Supply chain leaders were excited by Supreme Court tariff strikedown, though still very confused

Tariffs? For spring? Groundbreaking.

That’s right, there’s more tariff news to break down. This time, it’s due to the Supreme Court in addition to the White House.

On Feb. 20, the high court struck down the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs executive orders, saying in a 6–3 vote that they went beyond the president’s permitted power. It was unclear in the ruling, however, if the supply chain would see refunds from the estimated $200 billion already collected.

In response, the administration put a baseline 10% tariff in place, which was later changed to 15% through July.

When tariffs were first announced last year, leaders expressed concerns over how they could impact potential mergers and acquisitions, drug costs, and imports. While industry experts told us they were initially relieved about this new ruling—as tariffs have led to increased costs that could be passed down to patients—ongoing market uncertainty has thrown the supply chain into another round of chaos.

“The tariffs, on one hand, the industry saw them coming, and on the other hand, we were completely and absolutely unprepared,” David Warrick, enterprise EVP at supply chain risk management software company Overhaul, told Healthcare Brew.

Happy-ish. Aeroflow Health CEO Casey Hite told us there’s “no question” tariffs affected his business as a medical equipment supplier since they first went into place last year, though he didn’t provide specifics. He couldn’t pass additional costs on to customers, Hite said, because the company operates mainly through health insurance and it’s “contractually committed to serve patients while our underlying costs change midstream.”

“We have stomached multiple price increases from our vendors because of the impact of tariffs,” he said.

Stat reported in April 2025 that tariffs have cost medical device and diagnostic companies “hundreds of millions of dollars.”

When asked for comment, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said “the lion’s share of healthcare inflation in the past year was not from higher goods costs—with prescription drug prices actually falling—but from rising prices of medical services, which are not affected by tariffs.”

Warrick said at first he thought the Trump administration would institute a universal tariff that would hurt only in the short term before things settled down.

“Instead, we entered into this period of complete and total uncertainty whereby a decision on a Sunday night in a tweet could be reversed by lunchtime on Monday,” he said. “That brought a wave of chaos and confusion to the global supply chains.”

So when the Supreme Court struck down these tariffs, he saw it as a “positive,” though added it has also left the supply chain with more confusion as companies like his await more information on refunds and potential new tariffs.

Secondary markets. With that confusion, secondary markets have formed, Warrick said.

For one, it has led to more bonded warehousing, which is when companies import their goods, hold them in bond with the government, and ship them to their final destination and pay less if tariff rules change. This led to a “huge amount of inventory” stockpiled that could be released over the short term, Warrick said. This could affect products like syringes and personal protective equipment, Axios reported in May, and could also exacerbate supply shortages, the American Hospital Association said in April last year.

Then, around potential refunds, there’s the liquidation market, where overstock or inventory generally is sold for fast cash. In this case, liquidation specialists who are good at buying bad debt would give, say, 20 cents on the dollar to get the rights to a tariff refund, Warrick said.

“It was an instant cash payment for certain small businesses,” Warrick said. “And it was real money, whereas nobody was too sure where the Supreme Court would rule and even if that would allow for refunds.”

Refunds. Still, refunds aren’t guaranteed, and the Trump administration has made it clear it’s not giving up on tariffs, either, as there are other avenues available.

“This notion that we can just throw tariffs out on any given day and have them broad and encompassing—that’s been taken off the table by the Supreme Court,” Warrick said.

Hite agreed the tariffs will be more “consistent” and less “sporadic” now. He plans to negotiate costs with payers in the long term but said there may be insurance premium increases passed to the consumer as a result, coinciding with changes from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies where patients are already expected to see higher costs.

“We hope that this decision will at least introduce some predictability,” he said. “It’s very difficult for us to plan.”