Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 112

529US1

Unit: $U32

[10-04-01 09:20:53] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 529 U. S. 1 (2000)

37

Thomas, J., dissenting

agency action.
debate:

Ibid. We declined, however, to enter that

“Whichever may be the better reading of Salﬁ and
Ringer, we need not pass on the meaning of § 405(h) in
the abstract to resolve this case. Section 405(h) does
not apply on its own terms to Part B of the Medicare
program, but is instead incorporated mutatis mutandis
by § 1395ii. The legislative history of both the statute
establishing the Medicare program and the 1972 amend-
ments thereto provides speciﬁc evidence of Congress’ in-
tent to foreclose review only of ‘amount determina-
tions’—i. e., those ‘quite minor matters,’ 118 Cong. Rec.
33992 (1972) (remarks of Sen. Bennett), remitted ﬁnally
and exclusively to adjudication by private insurance
carriers in a ‘fair hearing.’ By the same token, matters
which Congress did not delegate to private carriers,
such as challenges to the validity of the Secretary’s
instructions and regulations, are cognizable in courts
of law.
In the face of this persuasive evidence of leg-
islative intent, we will not indulge the Government’s
assumption that Congress contemplated review by carri-
ers of ‘trivial’ monetary claims, ibid., but intended no
review at all of substantial statutory and constitutional
challenges to the Secretary’s administration of Part B of
Id., at 680 (footnotes omitted).
the Medicare program.”

We accordingly held that the physicians’ challenge to the
Secretary’s regulation could proceed under general federal-
question jurisdiction.

C

In light of the quoted passage, it is beyond dispute that
our holding in Michigan Academy rested squarely on the
meaning of § 1395ii. Accord, ante, at 17. Under Michi-
gan Academy, a case involving an “amount determinatio[n]”
would trigger § 1395ii’s incorporation of § 405(h), and thus
bar federal-question jurisdiction; a “challeng[e] to the valid-