Office of the Secretary April 23, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Transportation's (DOT) Federal Motor Carrier Administration (FMCSA) intends to establish a new Federal Motor Carrier system of records titled ``DOT/FMCSA 009National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners'' (National Registry), under the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a). The DOT system, known as the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners (National Registry), is used to produce trained, certified medical examiners who fully understand the medical standards in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs). Medical Examiners (MEs) will be expected to understand how the FMCSR standards relate to the mental and physical demands of operating a commercial motor vehicle (CMV). MEs will be required to successfully complete training and pass a certification test before being listed on the National Registry. Once the National Registry program is established, FMCSA will require all interstate CMV drivers to obtain their medical certificates from a medical examiner listed on the National Registry. The general public can search and access information about the National Registry program, including the program description, contact information, and National Registry Number for all FMCSA Certified MEs, Test Delivery Organizations and their affiliated Test Centers through the publicly available Web site. MEs who choose to pursue FMCSA certification to conduct CMV medical exams will register with FMCSA through the National Registry Web site. FMCSA will track the MEs' status of completion of the required FMCSA medical examiners' certification process. The MEs will be required to successfully complete FMCSA-approved training prior to taking the FMCSA ME certification test at an FMCSA-approved testing organization, at an affiliated test center's facility, or by means of online testing. Test Developers for FMCSA will create and revise the certification test questions and answers that will be administered by Test Centers. Test Developers will analyze medical examiner's test certification responses to identify future improvements and modifications to test questions. They will also analyze the test questions and answers to identify potential patterns of fraud and abuse in the testing process and medical community. The Test Centers will verify and document the ME's identity, medical licensing, and training completion prior to administering the FMCSA ME certification test. Test Centers will administer the FMCSA Certification test according to FMCSA specifications and are responsible for submitting the medical examiner certification test results to the National Registry. Testing organizations that offer testing of MEs by means of online testing will provide a means to authenticate the identity of the person taking the test, to monitor the activity of the person taking the test, and to prevent the person taking the test from reproducing the contents of the test. FMCSA will validate the test results, medical examiner licensing credentials and training, and notify the ME of certification. The Certified Medical Examiner or their administrative personnel are required to submit data every month to the National Registry for each CMV driver medical examination they have conducted during the previous month. FMCSA will use the CMV driver medical exam information to monitor the ME competence and performance in evaluating the CMV driver health and fitness and to detect irregularities in examination procedures. Certified Medical Examiners and their administrative personnel have the option to register with FMCSA in order to view previously submitted CMV driver medical exam summary data, upload driver medical examination summary data to FMCSA and edit their medical examiner's contact information. The National Registry is more thoroughly detailed below and in the associated Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA). The PIA can be found on the DOT Privacy Web site at https://dot.gov/privacy. This newly established system will be included in the Department of Transportation's inventory of record systems.