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Part I: Healthcare Implications of Chevron Deference Reversal in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo
July 16, 2024 by Megan Boyd

The Supreme Court’s reversal of the Chevron deference in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024) has significant implications for critical healthcare issues. For the past 40 years, the Chevron deference doctrine protected decisions made by federal agencies, allowing them discretion to interpret ambiguous Congressional provisions or address issues Congress did not explicitly tackle. Under this doctrine, if an agency’s interpretation of Congressional intent in regulations and rules was “a permissible construction of the statute,” lower courts had to defer to that agency’s interpretation. However, as of 2024, this doctrine no longer stands. 

In Loper Bright, the Court found that the Chevron deference doctrine contradicted the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), which provides federal courts with the authority to “decide all relevant questions of law.” Chief Justice Roberts rejected the argument that federal agencies have greater expertise in interpreting Congressional intent in technical areas versus the federal courts. He said that the federal courts are expected to possess that expertise and that the parties to the lawsuit and friends of court can and will assist in the technical areas.

So, what does the reversal of the Chevron doctrine mean in terms of healthcare law? Agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) issue vast amounts of proposed and final federal regulations on physician and hospital fee schedules, as well as regulatory guidance and frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the NSA. 

In the most recent episode of Zotec Answers and the next A to ZPAC blog post, we will explore the prominent issues raised by the Loper Bright decision. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a principal sponsor of the NSA and a physician, has posed numerous questions for HHS regarding the new Supreme Court ruling. We will discuss these questions in detail in the upcoming podcast episode and the next A to ZPAC blog post. 

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