AHA asks court to order HHS to promptly repay 340B hospitals for past unlawful cuts

AHA today urged the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to order the Department of Health and Human Services to promptly repay 340B hospitals for unlawful payment cuts in previous years, given the agency’s continued delay in implementing or even proposing a remedy on its own. 
 
After AHA’s unanimous victory in the U.S. Supreme Court this summer, the D.C. court ordered HHS to halt its unlawful 340B cuts for the remainder of 2022. In a final rule released this week for CY 2023, the agency said it would defer any proposal of a remedy for CYs 2018-2021 until sometime before next year’s CY 2024 payment rule. 
 
“Despite having already sought comment twice, HHS has again deferred announcing any specific remedy proposal and indicated that it will solicit a third round of comments,” AHA told the court today. “But no further public comments are needed for the agency to remediate years of illegal underpayments and for Defendants to promptly pay 340B hospitals the difference between ASP plus 6% and what they were previously paid, without seeking retroactive claw backs in the name of budget neutrality. In fact, following this Court’s September 28 Order with respect to the remainder of 2022, Defendants quickly announced that they would cease their illegal conduct and be able to ‘reprocess claims our contractors paid on or after September 28, 2022.’ By swiftly acceding to the Court’s order, HHS fatally undermined its arguments that such an order would be administratively difficult or unconstitutional.”