Department of Health and Human Services November 9, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to section 10(a) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. Appendix 2), notice is hereby given of a meeting of the SACATM on December 12, 2005. The meeting is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to adjournment (~5 p.m.) and is open to the public with attendance limited only by the space available. SACATM advises the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM), the NTP Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM), and the Director of the NIEHS regarding statutorily mandated duties of ICCVAM and activities of NICEATM. SACATM provides advice on priorities and activities related to the development, validation, scientific review, regulatory acceptance, implementation, and national and international harmonization of new, revised, and alternative toxicological test methods. Additional information about SACATM, including the charter, roster, and records of past meetings can be found at https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ see ``Advisory Board & Committees.''

This final rule sets forth an update to the 60-day national episode rates and the national per-visit amounts under the Medicare prospective payment system for home health agencies. This final rule is the first update of the home health prospective payment system (HH PPS) rates that uses the revised area labor market Metropolitan Statistical Area designations for calendar year 2006. In implementing the new area labor market designations, we are allowing for a one-year transition period. This transition consists of a blend of 50 percent of the new area labor market designations' wage index and 50 percent of the previous area labor market designations' wage index. In addition, we are revising the fixed dollar loss ratio, which is used in the calculation of outlier payments.