Partner Jake Harper was quoted in Skilled Nursing News discussing the US Supreme Court’s Loper Bright ruling, which overturned the Chevron doctrine and may have implications for the recently finalized federal minimum staffing rule for nursing homes.
Sources told Skilled Nursing News that the Supreme Court’s decision further opens the door for the American Health Care Association (AHCA) to challenge the rule. As a result, according to Jake, courts reviewing AHCA’s lawsuit will no longer need to defer to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ sole interpretation as a result of the decision. They can instead use their own interpretation of the underlying statute to decide whether the agency engaged in “reasoned decision-making” to arrive at its conclusions, he said.