The Courts

HHS is on the hook to pay potentially $24 million or so it allegedly netted from debts owed by Colorado’s failed ACA co-op since the department has no authority to override the state’s law governing liquidation priorities, the Federal Court of Claims ruled last week.

The Supreme Court announced that it will hear a challenge to the Louisiana abortion law that requires doctors who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges and abortion clinics to have access to emergency medical care.

As CMS weighs policy options for setting 340B drug pay rates, it is being tugged in different directions by 340B hospitals, for-profit hospitals that don’t participate in the drug discount program, physicians and drug makers.

The Department of Justice is now appealing U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor’s ruling in a class action case -- DeOtte v. Azar - that bars HHS from enforcing the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate on essentially any individual or employer that objects to the requirement.

BURBANK -- Representatives from California’s Attorney General Office and Department of HHS expressed confidence the Affordable Care Act would survive the latest legal challenge and stressed, if the law were to be overturned, California would try to protect consumers but it would be impossible to fully mitigate the loss of federal funds.

An en-banc panel of 11 judges from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco discussed whether to reverse a ruling by the same appeals court that allowed the Trump administration to proceed with its rule preventing facilities that perform abortions or refer patients for abortions from receiving Title X funds, also known as the Title X “gag rule."

A group of Democratic attorneys general demand the administration immediately comply with federal injunctions that bar the government from implementing rules that loosen the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, saying that information posted on, or omitted by, HHS and Department of Labor websites violates the orders.

A federal judge on Tuesday (Sept. 17) said CMS lacked authority to impose deep reimbursement cuts for clinic visits at certain off-campus facilities.

A group of high-profile economists, the association representing state insurance commissioners, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, key issuer lobbies and other stakeholders have submitted amicus briefs to the Supreme Court supporting health insurance companies who demand the government pay them the total $12 billion or so owed under the Affordable Care Act’s risk corridor program.