Opinion of the Court
FNHRA is largely composed of a litany of statutory requirements that Congress laid out for Medicaid-participant States and “nursing facilities.” §1396a(a)(28).[1] Those include “[r]equirements relating to residents’ rights,” §1396r(c) (boldface deleted), two of which Talevski’s complaint invoked.
The first requires nursing facilities to “protect and promote” residents’ “right to be free from … any physical or chemical restraints imposed for purposes of discipline or convenience and not required to treat the resident’s medical symptoms.” §1396r(c)(1)(A)(ii) (referred to herein as “the unnecessary-restraint provision”). The second appears in a subparagraph concerning “[t]ransfer and discharge rights,” §1396r(c)(2)(A) (boldface deleted), and tells nursing facilities that they “must not transfer or discharge [a] resident” unless certain enumerated preconditions, including advance notice of such a transfer or discharge, are met. E.g., §§1396r(c)(2)(A)–(B) (referred to herein as “the predischarge-notice provision”).
As for enforcement, like other aspects of Medicaid, the FNHRA anticipates “cooperative federalism”—i.e., federal and state actors working together—to carry out the statute’s aims. Wisconsin Dept. of Health and Family Servs. v. Blumer, 534 U. S. 473, 495 (2002). Thus, qualifying State Medicaid plans, which are approved by the Secretary of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS Secretary), §1396a(b), must include provisions that relate to
- ↑ “Nursing facility” is the FNHRA’s term for a nursing home. §1396r(a).
to Title XIX of the Social Security Act, i.e., Medicaid. See 101 Stat. 1330–182. The FNHRA added a materially identical section to the Medicare-focused portion of the Social Security Act, 101 Stat. 1330–160, 42 U. S. C. §1395i–3 et seq. Because Talevski’s complaint relies only on the Medicaid-related FNHRA provisions, App. to Pet. for Cert. 76a, we hereafter follow the parties and the Court of Appeals in referring only to the pertinent Medicaid provisions, as codified in the U. S. Code (§§1396a(a)(28), 1396r).
