Kate Heffernan and Robert E. Wanerman, Members of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Boston and Washington, DC, offices, respectively, were quoted in Law360 Healthcare Authority, in “HHS Comment Reversal Sets Stage for Quick Policy Changes,” by Dan McKay. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
The sudden reversal at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services of a longstanding commitment to robust public engagement clears the way for fast-paced changes to Medicaid and other massive programs, putting more pressure on compliance officers and sending more lobbying work behind closed doors. …
The policy reversal "limits the ways in which important public stakeholders can interact with the rulemaking process," Epstein Becker Green attorneys Kate Gallin Heffernan and Robert E. Wanerman said in a joint statement.
"Such stakeholders," they said, "will have to think about other ways further up in the regulatory pipeline — before regulations are promulgated — for effective advocacy efforts." …
Unlike Medicare, the Medicaid statute doesn't have its own public comment requirements.
"Depending on how Congress approaches Medicaid funding, we may see changes implemented by HHS without notice and comment," the Epstein Becker members Heffernan and Wanerman said.
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