Government to Review Thousands of Health and Human Services Regulations

How would you like to analyze the effectiveness of approximately 2,480 healthcare regulations? A new rule from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) aims to do just that within the next five years (a pace of about 10 regulations per week to keep up). The idea is to ensure the regulations continue to be relevant.

The rule was given the catchy backronym “SUNSET”, from which HHS created the awkward full title, the “Securing Updated and Necessary Statutory Evaluations Timely.” The rule specifically targets older regulations that have been on the books for more than ten years, of which there are thousands. Still, plenty of rules are exempt from this review process, including annual payment updates and many regulations governing ACA exchange plans.

The rule is meant to be permanent by creating an ongoing review process for regulations as they surpass ten years in age. Whereas agencies have been directed in the past to review their older regulations, little enforcement has existed. The SUNSET rule, in contrast, will automatically revoke older regulations if HHS does not complete a review process to ensure they are still applicable.

Any regulations you would like to see on the remove/modify list? HHS stated they will create a website dashboard to notify the public of regulations that are under review and open for public comment. Let us hope this process will help streamline the complicated healthcare landscape, at least a little.