Supreme Court pans HHS birth control option for religious employers

The HHS framework does not let an affected employer prevent an insurance issuer or plan administrator from providing birth control coverage, “However, the inability to ‘restraint the behavior of a third party that conflicts with the [appellants'] religious beliefs’…does not impose a burden on the appellants’ exercise of religion,” the judge writes.

The Supreme Court indicated that it disagrees with this reasoning by asking the 6th Circuit to give the case further consideration in light of Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., a 2014 case in which the court ordered HHS to make more of an effort to accommodate the religious objections of the owners of closely held private companies.

The court also gave the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) and allied groups leave to file a brief giving the court their views on the case.

AAPS and the allied groups argue that the HHS “‘accommodation’ effectively requires a religious non-profit to arrange for and facilitate coverage for the drugs and devices to which it objects.”

The policy “substantially burdens religious beliefs in a manner similar to that of the plaintiffs in Burwell vs. Hobby lobby,” the groups contend.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) set the stage for the conflict by giving the HHS secretary the authority to require major medical insurers to cover a basic package of preventive services without imposing out-of-pocket costs on the enrollees, and for the secretary to design the preventive services package with help from the Institute of Medicine and the HHS Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

See also: PPACA: Feds Add Contraception to Preventive Care Package

HRSA said the package should include birth control benefits. The previous HHS secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, endorsed the Institute of Medicine recommendation.