Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has rescinded a 2021 Biden-era regulation that offered higher federal payments to doctors who adopted an “anti-racism” plan, a move supporters say restores merit-based standards in medicine. The updated rule, published November 5 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), eliminates the provision following a lawsuit filed by the advocacy group Do No Harm and several Republican-led states.
Dr. Kurt Miceli, medical director of Do No Harm, said the reversal was “an essential step toward restoring the public’s trust” in medical institutions. The group, which opposes what it calls “identity politics” in health care, argued that the rule improperly encouraged physicians to consider race over individual patient circumstances. “Medicine must remain rooted in treating each patient as a unique individual,” Miceli said.
The 2022 lawsuit alleged that CMS exceeded its authority under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act by creating incentives tied to racial equity initiatives. HHS, now led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, said the racial equity language has been removed in the final rule. Do No Harm’s chairman, Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, praised the decision, calling the prior rule “unscientific and discriminatory.”
The group’s lawsuit is expected to be dismissed in the coming weeks. HHS did not respond to requests for comment.
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