Department of Health and Human Services November 15, 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part of its continuing effort to reduce public burden and maximize the utility of government information, invites the general public and other Federal agencies the opportunity to comment on a proposed and/or continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on a proposed information collection project titled Emerging Infections Program (EIP). The EIP is a population-based surveillance activity performed via active, laboratory case finding that is used for detecting, identifying, and monitoring emerging pathogens.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA, the Agency, or we) is announcing a public workshop entitled ``Evaluating the Pressor Effects of Drugs.'' This public workshop is convened by the Duke-Robert J. Margolis, MD, Center for Health Policy at Duke University and supported by a cooperative agreement with FDA. The purpose of this public workshop is to bring the stakeholder community together to discuss the premarketing assessment of a drug's effect on blood pressure. Elevated blood pressure is known to increase the risk of stroke, heart attack, and death. The effect of a drug on blood pressure may therefore be an important consideration in benefit-risk assessment. Agency staff will present findings related to the use of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring to assess treatment effects.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or Agency) is proposing to amend its regulations to implement a provision of the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act). This proposed rule, if finalized, would allow an exception from the requirement to obtain informed consent when a clinical investigation poses no more than minimal risk to the human subject and includes appropriate safeguards to protect the rights, safety, and welfare of human subjects. The proposed rule, if finalized, would permit an Institutional Review Board (IRB) to waive or alter certain informed consent elements or to waive the requirement to obtain informed consent, under limited conditions, for certain FDA-regulated minimal risk clinical investigations.

These rules finalize, with changes based on public comments, interim final rules concerning religious exemptions and accommodations regarding coverage of certain preventive services issued in the Federal Register on October 13, 2017. These rules expand exemptions to protect religious beliefs for certain entities and individuals whose health plans are subject to a mandate of contraceptive coverage through guidance issued pursuant to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. These rules do not alter the discretion of the Health Resources and Services Administration, a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to maintain the guidelines requiring contraceptive coverage where no regulatorily recognized objection exists. These rules also leave in place an ``accommodation'' process as an optional process for certain exempt entities that wish to use it voluntarily. These rules do not alter multiple other federal programs that provide free or subsidized contraceptives for women at risk of unintended pregnancy.