The Courts

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.

The case to overturn the Trump administration's rule on short-term plans will not be decided until months after the start of the Affordable Care Act next open enrollment period, according to a recently released briefing schedule from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

HHS reduced the backlog of Medicare appeals by about 25% as of June 30, according to a status report submitted to the federal D.C. district court, and the American Hospital Association said that reduction was the result of its lawsuit.

CMS is signaling a continued effort to lower reimbursement for 340B drugs, even as a court suit over the agency’s earlier cuts continues, by collecting hospital data to back up future reimbursement rates.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma said a recent court ruling that found CMS didn’t have the authority to implement site-neutral pay cuts for certain clinic visits was a setback to agency efforts to correct market distortions, and she pushed back on what she called “[e]ndless litigation from entrenched special interests.”

Compounding company Athenex has withdrawn its appeal of a recent D.C. federal district court ruling that upheld FDA’s ban on bulk compounding of vasopressin.

A group of medicine and public health researchers and historians are calling on an Ohio court overseeing the national multidistrict opioid litigation to ensure that any settlement guarantees full and permanent access to records that contain information about and shed light on the abuse potential and distribution patterns of opioids.

Oral arguments in the Trump administration's appeal of a lower court ruling that tossed out much of the Department of Labor’s final association health plan rule will take place Nov. 14 at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.