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Oct 18, 2024 | 
healthaffairs.org | Richard Hughes IV
As the US Supreme Court begins its 2024–25 term, the possibility looms that it might put yet another consequential case on its docket concerning the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This time, the case concerns one of the law’s most popular provisions—its preventive services mandate.
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Jun 28, 2024 | 
healthaffairs.org | Richard Hughes IV
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals announced its “mixed bag” decision in Braidwood vs Becerra on June 21. The decision leaves the future of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA's) preventive services coverage requirement murky and the preventive care of hundreds of millions of Americans in jeopardy.
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May 30, 2024 | 
healthaffairs.org | Richard Hughes IV
Administrative law is at a national inflection point as the Supreme Court weighs overturning a 40-year-old precedent underpinning the ability of agencies to develop detailed regulatory policy. Concurrently, the US Fifth Circuit of Appeals is weighing the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s delegation of authority to various federal advisory bodies and an agency to determine preventive coverage requirements.
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Apr 19, 2024 | 
healthaffairs.org | Richard Hughes IV
The United States is at a crossroads. We must choose between a future that entails poorer health outcomes, shorter lifespans, and increased health spending, or a sustained effort at transforming our system into one that fosters prevention, improves health outcomes in every respect, and bends the health care cost curve.
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Mar 4, 2024 | 
healthaffairs.org | Devon Minnick |Richard Hughes IV |Ada Delores Peters |Naomi Seiler |Sara Rosenbaum
Braidwood Management v. Becerra, scheduled for oral argument in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals today, March 4, has the potential to undermine decades of bipartisanship and groundbreaking innovation aimed at ending the transmission of the HIV virus that causes AIDS. This would have long-lasting consequences for preventive health care and society in general.
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Nov 29, 2023 | 
healthaffairs.org | Richard Hughes IV |Naomi Seiler |Sara Rosenbaum
Free coverage of immunizations recommended by experts is on the line in Braidwood Management v Becerra, now pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The lower court decision struck down coverage recommendations by the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) adopted after the date of ACA enactment.
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Nov 20, 2023 | 
healthaffairs.org | Spreeha Choudhury |Richard Hughes IV
On October 4, 2023, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury issued an Request for Information (RFI) aimed at garnering input on enhanced coverage and access to over-the-counter (OTC) preventive services.
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Nov 17, 2023 | 
healthcarebusinesstoday.com | Spreeha Choudhury |Richard Hughes IV
On October 5, 2023, the Vaccines and Related Biologic Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), voted unanimously to remove the B/Yamagata viral strain from future influenza vaccines “as soon as possible.” This change will not be effectuated overnight and, without clearer regulatory guidance, may lead to consumer and provider confusion over the appropriate flu vaccine.
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Nov 1, 2023 | 
healthaffairs.org | Richard Hughes IV
A little specificity would go a long way in the recommendations of the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)—that is, if we want health insurance companies to pay for lifesaving HIV prevention and patients to have access to it.
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Jul 5, 2023 | 
healthaffairs.org | Richard Hughes IV |Spreeha Choudhury
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a dangerous disease for vulnerable and older adults. Last winter, RSV spiked significantly and continues to cause between 60,000-160,000 hospitalizations and 6,000-10,000 deaths each year in older adults. And yet, on June 21, 2023, after a 60-year wait for a vaccine to prevent the virus, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) declined to make a vaccine recommendation that would have provided broad, equitable, life-saving protection.
