20
Opinion of the Court
sumption against preclusion of all review in light of the traditional ripeness doctrine, which often requires initial presentation of a claim to an agency. As we have said, supra, at 13, Congress may well have concluded that a universal obligation to present a legal claim first to HHS, though postponing review in some cases, would produce speedier, as well as better, review overall. And this Court crossed the relevant bridge long ago when it held that Congress, in both the Social Security Act and the Medicare Act, insisted upon an initial presentation of the matter to the agency. Ringer, 466 U. S., at 627; Salfi, 422 U. S., at 762. Michigan Academy does not require that we reconsider that longstanding interpretation.
V
The Council argues that in any event it falls within the exception that Michigan Academy creates, for here as there, it can obtain no review at all unless it can obtain judicial review in a § 1331 action. In other words, the Council contends that application of § 1395ii's channeling provision to the portion of the Medicare statute and the Medicare regulations at issue in this case will amount to the "practical equivalent of a total denial of judicial review." Haitian Refugee Center, supra, at 497. The Council, however, has not convinced us that is so.
The Council says that the special review channel that the Medicare statutes create applies only where the Secretary terminates a home's provider agreement; it is not available in the more usual case involving imposition of a lesser remedy, say, the transfer of patients, the withholding of payments, or the imposition of a civil monetary penalty.
We have set forth the relevant provisions, supra, at 8-9; Appendix, infra. The specific judicial review provision, § 405(g), authorizes judicial review of "any final decision of the [Secretary] made after a [§ 405(b)] hearing." A further relevant provision, § 1395cc(h)(1), authorizes a § 405(b) hearing whenever a home is "dissatisfied . . . with a determi-
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