Hospital group wants prompt payment of 340B funds after Supreme Court win

The American Hospital Association wants HHS to act quickly to ensure that affected hospitals receive withheld 340B program funds. 

The organization's June 28 letter to HHS comes after the Supreme Court recently overturned a $1.6 billion 340B payment cut.

The case centered around whether CMS has the authority to make cuts to the program under its  Medicare Outpatient Prospective Payment System. Under the payment rule, HHS cut the reimbursement rate for covered drugs by 28.5 percent in 2018, but it later lowered the cut to 22.5 percent. The Supreme Court reversed a federal appeals court's 2020 ruling that HHS had the authority to make the $1.6 billion annual reimbursement cut.  

"Given the vital role that 340B hospitals play in serving vulnerable communities, they should be repaid the funds that have been withheld from them without delay," the American Hospital Association said in the letter. "They also should be paid for all of the years (2018-2022) in which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) illegally cut reimbursement rates."

The hospital group said it is concerned that despite the Supreme Court's decision, the resolution of these issues "could be bogged down in needless litigation, and that hospitals will not be appropriately compensated at a time when they are weathering significant financial challenges on many fronts."

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