Page:Azar v. Allina Health Services, 587 U.S. (2019) (slip opinion).pdf/8

Rh That Internet posting led to this lawsuit. A group of hospitals who provided care to low-income Medicare patients in 2012 argued (among other things) that the government had violated the Medicare Act by skipping its statutory notice-and-comment obligations. In reply, the government admitted that it hadn’t provided notice and comment but argued it wasn’t required to do so in these circumstances. Ultimately, the court of appeals sided with the hospitals. 863 F. 3d, at 938. But in doing so the court created a conflict with other circuits that had suggested, if only in passing, that notice and comment wasn’t needed in cases like this. See, e.g., Via Christi Regional Medical Center, Inc. v. Leavitt, 509 F. 3d 1259, 1271, n. 11 (CA10 2007); Baptist Health v. Thompson, 458 F. 3d 768, 776, n. 8 (CA8 2006). We granted the government’s petition for certiorari to resolve the conflict. 585 U. S. ___ (2018).

This case hinges on the meaning of a single phrase in the notice-and-comment statute Congress drafted specially for Medicare in 1987. Recall that the law requires the government to provide the public with advance notice and a chance to comment on any “rule, requirement, or other statement of policy” that “establishes or changes a substantive legal standard governing. . . the payment for services.” §1395hh(a)(2). Before us, everyone agrees that the government’s 2014 announcement of the 2012 Medicare fractions governed “payment for services.” It’s clear, too, that the government’s announcement was at least a “statement of policy” because it “le[t] the public know [the agency’s] current. . . adjudicatory approach” to a critical question involved in calculating payments for thousands of hospitals nationwide. Syncor Int’l Corp. v. Shalala, 127 F. 3d 90, 94 (CADC 1997). So whether the government had an obligation to provide notice and comment winds up turning on whether its 2014 announcement established or