Department of Health and Human Services February 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing the availability of the draft guidance for industry and FDA staff entitled ``Enforcement Policy on National Health Related Item Code and National Drug Code Numbers Assigned to Devices.'' When finalized, this draft document will describe the Agency's intent not to enforce, before September 24, 2021, the prohibition against providing National Health Related Item Code (NHRIC) or National Drug Code (NDC) numbers on device labels and device packages, with respect to certain finished devices manufactured and labeled prior to September 24, 2018. In addition, when finalized, this draft guidance will describe the Agency's intent to continue considering requests for continued use of FDA labeler codes under a system for the issuance of unique device identifiers (UDIs) until September 24, 2018. This draft guidance is not the final version of the guidance nor is it in effect at this time.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or Agency) is announcing the availability of a draft guidance for industry and FDA staff entitled ``Human Factors Studies and Related Clinical Study Considerations in Combination Product Design and Development.'' This document provides guidance to industry and FDA staff on the underlying principles of human factors (HF) studies during the development of combination products. Combination products are comprised of any combination of a drug and a device; a device and a biological product; a biological product and a drug; or a drug, a device, and a biological product.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that a collection of information entitled ``Guidance for Industry on Postmarketing Adverse Event Reporting for Nonprescription Human Drug Products Marketed Without an Approved Application'' has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that a collection of information entitled ``Biosimilar User Fee Cover Sheet; Form FDA 3792'' has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

Under the Medicare Shared Savings Program (Shared Savings Program), providers of services and suppliers that participate in an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) continue to receive traditional Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) payments under Parts A and B, but the ACO may be eligible to receive a shared savings payment if it meets specified quality and savings requirements. This proposed rule addresses changes to the Shared Savings Program that would modify the program's benchmark rebasing methodology to encourage ACOs' continued investment in care coordination and quality improvement, and identifies publicly available data to support modeling and analysis of these proposed changes. In addition, it would streamline the methodology used to adjust an ACO's historical benchmark for changes in its ACO participant composition, offer an alternative participation option to encourage ACOs to enter performance-based risk arrangements earlier in their participation under the program, and establish policies for reopening of payment determinations to make corrections after financial calculations have been performed and ACO shared savings and shared losses for a performance year have been determined.

This notice announces the final federal share disproportionate share hospital (DSH) allotments for federal fiscal year (FY) 2013 and the preliminary federal share DSH allotments for FY 2015. This notice also announces the final FY 2013 and the preliminary FY 2015 limitations on aggregate DSH payments that states may make to institutions for mental disease and other mental health facilities. In addition, this notice includes background information describing the methodology for determining the amounts of states' FY DSH allotments.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) notifies federal agencies of the laboratories and Instrumented Initial Testing Facilities (IITF) currently certified to meet the standards of the Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs (Mandatory Guidelines). The Mandatory Guidelines were first published in the Federal Register on April 11, 1988 (53 FR 11970), and subsequently revised in the Federal Register on June 9, 1994 (59 FR 29908); September 30, 1997 (62 FR 51118); April 13, 2004 (69 FR 19644); November 25, 2008 (73 FR 71858); December 10, 2008 (73 FR 75122); and on April 30, 2010 (75 FR 22809). A notice listing all currently HHS-certified laboratories and IITFs is published in the Federal Register during the first week of each month. If any laboratory or IITF certification is suspended or revoked, the laboratory or IITF will be omitted from subsequent lists until such time as it is restored to full certification under the Mandatory Guidelines. If any laboratory or IITF has withdrawn from the HHS National Laboratory Certification Program (NLCP) during the past month, it will be listed at the end and will be omitted from the monthly listing thereafter. This notice is also available on the Internet at https:// www.samhsa.gov/workplace.

This proposed rule would implement new statutory requirements that would expand how qualified entities may use and disclose data under the qualified entity program to the extent consistent with applicable program requirements and other applicable laws, including information, privacy, security and disclosure laws. In doing so, this proposed rule would explain how qualified entities may create non- public analyses and provide or sell such analyses to authorized users, as well as how qualified entities may provide or sell combined data, or provide Medicare claims data alone at no cost, to certain authorized users. This proposed rule would also implement certain privacy and security requirements, and impose assessments on qualified entities if the qualified entity or the authorized user violates the terms of a data use agreement (DUA) required by the qualified entity program.

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 collection of information entitled ``Improving Food Safety and Defense Capacity of the State and Local Level: Review of State and Local Capacities'' has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that a collection of information entitled ``General Licensing Provisions; Section 351(k) Biosimilar Applications'' has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that a collection of information entitled ``Guidance for Clinical Trial Sponsors: Establishment and Operation of Clinical Trial Data Monitoring Committees'' has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

This final rule revises the Medicaid home health service definition consistent with section 6407 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (the Affordable Care Act) and section 504 of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) to add requirements that, for home health services, physicians document, and, for certain medical equipment, physicians or certain authorized non-physician practitioners (NPP) document the occurrence of a face-to- face encounter (including through the use of telehealth) with the Medicaid eligible beneficiary within reasonable timeframes. This rule also aligns the timeframes for the face-to-face encounter with similar regulatory requirements for Medicare home health services. In addition, this rule amends the definitions of medical supplies, equipment, and appliances. We expect minimal impact with the implementation of section 6407 of the Affordable Care Act and section 504 of MACRA. We recognize that states may have budgetary implications as a result of the amended definitions of medical supplies, equipment and appliances. Specifically, this rule may expand coverage of medical supplies, equipment and appliances under the home health benefit. There will be items that had previously only been offered under certain sections of the Act that will now be covered under the home health benefit.

In compliance with section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Office of the Secretary (OS), Department of Health and Human Services, announces plans to submit a new Information Collection Request (ICR), described below, to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Prior to submitting the ICR to OMB, OS seeks comments from the public regarding the burden estimate, below, or any other aspect of the ICR.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part of its continuing efforts to reduce public burden and maximize the utility of government information, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on proposed revisions of the information collection entitled Application for Training (OMB Control No. 0920-0017). CDC seeks to request Office of Management and Budget approval to (1) continue to collect information through the use of the Training and Continuing Education Online New Participant Registration form for new learners to establish an account that provides CDC necessary information to process learner requests for continuing education, and (2) implement a new electronic information collection through the use of the Training and Continuing Education Online Proposal form that allows training developers to provide CDC necessary information to process and accredit trainings for continuing education.