AHA sues to halt 340B rebate pilot from Trump administration

Tara covers the enterprise of well being care. Her tales give attention to hospitals, docs, and the way their enterprise practices have an effect on sufferers — particularly when personal fairness will get concerned. She additionally writes about medical insurance and concepts for enhancing our damaged well being system. You may attain Tara on Sign at tarabannow.70.

The American Hospital Affiliation is as soon as once more suing the Trump administration over its plan to check revamping a federal drug low cost program into one that gives after-the-fact rebates as an alternative of upfront reductions for sure medication. 

It’s the second time the highly effective hospital lobbying group has sued over such a plan. The primary time, in 2025, a decide agreed to quickly halt a extra restricted model from taking impact, and the Well being and Human Providers Division voluntarily withdrew the plan after dropping on attraction. In February, the company introduced an expanded model, set to take impact Jan. 1, 2027, that will goal 25 of the most costly, most generally used medication coated beneath Medicare. The unique plan included 10 medication. 

STAT Plus: Medicare takes one other swing at 340B cuts to hospitals

The AHA’s argument is basically the identical as within the first case: the federal government didn’t precisely account for the prices hospitals would incur by having to pay market costs for medication after which apply for rebates. The lawsuit says that the Well being Assets and Providers Administration, the HHS division that administers 340B, obtained greater than 2,400 feedback on the rebate mannequin’s second iteration, together with hospitals describing in “granular element the catastrophic influence” it could have.