HHS Office for Civil Rights Director Melanie Fontes Rainer on Progress and News at OCR
Updates to Statute 1557 that Healthcare Providers Need to Know
In a move with potentially significant implications for entities subject to the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has reversed course and now contends that Section 1557 of the Affordable...more
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has issued several executive orders (EOs) and actions that may have an impact on group health plans. These EOs provide insight into the US administration’s policies and outline...more
Following through on a campaign theme focused on transgender issues and access to gender-affirming health care, on Friday, January 28, President Trump signed an Executive Order, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and...more
A Mississippi federal district court has issued a nationwide injunction and stay on some of the new federal regulations concerning Affordable Care Act (ACA) Section 1557, which prohibits discrimination in specified health...more
On June 28, 2024, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce and Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce (Loper Bright), overturning Chevron U.S.A. Inc v. Natural...more
The Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law in 2010, contained a provision (commonly referred to as Section 1557) prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability in...more
Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability, or any combination thereof, in a health program or activity, any part of which is...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Following years of back and forth, new final rules were published by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on May 6, 2024 reinstituting the Department’s interpretation that the prohibition on...more
In a Final Rule issued on May 6, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”) finalized regulations implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (“Section 1557”). The Final Rule updates and...more
On April 26, 2024, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final rule (press release, fact sheet, FAQs) (final regulations) reinterpreting Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which prohibits...more
On April 26, 2024, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final rule (press release, fact sheet, FAQs) reinterpreting Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which prohibits discrimination on the...more
On July 25, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) issued a proposed new rule that significantly expands the scope of protection available to vulnerable populations under Section 1557 of the Affordable...more
On January 5, 2022, we discussed the Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2023 proposed rule released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). On April 28, 2022, CMS issued the NBPP 2023 Final Rule. CMS...more
In Religious Sisters of Mercy v. Azar, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9156 (D.N.D. Jan. 19, 2021), a district court awarded a group of plaintiffs permanent injunctive relief against a provision of the Affordable Care Act ("ACA") that...more
Summary - Federal agencies will enforce Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The announcement reverses an effort under the previous...more
On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced that the prohibition against discrimination “on the basis of sex” under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (“Section 1557”) once again includes...more
Report on Medicare Compliance 29, no. 30 (August 24, 2020) - A federal court on Aug. 17 blocked HHS from enforcing its revised definition of sex discrimination in Sec. 1557, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of...more
On July 7, 2020, we published a client alert regarding the Department of Health and Human Services (the “HHS”) June 19, 2020 rule (“2020 Rule”) modifying the non-discrimination provision (“Section 1557”) of the Patient...more
One day before an updated rule of the US Department of Health and Human Services regarding Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act took effect, the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A Federal Court has temporarily enjoined the Trump administration from putting into effect its recent rule that strips the Affordable Care Act of its gender identity protections....more
Judge Frederick Block of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York has preliminarily enjoined HHS from revising the Obama-era definitions of sex discrimination under Section 1557 of the ACA. See Walker v....more
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York has blocked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from enforcing a new rule that limited sex discrimination in healthcare to discrimination based...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently proposed regulations that scale back nondiscrimination protections under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The new regulations, proposed on May 24,...more
On May 24, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights issued a proposed rule reversing certain provisions of its 2016 rule prohibiting certain forms of discrimination under Section 1557 of the...more
On Friday, March 24, 2019, the US Department of Health and Human Services issued a proposed rule (along with a related fact sheet) under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that would make significant changes to the...more