Federal Lawsuit from AHA and Four Other Providers Accuse HHS of Illegally Denying Medicare Payments Joe Carlson at Modern Healthcare reports the story: In a federal lawsuit, the American Hospital Association and four healthcare providers accuse HHS of illegally denying hospitals Medicare payments for audited outpatient procedures. The Chicago-based interest group for hospitals says in the complaint that HHS maintains an illegal policy of refusing to pay hospitals for Medicare outpatient services in cases where auditors retroactively conclude that inpatient care should have been delivered outside the hospital. “What the federal government is doing is wrong, unfair and a clear violation…