As Americans scrambled ahead of the July Fourth holiday weekend on Thursday afternoon, the Department of Health and Human Services released 1,296 pages of new regulations dealing with payment rates to doctors and hospitals.

The timing of the news release is part of a long pattern for President Obama's administration, which has often used holidays as an opportunity to dump dense regulatory changes when most reporters and Americans are focused on their holiday plans.

The release came at 4:15 p.m.

Last year, the Obama administration used the days surrounding the July 4th holiday as an opening to announce a delay to the employer mandate and to disclose the fact that the exchanges would operate on the honor system, doling out benefits without properly verifying information provided by applicants.

Thursday's regulations from the HHS' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services can be viewed here and over here.