STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVES: U.S. Supreme Court Decides Allina and Analysis, Predictions Follow

Susan Huntington and George Mikhail were quoted in an article, "STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVES: U.S. Supreme Court Decides Allina and Analysis, Predictions Follow," published in Health Law Daily by Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. Following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Azar v. Allina Health Services, the article provides an overview of the court's decision and perspective on what it means for providers. According to Huntington and Mikhail, "The ruling has the potential to change how CMS administers the Medicare program moving forward. CMS should construe the decision's applicability to its rulemaking broadly, and therefore engage in more notice-and-comment rulemaking."

In addition, they added, "If the Court followed the logic of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in its arguments, payment changes would not require a notice and comment process and therefore could be made through pronouncements in any forum, including the CMS Administrator's blog posts or through its weekly email updates. The formal notice and comment period is necessary for health care providers and Medicare beneficiaries to know where to look to keep abreast of the complicated and ever-changing Medicare rules. The expanding tactic by CMS of burying rule changes in announcements or other publications has been unfair and, as confirmed by Allina, not legal."