Last month, the New York State Court of Appeals invalidated a state Department of Health (DOH) regulation that restricted certain health care providers contracting with the state from paying executives more than $199,000 annually, regardless of whether the funds came from the state or not. However, the Court upheld two other DOH regulations; one that limits providers from using public tax-payer money directly to pay executives in excess of $199,000 annually, and another that limits the amount of public funds used for administrative costs.

In January 2012, Governor Andrew Cuomo issued Executive Order 38 in response to media reports calling out high executive compensation rates among nonprofit health care organizations receiving funds from Medicaid. Executive Order 38 directed the DOH to regulate the use of state funds for executive compensation and administrative costs. Consistent with this executive order, the DOH implemented three regulations that imposed: (1) a “hard cap” prohibiting covered providers from using public funds directly to pay executives more than $199,000 (2) another “hard cap” limiting the percentage of public funds used for administrative costs to fifteen percent annually by 2015; and (3) a “soft cap” subjecting covered providers to penalties should they pay executives, with certain exceptions, more than $199,000, regardless of whether the money used to pay them came from public or private sources.

Shortly after the regulations were announced, a group of nursing homes, assisted-living programs, home-care agencies, and trade associations brought lawsuits challenging the DOH’s authority to issue the regulations. These lawsuits, arguing that the DOH exceeded its regulatory authority in promulgating the regulations, eventually made their way all the way up to the courts to the Court of Appeals.

The Court’s majority opinion in LeadingAge New York, Inc. v. Shah, authored by Chief Judge DiFiore, held that the hard cap regulations fell within the DOH’s regulatory authority and were valid agency actions. With regard to the soft cap, however, the majority concluded that the DOH did in fact exceed its authority, usurped the Legislature’s role, and violated the separation of powers doctrine. Accordingly, the soft cap regulation subjecting covered providers to penalties if they paid executives above the $199,000 threshold, regardless of the source of funds, was struck down by the Court.

In accordance with this decision, covered health care providers who contract with the state will no longer need to comply with the “soft cap” regulation or fear penalties for failure to do so. However, health care providers covered by the “hard cap” regulations will still need to comply with the limitations set under those regulations, absent an applicable exception.