UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FIFTH CIRCUIT

_____________

No. 92-3995 _____________

ABBEVILLE GENERAL HOSPITAL, ET AL.,

Plaintiffs-Appellants,

versus

DAVID L. RAMSEY, Secretary, Department of Health and Hospitals, ET AL.,

Defendants-Appellees.

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Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana __________________________________

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING

(Opinion September 22, 5th Cir., 1993, 3d )

(November 26, 1993)

Before EMILIO M. GARZA, and DeMOSS, Circuit Judges, and ZAGEL*, District Judge.

PER CURIAM:

IT IS ORDERED that the petition for rehearing filed in the

above entitled and numbered cause be and the same is hereby DENIED.

However, the panel opinion reported at

is amended, by

the addition of footnote 19 to the last paragraph of the opinion,

as follows:

* District Judge of the Northern District of Illinois, sitting by designation. This Court cannot endorse such a pro forma compliance with the

findings requirement of the Boren Amendment. LDHH's inability to

articulate an orderly process of evaluation or to identify specific

documents reviewed renders suspect its "findings" and renders

meritless its argument that it engaged in a bona fide findings

process. Because we find that LDHH, as a matter of law, failed to

comply in practice with the Boren Amendment findings requirement,

this Court REVERSES the district court's grant of LDHH's summary

judgment motion and denial of the Hospitals' summary judgment

motion. This case is REMANDED for proceedings not inconsistent

with this opinion. 19

____________________ 19 We express no view on whether the Hospitals' summary judgment motion may be defeated, in part or in whole, by various affirmative defenses which were neither ruled on in the district court nor argued in this Court.

ENTERED FOR THE COURT:

_______________________________ United States Circuit Judge