Heart to Heart Hospice of Texas Ltd v. Xavier Becerra

• Court: District Court, N.D. Texas
• Decided: September 13, 2024
• Docket: 3:23-cv-02704
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS DALLAS DIVISION

HEART TO HEART HOSPICE OF § TEXAS, LTD., § § Plaintiff, § § Civil Action No. 3:23-CV-2704-X v. § § XAVIER BECERRA, in his official § capacity as Secretary, UNITED § STATES DEPARTMENT OF § HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES,

Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Before the Court is Xavier Becerra’s (“DHS”) unopposed motion for leave to file under seal the administrative record from the agency decision Plaintiff Heart to Heart Hospice of Texas, Ltd. appeals in this suit (the “Motion”). (Doc. 44). The Court GRANTS the Motion and ORDERS the clerk’s office to file the administrative record on the docket under seal. I. Legal Standards The Court takes very seriously its duty to protect the public’s access to judicial records.1 Transparency in judicial proceedings is a fundamental element of the rule of law—so fundamental that sealing and unsealing orders are immediately appealable under the collateral-order doctrine.2 The public’s right to access judicial

1 See Binh Hoa Le v. Exeter Fin. Corp., 990 F.3d 410, 418 (5th Cir. 2021). 2 June Med. Servs. v. Phillips, 22 F.4th 512, 519 (5th Cir. 2022). records is independent from—and sometimes even adverse to—the parties’ interest.3 That’s why the judge must serve as the representative of the people and, indeed, the First Amendment, in scrutinizing requests to seal.

II. Motion for Leave to File Administrative Record Under Seal This case is an appeal from the decision of an administrative law judge’s decision. In reviewing such a decision, Article III courts “shall review the whole record or those parts of it cited by a party.”4 DHS requests leave to file the entire administrative record so this Court can do just that. However, as DHS explains in its Motion, the record is composed of numerous volumes and thousands of pages, “the

vast majority of which are patient medical records or otherwise contain confidential patient information belonging to non-parties who are Medicare beneficiaries,” along with ten large spreadsheets containing patient information.5 The sensitive nature of individual patients’ medical data and Medicare claims outweighs the public interest in the administrative record as a whole. The calculus may well be different when the Court rules on substantive motions based on specific documents within the record.

III. Conclusion The Court GRANTS DHS’s Motion and ORDERS the clerk’s office to file the administrative record on the docket under seal.

3 Id. 4 5 U.S.C. § 706 5 Doc. No. 44, 1. IT ISSO ORDERED this 13th day of September, 2024.

Lads STARR UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE