• District of Columbia: Last month, the Supreme Court voted 5–4 to reject a national settlement with Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin. In the decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the majority of justices said the bankruptcy court didn't have the authority to release the company's owners from liability through the settlement. After the court's ruling, Purdue Pharma's creditors and more than 40 states are pursuing actions against the company's owners. Negotiations for the settlement are expected to resume in mediation sessions, and if a new deal isn't reached by Sept. 9, thousands of lawsuits against the company and its owners, which have been on hold for five years, will likely move forward. According to the New York Times, the creditors' filing included a request to bring the case and a 200-page draft of their prospective complaint, which requested a jury trial. Although Purdue Pharma is not directly pursuing the claim against its owners, it said that it supported the creditors' actions. "If a consensual resolution is not reached through mediation, however, litigation will be necessary, and we believe the creditors' committee is the party best situated to prosecute these claims," the company said. (Hoffman, New York Times, 7/9)
• Maryland: CMS last month issued a proposed rule that would increase Medicare reimbursements for kidney dialysis providers by 2.2% in 2025. CMS also proposed a payment bundling plan that includes oral-only drugs for kidney disease patients with high phosphorus levels. The agency originally proposed adding oral-only phosphate binder drugs to the end-stage renal disease bundling program in 2011, but Congress delayed the policy three times. Although CMS intends to implement it in 2025, two House committees have approved legislation to further delay the provision until 2027. According to Kidney Care Partners (KCP), a trade group that represents dialysis providers, the bundling proposal would strain the workforce and negatively impact access to care. "KCP is deeply concerned about the sustainability of the program given that the market basket fails to reflect the actual increase in costs incurred by facilities," the association said. "Moreover, we are disappointed that CMS did not heed the kidney care community’s call for reforms to address the barriers the current payment policies have created in terms of patients being able to access innovative treatment options." (Early, Modern Healthcare, 6/27)
• Texas: The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas last month ruled that HHS lacks the authority under HIPAA to ban providers from using third-party web tracking technology on their websites in certain circumstances. The American Hospital Association (AHA) originally filed a lawsuit against HHS after the Office of Civil Rights published a bulletin that said HIPAA rules apply when protected information is collected with third-party tracking technology and shared with vendors. HHS also said that regulated entities, including hospitals, were not permitted to use tracking technology in a way that would lead to impermissible disclosures of personally identifiable health information to tracking technology vendors or other HIPAA violations. In the lawsuit, AHA argued that HHS' interpretation exceeded HIPAA and the government's statutory and constitutional authority. In the ruling, the court granted AHA's request for the rule to be vacated but did not grant a permanent injunction. "As a result of [the] decision, hospitals and health systems will again be able to rely on these important technologies to provide their communities with reliable, accurate health care information," said AHA General Counsel Chad Golder. (Turner, Modern Healthcare, 6/21; AHA News, 6/20)

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