Department of Veterans Affairs September 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs (OPIA), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), is announcing an opportunity for public comment on the proposed collection of certain information by the agency. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, Federal agencies are required to publish notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information and allow 60 days for public comment in response to the notice. This notice solicits comments on the information needed for the Grants for Adaptive Sports Programs for disabled Veterans and Members of the Armed Forces (ASG Program) to provide grant funding to organizations to expand the quantity and quality of adaptive sport activities for disabled Veterans and members of the Armed Forces to participate in physical activity within home communities, and advanced Paralympic and adaptive sport programs at the regional and national levels.

Section 7412 of title 38, United States Code (U.S.C.) requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Inspector General (IG) to determine and report on the five occupations of personnel of title 38 of the Department covered under 38 U.S.C. 7401 for which there are the largest staffing shortages throughout the Department as calculated over the 5-year period preceding the determination. The Secretary is required to publish these findings in the Federal Register. Based on its review, the IG identified the following five occupations as having the largest staffing shortages in the identified time period: Medical Officer, Nurse, Physician Assistant, Physical Therapist, and Psychologist. Additional information and analysis can be found at: www.va.gov/OIG.

This document updates the acute inpatient and the skilled nursing facility/sub-acute inpatient facility charges. The updated charges are based on the 2016 Medicare severity diagnosis related groups (MS-DRGs).

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Commission on Care, the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, and the House Veterans' Affairs Committee have received the final report on the independent assessment of VA health care processes as required under Section 201 of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 (VACAA). This Notice announces the public release of the report, entitled Independent Assessment of the Health Care Delivery Systems and Management Process of the Department of Veterans Affairs (Independent Assessment Report), on a VA Web site.

This document adopts as a final rule, with changes, an interim final rule amending the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical regulations to freeze the copayments required for certain medications provided by VA until December 31, 2015. Under that interim final rule, copayment amounts were maintained at the same rates as they were in 2014 (which were $8 for veterans in priority groups 2-6 and $9 for veterans in priority groups 7 and 8), and would have increased based on the prescription drug component of the Medical Consumer Price Index (CPI-P) on January 1, 2016. This final rule extends the current freeze for copayments through December 31, 2016.