506
Opinion of the Court
General Hunger, Deputy Solicitor General Kneedler, Robert V. Zener, Robert D. Kamenshine, Harriet S. Rabb, Darrel J. Grinstead, Henry R. Goldberg, and Thomas W. Coons.*
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court.
Although Medicare reimburses provider hospitals for the costs of certain educational activities, the program is forbidden by regulation from "participat[ing] in increased costs resulting from redistribution of costs from educational institutions . . . to patient care institutions." 42 CFR § 413.85(c) (1993) (emphasis added). In denying reimbursement for the disputed costs in this case, the Secretary of Health and Human Services interpreted this provision to bar reimbursement of educational costs that were borne in prior years not by the requesting hospital, but by the hospital's affiliated medical school. The dispositive question is whether the Secretary's interpretation is a reasonable construction of the regulatory language. We conclude that it is.
I
A
Established in 1965 under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act, 79 Stat. 291, as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 1395 et seq. (1988 ed. and Supp. IV), Medicare is a federally funded health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. Subject to a few exceptions, Congress authorized the Secretary
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the State of Ohio et al. by Lee Fisher, Attorney General of Ohio, Diane M. Signoracci, Catherine M. Ballard, Richard A. Cordray, and Simon B. Karas, and by the Attorneys General for their respective States as follows: Winston Bryant of Arkansas, Charles M. Oberly III of Delaware, Richard P. Ieyoub of Louisiana, Hubert H. Humphrey III of Minnesota, John P. Arnold of New Hampshire, G. Oliver Koppell of New York, Ernest D. Preate, Jr., of Pennsylvania, Jan Graham of Utah, and James S. Gilmore III of Virginia; and for the American Hospital Association et al. by Ronald N. Sutter, Mary Susan Philp, and Joseph A. Keyes, Jr.
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