Department of Health and Human Services November 27, 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On October 1, 2018 (83 FR 49389), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a notice entitled, ``Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request.'' That notice invited public comments on three separate information collection requests specific to document identifiers: CMS- 10142, CMS-R-262, and CMS-179. Due to technical difficulties associated with CMS-179 (OMB control number: 0938-0193) titled ``Medicaid State Plan Base Plan Pages,'' through the publication of this document we are withdrawing CMS-179 from our October 1, 2018, information collection request. While the technical issues associated with CMS-179 have recently been resolved, because of the delay we are publishing a new 60-day information collection request elsewhere in today's Federal Register. The November 30, 2018, comment due date for the remaining two collections [CMS-10142 (OMB control number: 0938-0944) titled, ``Bid Pricing Tool (BPT) for Medicare Advantage (MA) Plans and Prescription Drug Plans (PDP)'' and CMS-R-262 (OMB control number: 0938-0763), titled ``Contract Year 2020 Plan Benefit Package (PBP) Software and Formulary Submission''] remains in effect without change.

In October 2014, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) published a notice in the Federal Register (79 FR 61241) with the final plan to replace the statewide data indicators used to determine a state's substantial conformity with titles IV-B and IV-E of the Social Security Act through the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs). In May 2015, ACF published a notice in the Federal Register (80 FR 27263) to correct some of the calculations and language used in the October 2014 notice. After the May 2015 notice, additional technical errors in the syntax and formulation of the statewide data indicators were identified. Some of those errors were discovered by states and other interested parties that operationalized the indicators for continuous quality improvement. Based on the amount of time required to complete a comprehensive review of the syntax, make revisions and validate the accuracy of the calculations; the Children's Bureau (CB) decided to suspend use of the indicators in determinations of substantial conformity during the third round of CFSRs. In October 2016, CB published CFSR Technical Bulletin #9 to inform states of the decision to limit use of the CFSR statewide data indicators and national performance to context information for round three of CFSRs. Since then, CB has thoroughly reviewed, revised, tested, and obtained independent review and validation of the syntax used to perform data quality checks and calculate state performance on the statewide data indicators. Before CB finalizes the revised syntax, and publishes revised performance results for all states and revised national standards, we invite state child welfare agencies, partner organizations, and the public to review, test, and provide comments on the revised syntax used to perform data quality checks and calculate observed performance on the statewide data indicators.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Indian Health Service (IHS) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request for extension of approval of the information collection titled, ``Addendum to Declaration for Federal Employment, Child Care and Indian Child Care Worker Positions,'' Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Control Number 0917-0028.

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 ``Emergency Cruise Ship Outbreak Investigations (CSOIs)''. The purpose of this study is to allow the CDC Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) via cruise ships entering the United States from foreign countries.