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On Monday, September 17, 2018, the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) cleared Cigna’s proposed $67 billion acquisition of Express Scripts, the country’s largest pharmacy benefit manager. While the transaction still needs the approval of certain state regulatory agencies, obtaining the DOJ’s approval was widely seen as the transaction’s most significant obstacle to overcome.
Continue Reading Federal Antitrust Regulators Approve Cigna’s Proposed Acquisition of Express Scripts

As discussed in our previous blog, “CMS Pushes for Hospital Price Transparency in Proposed Rule”, on April 24, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced a proposed rule (CMS-1694-P) aimed at empowering patients through better access to hospital charge information. In an effort to fulfill the proposed rule’s objective, CMS suggested an amendment to the requirements previously established by Section 2718(e) of the Affordable Care Act.
Continue Reading CMS Continues to Push for Hospital Price Transparency in Final Rule

On July 30, 2018, two insurers – Moda Health Plan, Inc. (“Moda”) and Land of Lincoln Mutual Health Insurance Company – petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to reconsider the Court’s June 14, 2018 ruling in which the Court held that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) is not responsible for making past-due “risk corridor payments” to insurance companies as required by Section 1342 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) (the “June Ruling”).
Continue Reading The Risk Corridor is Closed: Insurers Seek Recourse in the Federal Circuit

On April 24, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced a new proposed rule (CMS-1694-P) (“Proposed Rule”). In an attempt to “empower patients through better access to hospital price information,” CMS plans to alter the requirements previously established by Section 2718(e) of the Affordable Care Act.[1]

Under Section 2718(e), “each hospital operating within the United States shall for each year establish (and update) and make public…a list of the hospital’s standard charges for items and services provided by the hospital.” CMS has previously interpreted Section 2718(e) to require hospitals to either make public a list of standard charges or implement policies for allowing the public to view a list of the standard charges by individual request. It was originally believed by CMS that patients could use such information to compare charges for similar services across hospitals, just as someone “shops around” for the best price in plumbing services. However, CMS contends that Section 2718(e), as is currently written, is insufficient to establish the necessary hospital price transparency.
Continue Reading CMS Pushes for Hospital Price Transparency in Proposed Rule

Despite the Trump Administration’s unsuccessful attempts to fully repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”), the Administration has continued to target the ACA. In the Administration’s latest salvo, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced in its Fiscal Year 2019 Performance Budget (the “Budget”)[1] – as released by the federal Office of Management and Budget on February 12, 2018 and as discussed in greater detail in CMS’s Justification of Estimates for Appropriations Committee released last week – a proposal to “wind down” its financial support for the federal health insurance exchanges. Specifically, the Budget explains that if Congress repeals the ACA, CMS will withdraw its support of the federal exchanges by plan year 2020.
Continue Reading CMS Proposes “Wind Down” Plan for Federal Exchanges

[1] On January 25, 2018, Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand issued a memorandum on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) (the “Brand Memo”) which effectively limits the use and enforcement power of guidance documents for the purposes of affirmative civil enforcement cases, a development that could have a significant impact on how certain healthcare cases are handled at the federal level by federal departments, agencies, and administrations, including those that are fixtures of the healthcare marketplace – the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its constituent agencies, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG).
Continue Reading New DOJ Guidance Policy Limits Use of Guidance Documents in Federal Civil Actions