The Courts

A coalition of GOP attorneys general threw their support behind the Trump administration’s controversial association health plans, telling a federal court they back the administration’s call to dismiss a Democratic-led lawsuit challenging a rule that expanded the scope of the plans.

Texas District Judge Reed O' Connor is expected to rule any day on the high-profile case over the Affordable Care Act now that the election is over, and some legal experts believe he is likely to overturn as least the law's protections for preexisting conditions but could also move to an injunction that would end implementation of the entire law.

At least two of the four issuers that failed to convince a full panel of federal appeals court judges to rehear their suit over the ACA's risk corridor program plan to petition the Supreme Court to hear the case.

President Donald Trump’s claim that he was unaware that Attorney General Jeff Sessions urged a Texas federal court to eliminate coverage for preexisting conditions could come back to haunt the Trump administration during the case’s appeals process, legal experts say.

The legal battle over the federal government's recent rule that broadened the definition of an employer in order to expand access to association health plans moved a step forward this week with the Department of Labor urging the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia to throw out the suit, contending the plaintiffs lack standing.

Federal DC district judge Richard Leon poked several holes in the plaintiffs’ arguments against the expansion of short-term health insurance plans and seemed to agree with the Trump administration’s defense of the plans at a preliminary injunction hearing Friday. A court ruling on whether to block the administration's controversial move to extend the duration of the plans won't come before the end of the year, following the Affordable Care Act's latest open enrollment period, he said. 

Two California men have pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud Affordable Care Act plans in at least 12 states by enrolling people in coverage and transporting them to expensive drug treatment facilities in California that paid referral and other fees, the Department of Justice announced.

HHS told a federal court that it intends to release by Nov. 1 a proposal that would move the effective date for the 340B ceiling prices and penalties rule to Jan. 1, up from July 1, and for that reason the court should put a lawsuit over the date on hold.

The Trump Administration is arguing that the stakeholders seeking to immediately suspend new federal regulations on short-term plans fail to show that they would be harmed by the rule and therefore their request for a preliminary injunction should be rejected.