After court ruling for AHA in 340B case, HHS says it will start adjusting payment rates for certain 340B hospitals within approximately two weeks

The Department of Health and Human Services will begin restoring a payment rate of average sales price plus 6% for 340B drug claims in about two weeks, the department told a United States District Court for the District of Columbia.  
  
In a brief filed late Friday evening, HHS wrote that “the process of adjusting the 2022 OPPS payment rates for 340B hospitals would take approximately two weeks” because it “requires revisions to four different electronic data files and then testing by multiple offices to confirm that the revised files function appropriately before the files are loaded to the production environment where they will be used to calculate OPPS reimbursements on a prospective basis.” HHS has already started work on this process, and 340B hospitals should expect to see the reimbursement adjustments within this timeframe. 
  
Last week, the district court ruled in favor of the AHA, holding that HHS must immediately halt the departments’ unlawful cuts of nearly 30% to outpatient reimbursement rates for the remainder of 2022 for certain hospitals that participate in the 340B Drug Pricing Program. 
  
In a statement last week, AHA General Counsel and Secretary Melinda Hatton said that “halting these cuts will help 340B hospitals provide comprehensive health services to their patients and communities.”  
  
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court declared HHS’ 340B cuts for 2018 and 2019 were unlawful, but had not ruled on 2020 or afterward. The AHA continues to urge the Administration to promptly reimburse all the hospitals that were affected by these unlawful cuts in previous years and to ensure the remainder of the hospital field is not penalized for the departments’ prior unlawful policy.