August 4, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This final rule updates the prospective payment rates, the outlier threshold, and the wage index for Medicare inpatient hospital services provided by Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities (IPF), which include psychiatric hospitals and excluded psychiatric units of an Inpatient Prospective Payment System hospital or critical access hospital. In addition, we are adopting more recent Office of Management and Budget statistical area delineations, and applying a 2-year transition for all providers negatively impacted by wage index changes. We are also removing the term licensed independent practitioner(s) from the regulations for psychiatric hospitals. On April 6, 2020, we published an interim final rule with comment period to implement this statutorily mandated change. This final rule responds to comments on the interim final rule regarding changes to the term licensed independent practitioner, finalizes the implementing regulation, and explains how the new procedure will be put into practice. These changes will be effective for IPF discharges beginning with the 2021 Fiscal Year (FY), which runs from October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021 (FY 2021).

Section 2003 of the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act (SUPPORT Act) requires generally that prescriptions for controlled substances covered under a Medicare Part D prescription drug plan or Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug Plan (MA/PD) be transmitted by a health care practitioner electronically in accordance with an electronic prescription drug program, beginning January 1, 2021. Further, section 2003 of the SUPPORT Act provides CMS with the authority to, through rulemaking, enforce and specify appropriate penalties for noncompliance with the requirement for electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS). The SUPPORT Act requires CMS to specify, through rulemaking, circumstances and processes by which it may waive the EPCS requirement. This Request for Information (RFI) seeks input from stakeholders about whether CMS should include exceptions to the EPCS and under what circumstances, and whether CMS should impose penalties for noncompliance with this mandate in its rulemaking, and what those penalties should be.

This action removes Class E airspace extending upward from 700 feet above the surface at Schuylkill County/Joe Zerbey Airport, Pottsville, PA due to the extension of runway 11. This action also updates the geographic coordinates of the airport, and Schuylkill Medical Center Heliport (formerly Pottsville Hospital). Controlled airspace is necessary for the safety and management of instrument flight rules (IFR) operations in the area.

This action modifies Class E airspace by adding an area, designated as an extension to a Class D or Class E surface area. This action also implements several administrative amendments to the airspace legal descriptions.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve, through parallel processing, a draft Mississippi State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision, submitted through a letter dated April 23, 2020, addressing best available retrofit technology (BART) determinations for 14 electric generating units (EGUs) (``draft BART SIP''). These EGUs were initially addressed in EPA's prior limited approval and limited disapproval actions on Mississippi's regional haze SIP because of deficiencies arising from the State's reliance on the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) to satisfy certain regional haze requirements. EPA proposes to approve the draft BART SIP and finds that it corrects the deficiencies that led to the limited approval and limited disapproval of the State's regional haze SIP; to withdraw the limited disapproval of the regional haze SIP; and to replace the prior limited approval with a full approval of the regional haze SIP as meeting all regional haze requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) for the first implementation period. In addition, EPA is proposing to approve the State's first periodic report describing progress towards reasonable progress goals (RPGs) established for regional haze and the associated determination that the State's regional haze SIP is adequate to meet these RPGs for the first implementation period (``Progress Report''). The State submitted the progress report as a SIP revision by letter dated October 4, 2018.

The FAA is revising an earlier proposal for certain Piper Aircraft, Inc. (Piper) Models PA-28-140, PA-28-150, PA-28-160, PA-28- 180, PA-28-235, PA-32-260, and PA-32-300 airplanes. This action revises the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) by including a revision to the manufacturer's service information, including an additional inspection method, and removing the requirement to install the access panel. The FAA is proposing this airworthiness directive (AD) to address the unsafe condition on these products. Since the actions in the revised service information would impose an additional burden over those in the NPRM, the FAA is reopening the comment period to allow the public the chance to comment on these changes.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of New Hampshire. This revision addresses the infrastructure requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) for the 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). This proposed action includes all elements of these infrastructure requirements except for the ``Good Neighbor'' or ``transport'' provisions, which will be addressed in a future action. We are also proposing to grant the state an exemption from the infrastructure SIP contingency plan obligation for ozone, and to conditionally approve several elements of New Hampshire's submittal relating to air-quality modeling requirements. In addition, we are proposing to correct errors in our previous approval of an infrastructure SIP submission from New Hampshire for the 2012 PM2.5 NAAQS and to conditionally approve several elements of that submittal. The infrastructure requirements are designed to ensure that the structural components of each state's air quality management program are adequate to meet the state's responsibilities under the CAA. This action is being taken under the Clean Air Act.

NMFS approves and implements through regulations measures included in Amendment 21 to the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan, as adopted by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. This action is necessary to establish conservation and management measures for Atlantic chub mackerel. It is intended to promote the sustainable utilization and conservation of Atlantic chub mackerel by integrating this species as a stock in the fishery under the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan. This amendment identifies goals and objectives for managing Atlantic chub mackerel; specifies status determination criteria; designates essential fish habitat; establishes a specifications process; sets annual catch limits for 2020-2022; and implements accountability measures, possession limits, permitting and reporting requirements, exempted fisheries, and other administrative measures for Atlantic chub mackerel caught from Maine through North Carolina.

This document contains corrections to final regulations Treasury Decision 9896 that were published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, April 8, 2020. The final regulations providing guidance regarding hybrid dividends and certain amounts paid or accrued pursuant to hybrid arrangements, which generally involve arrangements whereby U.S. and foreign tax law classify a transaction or entity differently for tax purposes.

NMFS issues a proposed rule that would remove the regulatory prohibition on continuing to fish after a partial offload in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BS/AI) Crab Rationalization (CR) Program. This proposed action is needed to provide CR crab fishery participants operational flexibility to conduct their business in an efficient manner, in particular when emergencies or special circumstances arise. This proposed rule is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson- Stevens Act), the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for BS/AI King and Tanner Crabs (Crab FMP), and other applicable laws.