Richard H. Hughes, IV, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Inside Health Policy, in “SCOTUS to Review ACA’s Free Preventative Services Mandate,” by Amy Lotven. (Read the full version – subscription required.)

Following is an excerpt:

The fate of the Affordable Care Act's requirement that insurers provide cost-free coverage of screenings and other services deemed appropriate by the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) now rests with the Supreme Court, which late Friday agreed to the Justice Department's request it review a circuit court decision that put the mandate in question.

The Justice Department last September petitioned the high court to review the Fifth Circuit's ruling in Braidwood v. Becerra that found the structure of the USPSTF violates the constitution's Appointments Clause as well as the court's refusal to fix the problem by severing certain language from the statute.

The high court did not take up the Braidwood plaintiffs' petition to review a lower court ruling that shot down their claim the ACA's women's health and vaccine coverage mandates also violate the Constitution's Delegations Clause.

Prior to the Friday announcement, Richard Hughes IV of Epstein Becker Green predicted the court would take up DOJ's petition and not the plaintiffs' petition. The court took up similar cases on the Delegations Clause in November, he explained. As expected, Friday's order only included the DOJ petition.

The case will now be set for argument, and Hughes expects a decision out in July.

"Under the Court's severability doctrine, it would seem they would uphold the role of the Task Force," Hughes says. "But SCOTUS is not predictable and the trend toward curtailing the role of experts and the administrative state could win the day."

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