[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday declined [order list, PDF] to hear a challenge to the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) [text]. The order lets stand a decision [text] by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to dismiss the lawsuit. The lawsuit, brought by two Arizona-based surgeons, challenged the constitutionality of the IPAB, a 15-member panel whose role is to trim Medicare costs. In its ruling the Ninth Circuit noted that the IPAB only goes into effect if Medicare spending goes over a certain number and the earliest it could have an effect is 2019. The case also challenged the individual mandate provision of the ACA.

Comprehensive health care reform [JURIST backgrounder] was passed by Congress in March 2010 after over a year of debate, and recent legal challenges have reinvigorated debate. In early March the Supreme Court heard [JURIST report] oral arguments for King v. Burwell in which the court was asked to rule on whether the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) [official website] may adopt regulations to extend tax-credit subsidies to coverage purchased through the federal health insurance exchange established under the ACA. Last June the court ruled [JURIST report] in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby [SCOTUSblog backgrounder] that closely held corporations can deny contraceptive coverage to their employees for religious reasons. Two weeks after the Hobby Lobby decision, US Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Mark Udall (D-CO) introduced a bill [JURIST report] to restore full contraception coverage for employees of closely held corporations.