The Courts

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday (July 30) told a lower court to take another look at the American Clinical Laboratory Association’s lawsuit over lab reporting policies the group says have driven down CMS’ pay for clinical lab services.

A coalition of seven stakeholders appealed a federal district court’s decision to uphold the Trump administration’s rule expanding the scope of short-term health plans, arguing that the plans undermine consumer protections for people with preexisting conditions and can discriminate based on age, gender or health status.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar is attempting to deflect attention away from the Affordable Care Act to the administration’s other health care priorities as a lawsuit, now backed by the administration, to unravel the health law moves through the courts.

Stakeholders plan to appeal federal DC district Judge Richard Leon’s Friday (July 19) ruling that upholds the Trump administration’s rule expanding short-term health plans.

The Supreme Court likely will hear arguments in December over whether the government is obligated to pay out about $12 billion owed to issuers participating in the ACA’s risk corridors program, presuming the court agrees to a recently proposed briefing schedule.

The Department of Justice on Monday (July 15) said it will “continue to vigorously defend religious freedom,” after a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that blocked the Trump administration from implementing new rules broadening employers’ ability to sidestep the ACA’s contraceptive coverage mandate.

The Democratic-led House Oversight & Government Reform Committee planned to use its first hearing on the Affordable Care Act to shine a light on the law's benefits and investigate the Trump administration's involvement in the lawsuit to overturn it, but administration officials declined to testify and Republicans jumped on the opportunity to criticize Medicare for All.

Democratic lawmakers and stakeholders are drawing on Republicans’ high-profile lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act as an opportunity to unify Democrats around a central health care message going into the 2020 election, even as the progressive wing of the party simultaneously pushes Medicare for All.

All parties in the high-profile case over the future of the Affordable Care Act told the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals prior to Tuesday’s oral arguments that there’s still a controversy between the GOP plaintiffs and the Trump administration, even though the Department of Justice recently sided with the plaintiffs.