HHS Slush Fund Elimination Act

To address payment for claims relating to certain provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the HHS Slush Fund Elimination Act 2. Findings Congress finds that— (1) Congress, as demonstrated in the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 ( Public Law 113–235 Public Law 114–113 42 U.S.C. 18062 (2) on September 9, 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a memo that encouraged the settlement of civil actions relating to the risk corridor program; (3) a 1998 legal opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel states The Judgment Fund does not become available simply because an agency may have insufficient funds at a particular time to pay a judgment (4) the Congressional Research Service has concluded that the Judgment Fund would not appear to be available to pay for such judgments under current law (5) Congress wants to prohibit the Department of Health and Human Services from illegally paying claims or settlements, specifically through the Judgment Fund, to insurers for the risk corridor program. 3. Judgments, awards, and compromise settlements (a) Definition In this section, the term covered provision (b) Payments Notwithstanding section 1304 of title 31, United States Code, or any other provision of law— (1) except as provided in paragraph (2), no Federal funds, including amounts appropriated under such section 1304, may be used to pay any final judgment, award, or compromise settlement relating to a covered provision (including interest and costs); and (2) amounts owed by the United States Government for a final judgment, award, or compromise settlement relating to a covered provision (including interest and costs) shall be paid from amounts appropriated to the Secretary of Health and Human Services under section 1342(b)(2) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ( 42 U.S.C. 18062(b)(2)

Summary: HHS Slush Fund Elimination Act This bill prohibits federal funds, including funds appropriated from the Judgment Fund, from being used to pay any final judgment, award, or compromise settlement relating to the transitional reinsurance program or the risk corridor program established under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (The Judgment Fund is a permanent and indefinite appropriation to pay judgments against the United States, including awards, compromise settlements, and related interest and costs. Under the risk corridor program, qualified health plans offered in the individual or small group markets participate in a payment adjustment system based on the ratio of the allowable costs of the plan to the plan's aggregate premiums. Under the transitional reinsurance program, health insurance issuers and certain group health plans make contributions to the program, and reinsurance payments are made to issuers for enrollees in certain individual market plans with claim costs within a specified level.) The bill includes an exception that requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to pay any final judgment, award, or compromise settlement relating to the two programs from funds appropriated to HHS under provisions of the risk corridor program that require certain health plans with lower costs to make payments to HHS.