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12 MAINE COMMUNITY HEALTH OPTIONS v. UNITED STATES 

Opinion of the Court 

context.  See, e.g., Merit Management Group, LP v. FTI Con-
sulting, Inc., 583 U. S. ___, ___ (2018) (slip op., at 11) (stat-
utory interpretation “begins with the text”).  The first sign
that the statute imposed an obligation is its mandatory lan-
guage: “shall.”  “Unlike the word ‘may,’ which implies dis-
cretion,  the  word  ‘shall’  usually  connotes  a  requirement.” 
Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. v. United States, 579 U. S. 
___, ___ (2016) (slip op., at 9); see also Lexecon Inc. v. Mil-
berg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, 523 U. S. 26, 35 (1998) 
(observing that “ ‘shall’ ” typically “creates an obligation im-
pervious  to  . . .  discretion”).  Section  1342  uses  the  com-
mand three times: The HHS Secretary “shall establish and 
administer” the Risk Corridors program from 2014 to 2016,
“shall  provide”  for  payments  according  to  a  precise  statu-
tory formula, and “shall pay” insurers for losses exceeding 
the statutory threshold.  §§1342(a), (b)(1), 114 Stat. 211, 42 
U. S. C. §§18062(a), (b)(1).

Section  1342’s  adjacent  provisions  also  underscore  its
mandatory nature.  In §1341 (a reinsurance program) and 
§1343 (a risk-adjustment program), the Affordable Care Act 
differentiates  between  when  the  HHS  Secretary  “shall”
take  certain  actions  and  when  she  “may”  exercise  discre-
tion. 
See  §1341(b)(2),  124  Stat.  209,  42  U. S. C. 
§18061(b)(2) (“[T]he Secretary . . . shall include” a formula 
that  “may  be  designed”  in  multiple  ways);  §1343(b),  124 
Stat.  212,  42  U. S. C.  §18063(b)  (“The  Secretary  . . .  shall 
establish” and “may utilize” certain criteria).  Yet Congress
chose mandatory terms for §1342.  “When,” as is the case 
here, Congress “distinguishes between ‘may’ and ‘shall,’ it 
is  generally  clear  that  ‘shall’  imposes  a  mandatory  duty.” 
Kingdomware, 579 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 9).

Nothing in §1342 requires the Risk Corridors program to
be budget neutral, either.  Nor does the text suggest that
the Secretary’s payments to unprofitable plans pivoted on 
profitable plans’ payments to the Secretary, or that a par-