satisfied the specificity requirement, and an earlier decision that created a conflict in the circuits is overruled in part.

Judgment is reversed and remanded.

16-3646 U.S. v. LNG Express, Inc. appealed from U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas, Colloton, J.

Civil Practice

First Amendment

Intimate Association; Qualified Immunity

Where a dispatcher, who was fired from her county employment after her sheriff-husband resigned while facing harassment allegations, brought claims that the county and acting sheriff violated her First Amendment right to intimate association, the termination did not constitute substantial interference with the marriage and did not amount to a constitutional violation, so the denial of summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity is reversed.

Judgment is...