COURTS/DRUGS/HHS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A federal court has rejected President Trump’s first major effort to cut payments for prescription drugs, saying the administration went far beyond its legal authority. The Trump administration made a ‘drastic departure from the statutorily mandated rates’ when it reduced payments to hospitals for drugs given to Medicare beneficiaries in outpatient clinics, Judge Rudolph Contreras of the Federal District Court here said in the decision, issued late last month. Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, ‘may not end-run Congress’s clear mandate,’ the judge said. The court is still considering how to compensate hospitals for the money lost, estimated at $1.6 billion for last year. The cuts are still in effect, but the court has asked the government and hospitals to propose a remedy.”
–Robert Pear, “Court Rejects Trump’s Cuts in Payments for Prescription Drugs,” The New York Times online, January 7, 2019