Department of Health and Human Services November 4, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Notice is hereby given that the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) has taken final action in the following case: Jayant Jagannathan, M.D., University of Virginia Medical Center: Based on the report of an investigation conducted by the University of Virginia (UVA) and additional analysis conducted by ORI in its oversight review, ORI found that Dr. Jayant Jagannathan, former Resident Physician at UVA Medical Center, engaged in research misconduct by plagiarizing research supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) research and training awards and by NIH intramural research funds from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), Surgical Neurosurgery Branch (NSB), and from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). ORI found that the Respondent engaged in research misconduct by including, in five publications, large amounts of text and an illustration that he plagiarized from publications supported by the following NIH grant awards: T32 CA09677, P01 HL024136, R01 HL059157, P50 CA090270, M01 RR01346, R01 CA075979, R01 DK064169, R01 NS027544, R01 NS052406, and K08 NS002197,\1\ and by intramural funds from the Surgical Neurosurgery Branch, NINDS, and from NIDCR.

As stipulated by the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (DHHS) is hereby giving notice that the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) will hold a meeting. The meeting will be conducted as a telephone conference call. The meeting will be open to the public through a conference call phone number.

HHS gives notice of a decision to designate a class of employees from Vitro Manufacturing in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, as an addition to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. On October 18, 2011, the Secretary of HHS designated the following class of employees as an addition to the SEC:

HHS gives notice of a decision to designate a class of employees from W.R. Grace and Company in Curtis Bay, Maryland, as an addition to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. On October 18, 2011, the Secretary of HHS designated the following class of employees as an addition to the SEC:

This final rule sets forth updates to the home health prospective payment system (HH PPS) rates, including: the national standardized 60-day episode rates; the national per-visit rates; and the low utilization payment amount (LUPA) under the Medicare PPS for home health agencies effective January 1, 2012. This rule applies a 1.4 percent update factor to the episode rates, which reflects a 1 percent reduction applied to the 2.4 percent market basket update factor, as mandated by the Affordable Care Act. This rule also updates the wage index used under the HH PPS, and further reduces home health payments to account for continued nominal growth in case-mix which is unrelated to changes in patient health status. This rule removes two hypertension codes from the HH PPS case-mix system, thereby requiring recalibration of the case-mix weights. In addition, the rule implements two structural changes designed to decrease incentives to upcode and provide unneeded therapy services. Finally, this rule incorporates additional flexibility regarding face-to-face encounters with providers related to home health care.