The Courts

A federal judge has struck down the Trump administration’s controversial public charge rule, declaring it should immediately be vacated nationwide, the latest in the ongoing legal battle over the administration’s effort to deny certain legal immigrants government benefits including Medicaid.

University of Connecticut law professor John Cogan is floating a legal theory that Congress has boxed in the Supreme Court in its upcoming review of the Affordable Care Act by relying on and referencing the health law in its recently passed pandemic relief packages, arguing those bills show the current Congress believes the ACA stands even though the penalty for not having insurance was scrapped by an earlier Congress.

The American Hospital Association says providers are considering asking the Supreme Court to take up their cases against the Part B reimbursement cuts for 340B drugs and Medicare pay cuts for outpatient clinic visits at certain off-campus hospital facilities after the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to rehear those cases.

As FDA continues to urge the courts to reinstate its in-person prescribing restrictions on mifepristone, one women’s health expert is using the opening to proceed with her plans to study the prescribing and dispensing of mifepristone through telehealth without the need for ultrasounds or physical exams.

Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Tuesday (Oct. 13) continued to suggest her 2017 paper that criticized Chief Justice John Roberts’ decision that uphold the Affordable Care Act due to Congress’ power of taxation has no bearing on the lawsuit the high court is set to hear Nov. 10, saying severability, an issue on which she has yet to reveal her position, is what the current case centers on.

Supreme Court justices heard arguments Tuesday (Oct. 6) in a case that could determine whether states may regulate pharmacy benefit managers to lower drug prices, and many justices sounded skeptical states have that authority.

The insurers suing the administration for cutting off the ACA’s cost-sharing reduction reimbursements want the full Federal Circuit Court to review last month’s ruling that found the government must reimburse insurers for the CSRs due in 2017 but can lower the amount due in 2018 because of the higher tax credits resulting from insurers’ silver-loading workaround.

Legal experts and health care advocates immediately panned President Donald Trump’s executive order that declares it is U.S. policy to protect people with preexisting conditions if the Supreme Court rules in favor of his administration and GOP attorneys general, calling it a legally meaningless political stunt and saying if the president wanted to protect Americans he would drop the lawsuit.

The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and President Donald Trump’s pledge to nominate a replacement as early as this week, thrusts the constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act back into the spotlight less than two months before the election, giving Democrats a chance to highlight a key issue that had largely receded into the background as voters focused on COVID-19, the economy, racial justice and other concerns.