Opinion ID: 409579
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Contested Regulation

Text: 6 On 8 December 1981 the Secretary, without following the notice and comment requirements of the APA, issued an administrative instruction directing freestanding HHAs to begin using forty-nine government-designated, state-wide intermediaries for all Medicare reimbursement determinations and payments. 15 Under the proposed plan, 864 HHAs were reassigned to new intermediaries. 16 Approximately fifty-four percent of these 864 were providers who had previously been dealing directly with the Secretary. At the time the instruction issued the Secretary planned to phase in the proposed reassignments over a period beginning 1 January 1982 and ending 1 October 1982, with transfers becoming effective at the start of the individual HHA's fiscal year. Subsequently, however, the Secretary accelerated the proposed implementation, by requiring that all transfers be effective by 15 March 1982. Soon after the December 1981 instruction issued, the present litigation ensued.