Tag Archive for: Affordable Care Act

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King v. Burwell: U.S. Supreme Court Decision Upholds ACA Tax Credits

On Thursday, June 25, 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in King et al. v. Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al. .[i]  The decision came the week before many of the nation’s foremost health care attorneys met in Washington, D.C. to share information, meet with regulators and network in the interests of their clients.  As you might imagine there was significant discussion about the impact of the decision both in the contexts of formal presentations and hallway conversations.

The decision in this case was considered by some attorneys and commentators to hold the key to the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).[ii]   In the King case the ACA’s premium tax credits, as applied to federally financed plans, were challenged.  The premium tax credits worked to reduce the premium amounts for nearly 90% of all persons who have purchased health insurance through the state health insurance marketplace, known as a “health insurance exchange,” which provides consumers the opportunity to compare prices and plans.

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision held that the premium tax credits at issue would continue to be available in the dozen or so state-sponsored exchanges as well as in the more than thirty states with federally sponsored exchanges operated by the federal government.  The Court applied familiar theories of statutory interpretation to interpret the both the meaning of the statute and the intent of Congress to make premium tax credits available to individuals enrolled in insurance plans through both state- and federally-operated exchanges.  The Court chose not to defer the interpretation to the federal agency responsible for enforcing the tax credit, the Internal Revenue Service.  This is significant because it effectively forecloses the opportunity for any future administration to alter the interpretation to restrict the premium tax credits to the state-operated exchanges.

The challengers to the ACA language argued that, read literally, the specific ACA language at issue limits premium tax credits to state-operated exchanges only.  Justice Scalia’s twenty-one page dissent was described as scathing by many of us who made presentations at AHLA last week.  Justice Scalia wrote that “[w]ords no longer have meaning if an Exchange that is not established by a State is ‘established by the State.’”[iii]  He also wrote in his dissent, “Perhaps sensing the dismal failure of its efforts to show that ’established by the State’ means ‘established by the State or the Federal Government,’ the Court tries to palm off the pertinent statutory phrase as ‘inartful drafting.’ This Court, however, has no free-floating power to ‘rescue Congress from its drafting errors.’”[iv]

Oklahoma is the site of a federal marketplace where, had the decision come down for the challengers, more than 87,000 persons would have been at risk for losing tax credits, and the state was at risk of losing over $18,000.00 in revenue, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.[v]  The average tax credit per Oklahoma enrollee is $209.00, and, without the tax credit, there would have been an estimated 243% increase in the average premium.

At least while President Obama is still in office, the Court’s decision in King v. Burwell means that the threats to the ACA will mostly disappear.  The national uninsurance rate is likely to continue to fall because the ACA incentives—the ACA requires individuals to buy health insurance or face a penalty on their taxes and helps them afford health insurance through the premium tax credits. Fewer uninsured presumably also means health care providers will have less uncompensated care.

In the nation and in Oklahoma, we will continue, at least during this administration, generally to see a decreasing uninsured population and less uncompensated care for providers.  However, all of this is in the context of complex, increased regulation such as the proposed regulations for both Medicare and Medicaid that were indirectly and directly respectively spawned by the ACA.  The King decision, so long-awaited, appears to have deflated the opponents to the ACA for the time being.  The Court’s decision also means that the next Presidential and congressional elections may be critical to the fate of the ACA as changes now would only be placed in motion by Congress.


[i]  576 U.S. ____  (2015), No. 14-114, slip op (June 25, 2015).

[ii] The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 42 U.S.C. §18001 et seq. (2010).

[iii] 567 U.S. at ___-___ (principal opinion) (slip op. dissent, at 2.

[iv] Id. at 17.

[v] Kff.org/interactive/king-v-burwell-effects/

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(UPDATE) A look at the controversial Affordable Care Act on its fifth anniversary

By Mary Holloway Richard.

(Updated 4/7/15)
President Obama has taken the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) to characterize continued activities on the Hill to repeal it as renegade special interest activities. The ACA continues to be a subject of debate both in terms of its accomplishments—how many are newly covered and how much will be saved—and in terms of its public support.

While the Associated Press reported on March 23, 2015, that public support was down 5% since its passage, as one who daily writes and advises health care clients on matters related to the ACA, I can say with certainty that the depth and breadth of increased regulation spawned by the ACA are changing the nature of the system.

Those changes include responsive movement toward integrated health systems, mergers and affiliations; transition from quantity- to quality-based reimbursement; the relaxation of HIPAA standards in some respects and its tightening in others in the context of EHR transformation; and increased direct and indirect costs to employers as a result of new responsibilities.

Nearly fifty changes have been made to the ACA as of March 2, 2015, and this suggests a continuing need for providers, employers and business owners to remain informed and responsive to the moving regulatory compliance target.

On Monday, March 30 the Supreme Court rejected a new challenge to the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”)  that targeted the Independent Payment Advisory Board (“IPAB”), a 15-member government panel which has been characterized as a “death panel” because of its intended role in cutting Medicare costs.   The IPAB was to convene when the target growth rate for Medicare (3.03%) is exceeded.  However, the growth rate is 1.15% according to CMS, and so the administration has not nominated any panel members.  In declining to take up the case, the Supreme Court left undisturbed the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissal of the lawsuit. The proponents of the ACA are calling this a win.  Coons v. Lew, No. 14-525.   Certiorari was denied by the United States Supreme Court on March 30, 2015.

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The future for hospitals

By Mary Holloway Richard, Of Counsel

doctorIn a recent article in Modern Healthcare, Beth Kutscher identifies a rosier outlook for propriety hospitals than for not-for-profit facilities.

Some of those proprietaries are investor-owned chains, and an important part of their secret of financial health is their access to and reliance upon greater options for marketing services, economies of scale, and other cost saving programs.

Financially positive trends have come on the wings of the Affordable Care Act’s elevated patient volumes, better payor mix and declining expenses associated with bad debts. The proprietaries are concerned with stock prices and earnings and, like a family preparing for continued hard times, they actively pursue all possible ways to decrease expenses, including refinancing higher interest debt.

In largely rural states like Oklahoma, efforts to keep community hospitals alive include shopping for buyers and affiliating with stable hospital systems. However, rural hospitals owned by proprietaries, and even hospitals owned by not-for profit systems, are being taken off the block awaiting a more attractive market.

It is true that we witnessed the acquisition by Community Health Systems, one of the largest publicly-traded companies in the country, of Health Management Associates last year. But even so, CHS may now be eschewing large acquisitions and mergers in favor of other alternatives for financial stabilization.

In healthcare as in other industries, the proprietary sector offers important motivation for the not-for-profits.

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