Texas District Court Vacates Parts of ACA Section 1557 Final Rules | Practical Law
In Franciscan Alliance, Inc. v. Azar, the Northern District of Texas vacated parts of the May 2016 final regulations implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ruling follows a 2016 order in which the same district court granted a preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement of parts of the regulations involving gender identity and termination of pregnancy. In the 2019 order, the court adopted analysis from its 2016 order in concluding that the final regulations violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The court also concluded that the plaintiffs—private health providers—demonstrated that the final regulations violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) as applied to them.