The Courts

The National Home Infusion Association is asking the federal DC district court to make CMS withdraw and rework its final rule setting interim home infusion payments, in a lawsuit filed Feb. 14.

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims handed issuers major wins in four cost-sharing reduction (CSR) cases, including a class action suit brought by Wisconsin’s Common Ground Health Cooperative in which Judge Margaret Sweeney ruled that the government is responsible for reimbursing plans unpaid CSRs in 2017 as well as in 2018, despite the silver-loading workaround. Sweeney issued that decision on Friday (Feb. 15), the same day she ruled in favor of Texas non-profit Community Health Choices and Maine Community Health Options.

Hospitals that sued CMS over cuts to reimbursement for 340B drugs are asking the court to make CMS recalculate payments to make up for those cuts, but the government says that would require all hospital outpatient payments be recalculated in order to keep the pay system budget neutral and tells the court to let CMS figure out how to fix the situation.

The federal judge overseeing two lawsuits challenging Medicaid work requirements scheduled back-to-back hearings in the cases for March 14.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), along with 61 Democratic co-sponsors, reintroduced legislation to let anyone not currently eligible for Medicaid to buy into the program or leverage it to enhance their coverage in the individual market.

The Idaho Supreme Court on Tuesday (Feb. 5) upheld the state’s voter-approved Medicaid expansion, rejecting a lawsuit from a conservative group that argued the ballot measure delegated too much power to the federal government.

Republican lawmakers in Utah are trying to fast-track a bill that would undo the Medicaid expansion that the state’s voters approved in November and replace it with a more limited expansion proposal containing work requirements and spending caps.

Attorneys general from Colorado, Iowa, Michigan and Nevada on Thursday (Jan. 31) filed a motion to join 17 other Democratic attorneys general as defendants in the high-profile lawsuit that, if upheld, would invalidate the Affordable Care Act.

The parties appealing Texas U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor’s ruling in the high-profile challenge to the Affordable Care Act now have until Feb. 8 to respond to House Democrats’ motion to intervene at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.