Low-Income Drug Discount Fight Looms in HHS’s Supreme Court Loss

A US Supreme Court loss for the HHS in a Medicare case gives the agency ammunition in a broader battle over drugmaker discounts for low-income Americans.

All nine Supreme Court justices agreed that the Department of Health and Human Services wrongly slashed $1 billion a year in drug reimbursements to hospitals through a 30-year-old government program designed to help at-need populations. The HHS and hospitals are now on the same side in another courtroom conflict over that program—whether the HHS can require that drugmakers offer discounts to certain pharmacies.

“HHS now has strong precedent and language to lean on from ...