Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21a240_d18e.pdf
Page Number: 15.0

Cite as:  595 U. S. ____ (2022) 

5 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

vides that a “hospital” must also “mee[t] such other require-
ments as the Secretary finds necessary in the interest of the 
health  and  safety  of  individuals  who  are  furnished  ser-
vices.”  §1395x(e)(9) (emphasis added).

Contrary  to  the  Government’s  position,  this  kind  of
catchall  provision  does  not  authorize  every  regulation  re-
lated to “health and safety.”  As with all statutory language, 
context must inform the scope of the provision.  See AT&T 
Corp.  v.  Iowa  Utilities  Bd.,  525  U. S.  366,  408  (1999)
(THOMAS, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (cit-
ing Neal v. Clark, 95 U. S. 704, 708 (1878)).  “[W]here, as
here, a more general term follows more specific terms in a 
list, the general term is usually understood to embrace only 
objects similar in nature to those objects enumerated by the 
preceding specific words.”  Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, 584 
U. S.  ___,  ___  (2018)  (slip  op.,  at  12)  (internal  quotation 
marks omitted).  That presumption is particularly forceful 
where the statutory catchall refers to “such other” require-
ments, signaling that the subjects that come before delimit 
any residual authority.  See ibid.  Here, in §1395x(e), none
of the myriad subsections preceding the “health and safety” 
subsection suggests that the Government can order hospi-
tals  to  require  virtually  all  hospital  personnel  to  be  vac-
cinated.  Rather, these subsections show that HHS’ residual 
authority embraces only administrative requirements like 
those that precede it—including “provid[ing] 24-hour nurs-
ing service,” “maintain[ing] clinical records on all patients,” 
or having “bylaws in effect.”  §§1395x(e)(2), (3), (5).  A re-
quirement  that  all  healthcare  workers  be  vaccinated  is 
plainly different in kind.  The same reasoning applies to al-
most all of the Government’s proposed facility-specific stat-
(o)(6);  see  also 
utes. 
§§1395x(ff )(3)(B), (p)(4)(A), (cc)(2), 1395eee, 1396u–4(f )(4). 
Only one facility-specific provision is arguably different. 
It  regulates  long-term  care  facilities  and  mandates  an 
“infection  control  program”  among  its  “health  and  safety” 

See  §§1395x(aa)(2), 

(dd)(2),