AHA Brief Calls for Preliminary Injunction in 340B Case

The AHA, Association of American Medical Colleges, America’s Essential Hospitals, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, Henry Ford Health System and Adventist Health System's Park Ridge Health yesterday urged a federal appeals court to find that they are entitled to a preliminary injunction in their lawsuit to prevent a nearly 30% Medicare payment reduction for many hospitals in the 340B drug savings program. In their brief, they seek remand of this case back to the trial court with a specific instruction from the appeals court to enter the injunction. At a minimum, the injunction would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to set outpatient prospective payment system payment rates for calendar year 2019 without the nearly 30% reduction and at the level needed to correct the past effects of the reduction. The lower court on Dec. 29 dismissed the lawsuit as premature, without ruling on the merits of the groups’ claim that the HHS Secretary exceeded his statutory authority in making the payment reduction. Today’s filing concludes all briefing in the appeal. The court has scheduled oral arguments for May 4.