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The Southern District Court of Ohio on Friday heard oral arguments from the federal government and the Chamber of Commerce in the latter’s lawsuit challenging the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, with both sides rehashing long-held assertions. Here are some of the key points that were argued on Friday. (Choi, 9/15)

A lawyer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Friday urged a federal judge to block President Joe Biden's administration from implementing a new program that would let Medicare negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies for selected costly drugs. Jeffrey Bucholtz, the business group's attorney, told U.S. District Judge Michael Newman in Dayton, Ohio, that the program violated drugmakers' due process rights by giving the government the power to effectively dictate prices for their medicines. (Raymond, 9/15)

President Joe Biden is trumpeting Medicare’s new powers to negotiate directly with drugmakers on the cost of prescription medications — but a poll shows that any immediate political boost that Biden gets for enacting the overwhelmingly popular policy may be limited. Three-quarters of Americans, or 76 percent, favor allowing the federal health care program for the elderly to negotiate prices for certain prescription drugs. That includes strong majorities of Democrats (86 percent) and Republicans (66 percent), according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About one in five Americans are neutral on the issue, while 6 percent outright oppose it. (9/15)

A Medicare effort to boost payments to primary care doctors and better coordinate care for patients with complex medical needs has set off a lobbying frenzy to forestall steep cuts specialists would face as a result. The fight over physician payments underscores how Medicare's strict budgeting rules can create unintended consequences, like pitting medical specialties against each other. (Goldman, 9/18)

Providers want the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to reconsider cutting physician pay and avoid financial repercussions that could force them to scale back care. Comments healthcare industry groups wrote in response to the Medicare physician fee schedule proposed rule for 2024, which CMS issued in July, object to the agency's plan to reduce doctor pay 1.25% next year. (Berryman, 9/18)

Medicare plans to pay more for a type of cardiac rehabilitation that takes place in certain outpatient clinics owned by hospitals. Medicare has admitted it is doing so due to an error in reading federal law, but it also goes against the grain of the current environment, where support for site-neutral payments has never been higher. Some members of Congress and health care experts are pushing for a system that would not pay hospital outpatient departments more for identical services that are provided in lower-priced physician offices. (Herman, 9/18)