Department of Health and Human Services November 23, 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing the issuance of approval of a product redeeming a priority review voucher. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), as amended by the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA), authorizes FDA to award priority review vouchers to sponsors of approved rare pediatric disease product applications that meet certain criteria. FDA is required to publish notice of the issuance of vouchers as well as the approval of products redeeming a voucher. FDA has determined that AJOVY (fremanezumab-vfrm), approved September 14, 2018, meets the redemption criteria.

The Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic- Resistant Bacteria (Advisory Council) requests information from the general public and stakeholders related to efforts and strategies to combat Antibiotic Resistance (AR). Given the evolution of AR and the long-term nature of the problem, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) tasked the Advisory Council with identifying significant areas that have emerged since the release of the National Action Plan (NAP) for Combatting Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CARB) in 2015. To aid in the process of developing its response to the Secretary's task, the Advisory Council has posted this Request for Information (RFI) to hear from a wide range of stakeholders and sectors relevant to the overall CARB effort. This RFI offers the opportunity for the public, including interested individuals, organizations, associations, industries, and others, to provide their input on new priority areas within each of the five goals of the NAP that should be considered by the United States Government (USG) for 2020-2025. Responses to the RFI must be received by 11:59 p.m. on January 7, 2019 to be considered. The questions in the RFI are available through an online form on the Advisory Council's web page at www.hhs.gov/ash/ carb. Individuals unable to submit their answers using the online platform should send an email to CARB@hhs.gov, indicating ``RFI Response'' in the subject line, along with the corresponding goal number(s) for which they are responding.

This major final rule addresses changes to the Medicare physician fee schedule (PFS) and other Medicare Part B payment policies to ensure that our payment systems are updated to reflect changes in medical practice and the relative value of services, as well as changes in the statute. This final rule also finalizes policies included in the interim final rule with comment period in ``Medicare Program; CY 2018 Updates to the Quality Payment Program; and Quality Payment Program: Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstance Policy for the Transition Year'' that address the extreme and uncontrollable circumstances MIPS eligible clinicians faced as a result of widespread catastrophic events affecting a region or locale in CY 2017, such as Hurricanes Irma, Harvey and Maria. In addition, this final rule addresses a subset of the changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) proposed in the August 2018 proposed rule ``Medicare Program; Medicare Shared Savings Program; Accountable Care OrganizationsPathways to Success''. This final rule also addresses certain other revisions designed to update program policies under the Shared Savings Program. The interim final rule implements amendments made by the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act to the Medicare telehealth provisions in the Social Security Act and regarding permissible telehealth originating sites for purposes of treatment of a substance use disorder or a co-occurring mental health disorder for telehealth services furnished on or after July 1, 2019 to an individual with a substance use disorder diagnosis.