Sebelius Admits Lack of Transparency in Rulemaking
Testifying before the Energy and Commerce Committee earlier today, Secretary Sebelius told Rep. Gingrey that she supported and had approved the inclusion of controversial end-of-life care provisions that were buried in a massive, 692-page physician payment regulation released in late November. As a reminder, the proposed rule released by the Administration in August 2010 – two months BEFORE the mid-term election – omitted the controversial end-of-life care provisions, while the final rule – released by the Administration AFTER the mid-term election – included these provisions without public comment. Administration officials went from attempting to defend the end-of-life provision in a Wall Street Journal article in late December to withdrawing the provision entirely one week later – due in no small part to e-mails from Congressional staff indicating they should “not broadcast this accomplishment” by publicly advertising the existence of this secret rule. The White House and Administration officials still have not indicated what prompted the regulatory U-turn.
The fact that Secretary Sebelius had no qualms about approving such a controversial regulation WITHOUT public comment shows a dangerous lack of transparency on the Administration’s part – particularly for an official granted such blanket authority by the health care law itself. A Center for Health Transformation chart lists almost 2,000 powers and authorities granted to the Secretary under the law, and HHS has already granted more than 900 waivers from the law to health plans, particularly union plans. Granting this much authority to a single government individual is bad enough – but granting it to someone who apparently has few qualms about sneaking provisions into rules without public comment is even worse.