Health Resources and Services Administration September 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

HRSA provided supplemental funding to Community Health Center, Inc. (CHCI), a currently-funded National Training and Technical Assistance Partner (NTTAP) award recipient. CHCI will expand training and technical assistance (T/TA) to health centers and HRSA-funded State and Regional Primary Care Associations (PCAs) to support implementation of a tool developed for health centers to assess and improve their readiness to engage in health professional training programs and address national health care workforce shortages.

Additional grant funds were provided to two Health Center Program award recipients in Las Vegas, Nevada and Washington, District of Columbia with periods of performance ending in fiscal year (FY) 2020 to extend their periods of performance by up to 4 months to ensure the ongoing delivery of services until a new competitive award could be made.

HRSA's Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) has sought to identify clear, consistent, and data-driven methods of defining rural areas in the United States. FORHP uses the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)'s list of counties designated as part of a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) as the basis for determining eligibility to apply for or receive services funded by its rural health grant programs. FORHP designates all counties that are not part of a MSA as ``rural'' and eligible for rural health grant funding or services. In addition, FORHP designates census tracts within MSAs as rural for grant purposes using Rural-Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) codes. FORHP is proposing modifications to how it designates areas to be eligible for its rural health grant programs so that community organizations serving rural populations within MSAs will be able to apply for resources and allow more of the rural populations within MSAs to access services provided using grant funds. This notice seeks comments on the proposed methodology for designating areas eligible for rural health grant programs.

HRSA announces the award of a supplement of approximately $3,000,000 to the Immune Deficiency Foundation (IDF) for the Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) Screening and Education program for fiscal year (FY) 2020. The supplement will add another year of funding to the current recipient, during the period of 08/01/2020-07/31/2021, to allow the recipient to provide increased implementation, education, and awareness of newborn screening for SCID.

A notice was published in the Federal Register on March 31, 2020, to solicit comments on the eligibility criteria that were proposed by HRSA concerning the Living Organ Donation Reimbursement Program (formerly Reimbursement of Travel and Subsistence Expenses toward Living Organ Donation Program). This final notice responds to comments, describes the revision to the eligibility criteria to incorporate the reimbursable categories of qualifying expenses added by an HHS final rule published elsewhere in the issue of the Federal Register, and finalizes the Program Eligibility Guidelines.

HRSA is providing notice of a technical issue in the collection of public comments responding to a previous Federal Register notice, dated August 20, 2020, submitted to the American Academy of Pediatrics through its publicly available web-based portal during the period from August 20-27, 2020. After receiving no comments during this timeframe, a routine test found that the database that records public comments was not connected to the comment form on the web page. This technical issue has been resolved and the system is functional and collecting comments. HRSA encourages members of the public who may have previous submitted comments to resubmit and is extending the time period for public comments in response to proposed updates to the Periodicity Schedule of the Bright Futures Recommendations for Pediatric Preventive Health Care (``Bright Futures Periodicity Schedule''). The Bright Futures Periodicity Schedule is part of the HRSA-supported preventive service guidelines for infants, children, and adolescents under, and is maintained, in part, through a national cooperative agreement, the Bright Futures Pediatric Implementation Program.

In compliance with the requirement for opportunity for public comment on proposed data collection projects of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, HRSA announces plans to submit an Information Collection Request (ICR), described below, to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Prior to submitting the ICR to OMB, HRSA seeks comments from the public regarding the burden estimate, below, or any other aspect of the ICR.

In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, this notice announces that the Secretary's Advisory Council on Blood Stem Cell Transplantation (ACBSCT) has scheduled a public meeting. Information about ACBSCT and the agenda for this meeting can be found on the ACBSCT website at https://bloodstemcell.hrsa.gov/about/advisory- council.

HRSA is seeking nominations of qualified candidates to be considered for appointment as members of the Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children (ACHDNC or Committee). The Committee provides advice, recommendations, and technical information about aspects of heritable disorders and newborn and childhood screening to the Secretary of HHS (Secretary). HRSA is seeking nominations of qualified candidates for appointment to five positions on the Committee for terms of up to 4 years.

In compliance with the requirement for opportunity for public comment on proposed data collection projects of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, HRSA announces plans to submit an Information Collection Request (ICR), described below, to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Prior to submitting the ICR to OMB, HRSA seeks comments from the public regarding the burden estimate, below, or any other aspect of the ICR.