District Court Finds Stark IOAS Exception Does Not Apply to Mailed Drugs

The Hill reminds us that Congress will return to Capitol Hill on September 9, 2024 for “a three-week sprint, during which lawmakers will face key legislative deadlines and work to push their political messages before departing again for campaign season.”

The Washington Post reports,

“Tens of thousands of D.C. residents on Friday will begin receiving letters with good news. That medical debt weighing them down? Poof, it’s gone.

“D.C. has deals in place to cancel $42 million in medical debt for 62,000 residents, through a partnership with a nonprofit that has helped cities and states across the country purchase the debt for pennies on the dollar, city officials said.

“The program is one way, they say, to ease a financial burden that can have ramifications for jobs, housing and physical and mental health, and disproportionately impacts people of color.”

“In the District, about 60 percent of the total debt relief will benefit 36,000 residents making $25,000 or less, and 80 percent of residents receiving the relief live in D.C. Zip codes that are majority Black or Latino, city officials said.”

Per an HRSA August 29 press release,

“Today, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announces that for the first time in the 40-year history of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), the OPTN Board of Directors—the governing board that develops national organ allocation policy—is now separately incorporated and independent from the Board of long-time OPTN contractor, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). HRSA has awarded an OPTN Board Support contract to American Institutes for Research to support the newly incorporated OPTN Board of Directors.” 

“These critical actions to better serve patients by breaking up the monopoly that ran the nation’s organ allocation system are part of the OPTN modernization plan announced by HRSA in March 2023. Prior to these steps, the national body responsible for developing organ allocation policy for the country—the OPTN—and the corporate entity contracted to implement the policy—UNOS—shared the exact same Board of Directors. The new board support contractor will be accountable to HRSA and will organize a special election for a new OPTN Board of Directors with a focus on eliminating conflicts of interest and ensuring that data, evidence, and the voices of clinical leaders, scientific experts, patients, and donor families are driving action and accountability. Moving forward, no member of the OPTN Board can sit on an OPTN vendor’s board of directors.”