In Law360, Health Care Attorneys Analyze HHS Medicare Drug Reimbursement

In a Law360 article, health care partners Stephanie Webster and Margaux Hall examined a U.S. Supreme Court unanimous decision in favor of the American Hospital Association in its challenge to final rules of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reducing the amount of reimbursement for outpatient prescription drugs provided by hospitals participating in the Section 340B Drug Pricing Program. The Court held that HHS' rules reducing reimbursement for drugs purchased through the 340B program were inconsistent with the Medicare Act.

The attorneys summarize the key portions of the Court’s decision and discuss the implications. The authors note that while the Court decision found unlawful the agency's changes to Medicare reimbursement rates relating to 340B drugs that it made without undertaking the requisite survey of drug acquisition costs, it remains to be seen how and when HHS will take action to implement the decision, and whether the agency might still try to enact the same rate changes.