Opinion ID: 516426
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Legislative, Regulatory, and Judicial Background of the

Text: 12 Disclosure Regulation. 13 After the passage of the FOIA, the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, HHS's predecessor agency, initially denied FOIA requests for Medicare related reports. Relying on 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1306(a) of the Social Security statute, 6 which prohibits disclosure of Medicare related reports except as specifically authorized by regulation, the Secretary took the position that since he declined to publish a regulation providing for disclosure of the reports, subsection (b)(3) of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552(b)(3) (hereinafter Exemption 3), prohibiting disclosure of matters specifically exempted by statute, was controlling. Stretch v. Weinberger, 495 F.2d 639, 640 (3d Cir.1974). 14 This Court rejected the Secretary's argument and held that 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1306(a) was not a withholding statute within the meaning of Exemption 3. Id. at 639. 7 We found that Congress's intent in enacting the Social Security Act's disclosure provision was twofold:  'to insure efficient administration and to protect recipients from humiliation and exploitation,'  id. at 640 (quoting S.Rep. No. 734, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. 29 (1939)), by shielding highly personal data about [them] from the public. Id. We also found that Congress did not have similar concerns about surveys or reports on extended care facilities, since at the time of the passage of legislation, the Department was itself not concerned with them. Id. 8 15 Following Stretch and other adverse decisions in the courts, see, e.g., Schechter v. Weinberger, 506 F.2d 1275 (D.C.Cir.1974) (medical laboratory and hospital); Serchuk v. Weinberger, 493 F.2d 663 (5th Cir.1974); but see People of the State of California v. Weinberger, 505 F.2d 767 (9th Cir.1974), the Secretary engaged in formal rulemaking under the Administrative Procedures Act, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 553 (1982), and promulgated the regulation at issue here. In the period following its promulgation, a number of hospitals unsuccessfully challenged the rule. See Parkridge Hospital, Inc. v. Califano, 625 F.2d 719 (6th Cir.1980); Humana of Virginia v. Blue Cross of Virginia, 622 F.2d 76 (4th Cir.1980); St. Mary's Hospital, Inc. v. Harris, 604 F.2d 407 (5th Cir.1979); St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center v. Blue Cross of Central N.Y., Inc., 489 F.Supp. 1052 (N.D.N.Y.1979), aff'd, 614 F.2d 1290 (2d Cir.1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 962, 100 S.Ct. 1650, 64 L.Ed.2d 238 (1980); Cedars Nursing and Convalescent Center, Inc. v. Aetna Life and Casualty Co., 472 F.Supp. 296 (E.D.Pa.1979); Brookwood Medical Center, Inc. v. Califano, 470 F.Supp. 1247 (N.D.Ga.1979); Doctor's Hospital of Sarasota, Inc. v. Califano, 455 F.Supp. 476, 479 (M.D.Fla.1978). 16 Since these court rulings, HHS has transferred the regulation, without subsequent change, from one section of its regulations to another in accordance with its internal reorganization. 46 Fed.Reg. 55,695-55,696 (1981). Section 401.135 was initially published as part of the Social Security regulations at 20 C.F.R. Sec. 422.435 (1975). In 1981, following the Secretary of HHS's designation of the HCFA as the agency responsible for administering the Medicare program, the HCFA issued regulations separately implementing the Freedom of Information Act with respect to documents collected or produced in the administration of the Social Security Act, 42 C.F.R. Secs. 401.101-401.152 (1981), under authority of Sec. 1106 of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1306 (1982). HCFA included among these rules, without change, the Medicare cost report release rule. 17