Fourth Circuit Affirms Rejection of Medicare Cancer Drug Program

A federal appeals court panel Thursday unanimously affirmed a lower court decision that denied a nonprofit charitable group’s challenge of an HHS decision to reject the group’s proposed program to help low-income Medicare patients obtain costly cancer drugs.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the case brought by the Pharmaceutical Coalition for Patient Access was “unreviewable” because the “Coalition’s disparate treatment challenge is directed purely against how the” HHS “Inspector General employs its enforcement discretion,” said the decision written by Judge Louise W. Flanagan of the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

“In sum, we ...