AHA urges 5th Circuit to maintain cost-free access to ACA preventive services

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit should reverse a district court decision that prevents the Health and Human Services Secretary from implementing an Affordable Care Act requirement that private health plans cover without cost-sharing U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations for preventive services, AHA told the appeals court in a friend-of-the-court brief filed yesterday with the Federation of American Hospitals, Catholic Health Association of the United States, America’s Essential Hospitals, and Association of American Medical Colleges. 
 
“Doing so would maintain millions of Americans’ cost-free access to critical preventive services, from cancer screenings to interventions for pregnancy complications,” the brief states. “Additionally, this Court should ensure the Task Force continues to make medical recommendations based on scientific evidence. Countless Americans benefit from receiving preventive services based on the Task Force’s expert, nonpartisan medical judgment. This Court should preserve those benefits. Without these guarantees in place, patients face a substantially greater risk that their acute illnesses or chronic diseases will not be timely detected or treated. At the very least, the Court should sever the statute so that the Task Force is subject to constitutionally required executive branch oversight and leave the preventive-care requirement in place.”