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HHS Revokes Public Comment Requirement on Certain Policy Changes

Client Alert
March 5, 2025

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced the immediate revocation of the longstanding Richardson Waiver, a policy requiring public notice and comment on certain agency decisions involving contracts, grants, benefits, property, and public loans. This move, detailed in a March 3 policy statement by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., eliminates a key mechanism for stakeholder input on agency policy shifts.

Key Policy Changes

The elimination of the Richardson Waiver means that HHS will no longer be required to allow a 60-day public comment period before finalizing policy changes related to grants and benefits. As a result, HHS will now have the ability to implement new policies much more quickly, potentially impacting Medicaid and National Institutes of Health funding rules. This change eliminates opportunities for healthcare providers and other stakeholders to weigh in on crucial policy decisions – like implementing Medicaid work requirements – before they take effect. This change does not impact Medicare, which follows separate statutory public input rules and remains subject to different procedural requirements.

Industry groups have expressed concerns that eliminating public comment could lead to less transparency and hastily implemented policies that lack sufficient vetting. Without an opportunity for public review, new regulations may be more prone to unintended consequences, creating additional burdens for states, providers, and patients.

What This Means for Healthcare Providers

Healthcare providers and other stakeholders should prepare for more rapid and potentially unpredictable policy shifts from HHS. The absence of a formal comment process means that affected entities may need to explore alternative advocacy strategies to engage with policymakers.

We will continue to monitor developments and provide updates on any significant policy changes stemming from this decision. Please contact BMD Healthcare Member Daphne Kackloudis at dlkackloudis@bmdllc.com or Attorney Jordan Burdick at jaburdick@bmdllc.com with any questions about how this may impact your organization.

Healthcare PolicyHealth LawHealthcareDaphne KackloudisJesse Wilde
Client Alert

Metaverse in the Workplace: What Do Employers Need to Know?

June 16, 2022Emerging technologies are creating a host of new legal issues for employers. The rise of the metaverse has been one of the most anticipated expansions over the last few years. The metaverse is a virtual world that allows users to interact with each other in simulated environments. The metaverse in the workplace has been expanding rapidly as businesses explore the use of virtual reality and augmented reality to improve workflows and communication.Client Alert

A Win for the Hospitals: An Update on the Latest 340B Lawsuit

June 16, 2022On Wednesday, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected massive payment cuts to hospitals under the 340B drug discount program. Now, the Department of Health and Human Services no longer has the discretion to change 340B reimbursement rates without gathering data on what hospitals actually pay for outpatient drugs. This “straightforward” ruling was based on the text and structure of the statute, per the Supreme Court. Simply put, because HHS did not conduct a survey of hospitals’ acquisition costs, HHS acted unlawfully by reducing the reimbursement rates for 340B hospitals.Client Alert

New Office of Environmental Justice Announced

June 9, 2022The profound impacts of climate change, combined with environmental and industrial pollutions, have led the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish the Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ). The creation of OEJ aligns with President Biden’s Executive Order Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. The OEJ will be led by Sharunda Buchanan, a former official for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and will target disadvantaged communities around the country in hopes of improving the health of those populations and preventing future harm.Client Alert

New York, Kansas, Massachusetts, and Delaware Become the latest States to Adopt Full Practice Authority for Nurse Practitioners

May 19, 2022While the COVID-19 pandemic certainly created many obstacles and hardships, it also created many opportunities to try doing things differently. This can be seen in the instant rise of remote work opportunities, telehealth visits, and virtual meetings. Many States took the challenges of the pandemic and turned them into an opportunity to adjust the regulations governing licensed professionals, including for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs).Client Alert, Blog Post

Explosive Growth in Pot of Gold Opportunity for Bank (and Other) Cannabis Lenders Driving Erosion of the Barriers

May 13, 2022Our original article on bank lending to the cannabis industry anticipated that the convergence of interest between banks and the cannabis industry would draw more and larger banks to the industry. Banks were awash in liquidity with limited deployment options, while bankable cannabis businesses had rapidly growing needs for more and lower cost credit. Since then, the pot of gold opportunity for banks to lend into the cannabis industry has grown exponentially due to a combination of market constraints on equity causing a dramatic shift to debt and the ever-increasing capital needs of one of the country’s fastest growing industries. At the same time, hurdles to entry of new banks are being systematically cleared as the yellow brick road to the cannabis industry’s access to the financial markets is being paved, brick by brick, by the progressively increasing number and size of banks that are now entering the market.
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