Department of Health and Human Services August 23, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This is notice, in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 209(c)(1) and 37 CFR (a)(1)(i), that the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is contemplating the grant of an exclusive license to practice the invention embodied in: PCT patent application PCT/US2004/041256 filed December 9, 2004, entitled: ``Methods for Suppressing an Immune Response or Treating a Proliferative Disorder'' [HHS Reference Number: E-259-2003/0-PCT-02], to Sahajanand Medical Technologies Pvt. Ltd., registered as a private limited company in accordance with the Companies Act of India, having a principle place of business in Surat, India and U.S. headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The field of use may be limited to the use of 2-(4-piperazinyl)-8-phenyl-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one (LY303511), for the treatment and prevention of stenosis and restenosis and/or other proliferative disorders. The United States of America is an assignee of the patent rights in these inventions. This notice replaces a notice published in 71 FR 46496, August 14, 2006, to correct the heading ``Prospective Grant of Exclusive License: Treatment of Cardiovascular Conditions with Nitrite Therapy'' to read ``Prospective Grant of Exclusive License: Treatment of Proliferative Disorders Using an Unexpected mTOR Kinase Inhibitor''.

This notice informs interested parties of an opportunity to apply to participate in a risk reduction/health management demonstration project. This notice also contains information on how to obtain the complete solicitation and supporting information.

This proposed rule would revise the Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system to implement applicable statutory requirements and changes arising from our continuing experience with this system, and to implement certain related provisions of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003, and the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005. The proposed rule describes proposed changes to the amounts and factors used to determine the payment rates for Medicare hospital outpatient services paid under the prospective payment system. These changes would be applicable to services furnished on or after January 1, 2007. In addition, this proposed rule would revise the current list of procedures that are approved when furnished in a Medicare-approved ambulatory surgical center (ASC), which would be applicable to services furnished on or after January 1, 2007. Further, this proposed rule would revise the ASC facility payment system to implement provisions of the MMA and other applicable statutory requirements, and update the ASC payment rates. Changes to the ASC facility payment system and the payment rates would be applicable to services furnished on or after January 1, 2008. This proposed rule would revise the emergency medical screening requirements for critical access hospitals (CAHs). In addition, this proposed rule would support implementation of a restructuring of the contracting entities responsibilities and functions that support the adjudication of Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) claims. This restructuring is directed by section 1874A of the Act, as added by section 911 of the MMA. The prior separate Medicare intermediary and Medicare carrier contracting authorities under Title XVIII of the Act have been replaced with the Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) authority. This proposed rule would also continue to implement the requirements of the DRA that require that we expand the ``starter set'' of 10 quality measures that we used in FY 2005 and FY 2006 for the hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Reporting Hospital Quality Data for the Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU) program. We began to adopt expanded measures effective for payments beginning in FY 2007. We are proposing to add additional quality measures to the expanded set of measures for FY 2008 payment purposes. These measures include the HCAHPS[supreg] survey, as well as Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP, formerly Surgical Infection Prevention (SIP)), and Mortality quality measures.