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

As stipulated by the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is hereby giving notice that the Advisory Committee on Minority Health (ACMH) will hold a meeting. This meeting is open to the public. Preregistration is required for both public attendance and comment. Any individual who wishes to attend the meeting and/or participate in the public comment session should email acmh@osophs.dhhs.gov.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) located within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announces a series of Webinars to provide information for individuals and groups interested in learning more about the National Healthy Worksite Program. The National Healthy Worksite Program is an HHS/CDC initiative to establish and evaluate comprehensive workplace health programs to improve the health of workers and their families. Registration for the Webinars is free.

HHS gives notice concerning the final effect of the HHS decision to designate a class of employees from the Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as an addition to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. On October 18, 2011, 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:

HHS gives notice concerning the final effect of the HHS 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, 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:

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 Department of Bioethics, the Clinical Center, 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.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is withdrawing approval of a new drug application (NDA) for MYLOTARG (gemtuzumab ozogamicin) for Injection, held by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Wyeth), 500 Arcola Rd., Collegeville, PA 19426. Wyeth, now a part of Pfizer, Inc., has voluntarily requested that approval of this application be withdrawn, thereby waiving its opportunity for a hearing.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing an amendment to the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) (the Authorization) for doxycycline hyclate tablet emergency kits for eligible United States Postal Service (USPS) participants in the Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI) and their household members issued on October 3, 2008, as amended on February 25, 2009, and on August 23, 2010, under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act), as requested by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Following issuance of FDA's August 23, 2010, amended Authorization letter, on April 8, 2011, BARDA submitted a request on behalf of ASPR to further amend the Authorization to reflect certain programmatic changes, including by replacing references to the CRI with the National Postal Model (NPM). In response to BARDA's request, FDA amended the Authorization letter and reissued the Authorization in its entirety on October 14, 2011. The Authorization, as amended and reissued, includes explanations for its reissuance and is reprinted in this document.

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: ``Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture Comparative Database.'' In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501-3521, AHRQ invites the public to comment on this proposed information collection.

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 (PRA). The proposed collection of information concerns a guidance document that outlines the criteria and the process through which firms may request a reduction of fees based on severe economic hardship of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) reinspection and recall user fees that are mandated by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act).

This notice announces public meetings of the Technical Advisory Panel on Medicare Trustee Reports (Panel). Notice of these meetings is given under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App. 2, section 10(a)(1) and (a)(2)). The Panel will discuss the long range (75 year) projection methods and assumptions in projecting Medicare health expenditures and projecting National Health Expenditures and may make recommendations to the Medicare Trustees on how the Trustees might more accurately estimate health spending in the long run. The Panel's discussion is expected to be very technical in nature and will focus on the actuarial and economic assumptions and methods by which Trustees might more accurately project health spending. Although panelists are not limited in the topics they may discuss, the Panel is not expected to discuss or recommend changes in current or future Medicare provider payment rates or coverage policy.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is amending the animal drug regulations to reflect approval of a supplemental new animal drug application (NADA) filed by Merial Ltd. The supplemental NADA provides for addition of a warning statement against the use of eprinomectin topical solution in preruminating calves intended for veal.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that a collection of information entitled ``Adverse Experience Reporting for Licensed Biological Products; and General Records'' has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

This final rule exempts the system of records (09-15-0054, the National Practitioner Data Bank for Adverse Information on Physicians and Other Health Care Practitioners, HHS/HRSA/BHPr) for the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) from certain provisions of the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a). The exemption is necessary due to the recent expansion of the NPDB under section 1921 of the Social Security Act to include the investigative materials compiled for law enforcement purposes reported to the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank (HIPDB). The system of records for the HIPDB is exempt from certain provisions of the Privacy Act (see 45 CFR 5b.11(b)(2)(ii)(F)). In order to maintain the exemption for the HIPDB investigative materials, which will now also be available through the NPDB, it is necessary to extend the same exemption to the NPDB.

Under the provisions of Section 3507(a) (1)(D) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve the information collection listed below. This proposed information collection was previously published in the Federal Register on July 27, 2011, (76 FR 44937) and allowed 60 days for public comment. Twelve public comments were received. The purpose of this notice is to allow an additional 30 days for public comment. The National Institutes of Health may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection that has been extended, revised, or implemented on or after October 1, 1995, unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Proposed Collection: Title: The Genetic Testing Registry; Type of Information Collection Request: New collection; Need and Use of Information Collection: Laboratory tests for more than 2,000 genetic conditions are available; however, there is no centralized public resource that provides information about the availability and scientific basis of these tests. Recognizing the importance of making this information easily accessible to health care providers, patients, consumers, and others, NIH is developing a voluntary registry of genetic tests. The Genetic Testing Registry (GTR) will provide a centralized, online location for test developers, manufacturers, and researchers to submit detailed information about genetic tests. The overarching goal of the GTR is to advance the public health and research in the genetic basis of health and disease. As such, the Registry will have several key functions, including (1) Encouraging providers of genetic tests to enhance transparency by publicly sharing information about the availability and utility of their tests; (2) providing an information resource for the public, including health care providers, patients, and researchers, to locate laboratories that offer particular tests; and (3) facilitating genetic and genomic data-sharing for research and new scientific discoveries. Frequency of Response: The information will be submitted voluntarily on a non-repeating, continual basis. Submitters will be requested to update their test information at least once every 12 months. Respondents: Submitters to the GTR are expected to include clinical laboratories, researchers, and entities that report and interpret tests performed elsewhere. The GTR is not limited to U.S. respondents; it will also include submissions from outside the United States. Information will be collected and managed using an online submission system. Estimate of Burden: Although participation in the GTR is voluntary, in order to participate, respondents must provide information for a certain subset of fields, identified as the ``minimal fields.'' GTR includes 31 minimal fields and 85 optional fields. Sixteen of the 31 minimal fields refer to contact data and other information about the laboratory, which the respondent completes only once. These data will autopopulate new test records, leaving 15 minimal fields that require completion. The GTR will also support bulk submission as an XML file or uploading subsets of information from spreadsheets, which will significantly reduce the burden for laboratories that want to provide information on multiple genetic tests. The annualized cost to respondents is estimated at $1,103.