U.S. ordered to pay insurers $1.6 billion in cost sharing reductions

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims this week ordered the federal government to reimburse insurers about $1.6 billion for unpaid cost-sharing reductions provided through the health insurance exchanges in 2017 and 2018. In February, Chief Judge Margaret Sweeney ruled in the class action lawsuit that the Affordable Care Act requires the Health and Human Service secretary to reimburse insurers for the mandatory cost-sharing reductions, and that “the lack of a specific appropriation for cost-sharing reduction payments does not preclude such a recovery.” The administration stopped making the payments to health insurers, who use them to reduce out-of-pocket costs for low-income individuals purchasing coverage through the exchanges, in 2017.