Law360, New York (February 18, 2015, 11:42 AM EST) -- On Feb. 2, 2015, President Obama released his fiscal year 2016 budget proposal, which included a budget for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services of slightly over $1 trillion, more than 85 percent of which is devoted to programs under the jurisdiction of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. At a Feb. 4 Senate Finance Committee hearing on the budget proposal, Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, noted his concerns regarding the amount of influence HHS and the Obama administration have over CMS operations and policies related to entitlement programs, and he announced his intention to introduce legislation to make CMS an agency independent from HHS, as the Social Security Administration was made an independent agency from HHS almost 20 years ago....