Press Release
Alaska & Texas Lead Effort to Push Back on Federal Overreach from Health Dept. Rule
September 26, 2024
(Anchorage, AK) – Alaska and Texas are leading the effort to push back on federal overreach by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by fighting a new rule that ignores existing federal law and imposes unfunded mandates on the states.
The new rule imposes sweeping, expensive, and impracticable requirements on all recipients of any federal funding, including states and private healthcare providers. In some cases, the rule’s requirements are inconsistent with other federal standards for Medicaid.
“The rule is yet another example of the Biden administration attempting to subordinate state policy and fiscal judgments to the federal government. The requirements of the rule are impossible to meet and would be devastating to State Medicaid programs,” said Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor.
Compliance with the Final Rule would also require fundamentally altering the State’s systems, programs, and activities as well as its sovereign administration of the state.
Alaska, Texas and 15 other states are asking the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Texas to set aside the Final Rule, enjoin defendants from enforcing it and declare it unlawful. The 15 states include: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia.
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Department Media Contact: Information Officer Sam Curtis at sam.curtis@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6269.
Due to resource constraints, we no longer post links to referenced records. Records filed in a federal court are readily available at Docket Search or PACER, and records filed in a State of Alaska court are readily available from the Alaska Court System (Trial Courts - Alaska Court System and Search for an Appellate Case). Contact Sam Curtis to request a referenced record that is not readily available from a court or on the internet, or contact law.recordsrequest@alaska.gov to submit a formal Alaska Public Records Act request.