Cory Talbot, a healthcare partner based in the firm’s Salt Lake City office, was quoted in Law360’s June 3 article titled “Attorneys React To High Court's HHS Rulemaking Decision.” The article discusses the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Azar v. Allina Health Services, ruling that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services improperly failed to seek public feedback on a multibillion-dollar Medicare policy—a ruling that could reverberate across HHS’ vast agenda of policymaking. The article provides attorney reactions on how the decision could affect HHS and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
"The decision means HHS has misread its obligation to provide notice-and-comment periods in parts of its rulemaking. The scope of this misreading is not clear — the government asserted this decision would result in 'many years' of notice and comment to address all the impacted rules in the Provider Reimbursement Manual, while the court seemed to believe it might apply only to a handful of 'interpretive' rules. Either way, the decision means that many in the Medicare arena will be scrutinizing whether the government complied with its statutory obligations in providing notice and comment on Medicare rules — scrutiny that could lead to additional challenges related to Medicare services," said Talbot.
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