The Courts

HHS exceeded its statutory authority and violated the Constitution when it issued a final rule attempting to make it easier for health care providers and insurance plans to refuse care based on religious or moral objections, a federal judge ruled Wednesday (Nov. 6).

The American Kidney Fund (AKF) and Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) and two kidney failure patients have sued California over legislation enacted last month that the advocates say will cause irreparable harm to patients with end-stage renal disease.

The White House on Sunday vowed to vigorously defend the president’s demand that immigrants show they can cover their own health costs or can purchase certain coverage prior to entering the country after a federal judge in Oregon barred the government from implementing the policy for 28 days.

A Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision to remand a lawsuit back to the district court to hash out which of Louisiana’s abortion regulations injure the plaintiffs mirrors the Department of Justice’s requested remedy in the Texas case over the Affordable Care Act, and makes it a strong potential decision out of many possibilities on the table.

Federal Judge Margaret Sweeney issued a final judgment in the class action case Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative v. United States ordering the government to reimburse the class of about 100 Affordable Care Act plan issuers nearly $1.6 billion in cost-sharing reduction payments owed for the 2017 and the 2018 plan years.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that barred HHS from enforcing the Trump administration’s rule that allows employers to easily avoid covering birth control without cost-sharing in the 14 plaintiff states.

Stakeholders who cheered a district court ruling that shot down key pieces of the Trump administration’s rule that expanded association health plans are likely to face a steeper challenge in the appeals court where they’ll be arguing before a panel of judges appointed by two GOP presidents and one Democrat.

Federal appellate judges grilled a lawyer for the Trump administration on Friday (Oct. 11) over the administration’s policy allowing states to add work requirements to their Medicaid programs, with all the members of a three-judge panel -- two Democratic appointees and one Republican appointee -- expressing skepticism that work requirements can promote the goals of Medicaid.

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals could soon deliver a ruling in the ongoing case on whether HHS wrongly assumed that the Affordable Care Act's risk adjustment program had to be budget neutral, and whether state-wide adoption of that policy means that average premiums in the risk adjustment methodology should stand.