Company: UHS
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-027785
Chunk: 98

Company: UNIVERSAL HEALTH SERVICES INC
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1B
Chunk 98
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 cost-sharing requirements. HHS, the Department of Labor and the Department of the Treasury have issued rules to implement the legislation. The rules have limited the ability of our hospital-based physicians to receive payments for services at usually higher out-of-network rates in certain circumstances, and, as a result, have caused us to increase subsidies to these physicians or to replace their services at a higher cost level;

•in June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Loper Bright Enters. v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce, which modified the regulatory interpretation standard established 40 years ago by Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council. Chevron doctrine generally required courts to defer to federal agencies in their interpretation of federal statutes when a statute was silent or ambiguous with respect to a specific issue.  In Loper Bright, the Supreme Court held that courts are no longer required to grant such deference, though they may consider an agency’s statutory interpretation. As it is highly regulated, the health care industry could be significantly impacted by the Loper Bright decision, particularly in the areas of Medicare reimbursement, decision making by the Food & Drug 

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Administration and health care fraud and abuse compliance, where parties may no longer be able to rely on federal agencies’ policies, rules and guidance;

•possible unfavorable changes in the levels and terms of reimbursement for our charges by third party payers or government based payers, including Medicare or Medicaid in the United States, and government based payers in the United Kingdom;

•our ability to enter into managed care provider agreements on acceptable terms and the ability of our competitors to do the same; 

•the outcome of known and unknown litigation, government investigations, inquiries, false claims act allegations, and liabilities and other claims asserted against us and other matters, and the effects of adverse publicity relating to such matters, including, but not limited to, the jury verdicts returned against The Pavilion Behavioral Health System (the "Pavilion") and Cumberland Hospital for Children and Adolescents ("Cumberland"), two of our indirect subsidiaries, as disclosed in Note 8 to the Consolidated Financial Statements - Commitments and Contingencies, Legal Proceedings. We are uncertain as to the ultimate financial exposure related to the Pavilion and Cumberland matters (which relate to occurrences in the 2020 policy year) and we can make no assurances regarding timing or substance of their outcome, or the amount of damages that may be ultimately held recoverable after post-judgment proceedings and appeals. As of December