Department of Health and Human Services May 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces the intention of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to request that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approve the proposed information collection project: ``Coordinating Care across Primary Care and Specialty Care Practices.'' In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A), AHRQ invites the public to comment on this proposed information collection.

As stipulated by the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is hereby giving notice that the National Biodefense Science Board (NBSB) will be holding a public teleconference. The meeting is open to the public.

In compliance with the requirement of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, for opportunity for public comment on proposed data collection projects, the Fogarty International Center (FIC) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will publish periodic summaries of proposed projects to be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval.

This proposed rule would update the payment rates used under the prospective payment system for skilled nursing facilities, for fiscal year 2010. In addition, it would recalibrate the case-mix indexes so that they more accurately reflect parity in expenditures related to the implementation of case-mix refinements in January 2006. It also discusses the results of our ongoing analysis of nursing home staff time measurement data collected in the Staff Time and Resource Intensity Verification project, and proposes a new RUG-IV case-mix classification model that will use the updated Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0 resident assessment for case-mix classification. In addition, this proposed rule includes a request for public comment on a possible requirement for the quarterly reporting of nursing home staffing data, and would revise the regulations to incorporate certain technical corrections. Finally, this proposed rule includes a request for public comments on applying the quality monitoring mechanism in place for all other SNF PPS facilities to rural swing-bed hospitals.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is amending the animal drug regulations to reflect the original approval of a new animal drug application (NADA) filed by Dechra, Ltd. The NADA provides for the veterinary prescription use of trilostane capsules in dogs for treatment of pituitary-dependent hyperadrenocorticism and for treatment of hyperadrenocorticism due to adrenocortical tumor.

HHS gives notice concerning the final effect of the HHS decision to designate a class of employees at the Hood Building in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as an addition to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. On March 31, 2009, as provided for under 42 U.S.C. 7384q(b), the Secretary of HHS designated the following class of employees as an addition to the SEC:

The Department's semiannual Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions forecasts the rulemaking activities that we expect to undertake over the foreseeable future. We focus primarily on those areas of work anticipated to result in publication of Notices of Proposed Rulemaking or of Final Rules within the next 12 months. (Please note that the abstracts included below relate only to those prospective rulemakings that are likely to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities; the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 requires dissemination of this information in the paper edition of the Federal Register. The complete HHS Agenda is accessible online at www.reginfo.gov.)

HHS gives notice concerning the final effect of the HHS decision to designate a class of employees at Westinghouse Atomic Power Development Plant in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as an addition to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. On March 31, 2009, as provided for under 42 U.S.C. 7384q(b), the Secretary of HHS designated the following class of employees as an addition to the SEC:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that a proposed collection of information has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that a proposed collection of information has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The Indian Health Service, HHS, published a document in the Federal Register Thursday, April 16, 2009. The document contained two errors.