Richard H. Hughes, IV, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Fierce Healthcare, in “Supreme Court Overrules Chevron Deference, Dealing Blow to Federal Healthcare Agencies,” by Noah Tong.
Following is an excerpt:
The U.S. Supreme Court, by a vote of 6-3, has overturned the Chevron deference, stripping power from federal agencies to interpret and enforce regulations.
Under the long-standing precedent, courts are required to determine whether an agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous law is reasonable. This has given agencies room to advance regulatory priorities.
In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo—where commercial fishermen sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for mandating they pay compliance observers, which was combined with Relentless v. Department of Commerce—the Supreme Court opted to reverse the court’s 1984 decision in Chevron v Natural Resources Defense Council.
“Today, the court places a tombstone on Chevron no one can miss,” said Justice Neil Gorsuch in a concurring opinion.
Now that Chevron is overturned and no longer permissible under the Administrative Procedure Act, courts do not have to defer to reasonable agency interpretations.
“Instead, they can decide how persuasive that interpretation is,” said Richard Hughes IV, a healthcare attorney for Epstein Becker Green.
"We’re likely to see more scrutiny where an agency leans on its authority to accomplish an ambitious, progressive policy aim, but courts may be more deferential the more obscure the statute and issues at hand,” he added.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the majority opinion, specified that the decision does "not call into question prior cases that relied on the Chevron framework. The holdings of those cases that specific agency actions are lawful—including the Clean Air Act holding of Chevron itself—are still subject to statutory stare decisis despite our change in interpretive methodology."
In other words, previous cases in which the court made its ruling under the Chevron deference will not be immediately upended by today's decision.
Hughes predicts the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will be under a microscope from the courts going forward, and there will be more scrutiny towards provider reimbursement cuts, drug pricing regulation and the Inflation Reduction Act.
