The highly anticipated case challenging ObamaCare's subsidies will officially reach the Supreme Court on March 4. Justices will hear arguments in King v. Burwell in just under three months, according to the court's schedule posted Monday afternoon. The case, led by conservative groups, questions whether the federal government can legally hand out healthcare subsidies in 34 states that have opted out of creating their own exchanges. The plaintiffs of the case also released their opening brief on Monday, a 129-page document that lays out their case against the subsidies.
More than a century ago, Alabama enshrined a basic protection in the state's constitution shielding its poorest citizens from being forced to pay debts they couldn't afford. But a public hospital in the mostly rural southeast corner of the state has found a way around the law. Before patients can receive treatment at Southeast Alabama Medical Center, they must sign a form waiving that legal protection, clearing the way for the facility to seize funds from their pay or bank accounts to cover medical debts. ProPublica and NPR reported last week that nonprofit hospitals, which are legally required to offer discounted care to the poor, often sue low-income patients and garnish hefty portions of their pay.
A consumer group has sued the health insurer Aetna, claiming that it discriminated against patients with HIV when it required them to obtain medications exclusively through its own mail-order pharmacy. The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in San Diego by the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, argues that Aetna's policy violates the new federal health care law, which prohibits insurers from discriminating against people based on medical condition. The company's new policy, which takes effect Jan. 1 and applies to people who have purchased individual coverage, also raises the out-of-pocket amount that patients must pay for their treatments, potentially doubling it in some cases, according to the suit.
The head of the country's biggest public insurance program and a champion of healthcare access for the poor will step down next month after five years. Cindy Mann, the deputy administrator at the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), has earned praise nationwide as a fierce advocate for healthcare access and a key leader in the rollout of Obamacare. Under her leadership, the government made its "biggest improvements to the Medicaid program since its inception," the agency wrote in a statement Friday announcing her departure.
After announcing this month it would sell its Dallas hospital, Houston-based University General Health System said Monday it is closing the facility. In an email, company president Don Sapaugh said patients no longer were being treated at University General Health - Dallas. He didn't say why or when officials began closing the 111-bed, acute care hospital the company bought two years ago. The closure is not expected to affect the company's flagship Houston facility, Houston University General Hospital, Sapaugh said. "We had begun discharging patients about a month ago and had very limited inpatient admissions over the last two weeks," he said. "At the time of closing, there were no patients in the hospital."
D.C.'s Medstar Washington Hospital is open and operating normally Monday despite a strike by dozens of its nurses. The strike began at 7 a.m. Monday and is expected to last 24 hours. "The strike, while unfortunate, has not affected our ability to care for patients," says a statement from MedStar Washington Hospital. The nurses claim the hospital hasn't treated them fairly and doesn't put enough nurses on the schedule. Also, the nurses say hospital executives refuse to fairly address matters of health, safety and equity for patients and nurses.