Health Care Rounds

John shares our take on the second half of July, including how the Trump administration continues to take aim at Obamacare, and that Stark and other anti-kickback laws may be obsolete in a value-based world. On July 7, the Trump administration said it was temporarily withholding $10.4 billion in risk adjustment payments to insurers, citing a district court ruling from earlier this year in New Mexico. On Tuesday July 10th, 340B Health released an analysis of a bill introduced by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, that would raise the minimum disproportionate share hospital (DSH) adjustment percentage that hospitals must meet to qualify for the 340B drug discount program. Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary under President Barack Obama, and Tommy Thompson, HHS secretary under President George W. Bush, wrote in an op-ed for The Hill that “Stark and anti-kickback laws are a remnant of the fee-for-service world and harm the very patients they are supposed to protect by deterring more comprehensive