Minimum guidelines and requirements for accessible design--Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board. Proposed rule

The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board proposes to rescind the minimum guidelines and requirements for standards for accessibility and usability of federal and federally-funded buildings and facilities by physically handicapped persons, adopted on January 6, 1981. The Board seeks public comments on which parts of the January 6 rule should be retained, which parts should be deleted, and which should be modified to formulate alternative ways for the Board to carry out its responsibility to establish such guidelines and requirements.     

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility guidelines for buildings and facilities; play areas. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board. Final rule

The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) is issuing final accessibility guidelines to serve as the basis for standards to be adopted by the Department of Justice for new construction and alterations of play areas covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The guidelines include scoping and technical provisions for ground level and elevated play components, accessible routes, ramps and transfer systems, ground surfaces, and soft contained play structures. The guidelines will ensure that newly constructed and altered play areas meet the requirements of the ADA and are readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities. The Department of Justice must adopt the guidelines as standards for them to be enforceable under the ADA.     

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility guidelines for buildings and facilities. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board. Final guidelines

The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board is issuing final guidelines to assist the Department of Justice to establish accessibility standards for new construction and alterations in places of public accommodation and commercial facilities, as required by title III the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. The guidelines will ensure that newly constructed and altered portions of buildings and facilities covered by title III of the ADA are readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities in terms of architecture and design, and communication. The Department of Justice has proposed to adopt the guidelines as the accessibility standards for new construction and alterations in places of public accommodation and commercial facilities for purposes of title III of the ADA.     

Governing body requirements for health systems agencies--PHS. Final rule

This rule amends the portion of the Health Systems Agency Designation and Funding Regulation (March 26, 1976) prescribing the composition of health systems agency governing bodies and deletes the subsection of that regulation which limits the number of consecutive years a governing body member may serve. This rule is being issued pursuant to a court order.     

Clarification of registration requirements for individual practitioners. Final rule

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is amending its registration regulations to make it clear that when an individual practitioner practices in more than one State, he or she must obtain a separate DEA registration for each State. This amendment will make it easier for practitioners to understand the requirements of the Controlled Substances Act and its implementing regulations.     

Tamper-evident packaging requirements for over-the-counter human drug products--FDA. Final rule

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is amending its regulations on tamper-resistant packaging to require that all over-the-counter (OTC) human drug products marketed in two-piece, hard gelatin capsules be sealed using a tamper-evident technology; to change the term "tamper-resistant" in the labeling of all OTC drug products to "tamper-evident;" and to specify that the required OTC drug product labeling statement must refer to all packaging features used to comply with the tamper-evident packaging requirements, including those on the secondary package, the immediate container or closure, and any capsule sealing technologies used. FDA is taking this action as a result of its continuing review of the potential public health threat posed by product tampering and to improve consumer protection by addressing specific vulnerabilities in the OTC drug market.     

Amendments to sterility test requirements for biological products. Final rule

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is amending the sterility test requirements for biological products. This rule provides manufacturers of biological products greater flexibility, as appropriate, and encourages use of the most appropriate and state-of-the-art test methods for assuring the safety of biological products. FDA is taking this action as part of its ongoing efforts to comprehensively review and, as necessary, revise its regulations related to biological products.     

Medicaid program; citizenship documentation requirements. Final rule

This final rule amends Medicaid regulations to implement the provision of the Deficit Reduction Act that requires States to obtain satisfactory documentary evidence of an applicant's or recipient's citizenship and identity in order to receive Federal financial participation. It also incorporates changes made to these requirements through section 405(c)(1)(A) of Division B of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act (TRHCA), Pub. L. 109-432, enacted December 20, 2006. This regulation provides States with guidance on the types of documentary evidence that may be accepted, including alternative forms of documentary evidence in addition to those described in the statute and the conditions under which this documentary evidence can be accepted to establish the applicant's citizenship.     

Filing of applications and requirements for widow's and widower's benefits. Final rule

We are revising one of our regulations to clarify that we will protect a title II claimant's filing date as of the date the claimant or other proper applicant on the claimant's behalf completes and transmits to the Social Security Administration (SSA) the Personal Information Identification data on the Internet Social Security Benefit Application (ISBA). This revision addresses an aspect of implementing the ISBA to provide certain rights to Internet filers that we afford to other filers. In addition, we are correcting one word in a different title II regulation. The revision is necessary to correctly reflect the circumstances under which a claimant for widow's or widower's benefits as the insured person's surviving divorced spouse would be considered "unmarried."     

Occupational injury and illness recording and reporting requirements. Final rule

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is revising the hearing loss recording provisions of the Occupational Injury and Illness Recording and Reporting Requirements rule published January 19, 2001 (66 FR 5916-6135), scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2003 (66 FR 52031-52034). This final rule revises the criteria for recording hearing loss cases in several ways, including requiring the recording of Standard Threshold Shifts (10 dB shifts in hearing acuity) that have resulted in a total 25 dB level of hearing above audiometric zero, averaged over the frequencies at 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hz, beginning in year 2003.     

Occupational injury and illness recording and reporting requirements. Final rule

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is delaying the effective date of three provisions of the Occupational Injury and Illness Recording and Reporting Requirements rule published January 19, 2001 (66 FR 5916-6135) and is establishing interim criteria for recording cases of work-related hearing loss. The provisions being delayed are sections 1904.10 (a) and (b), which specify recording criteria for cases involving occupational hearing loss, section 1904.12, which defines "musculoskeletal disorder (MSD)" and requires employers to check the MSD column on the OSHA Log if an employee experiences a work-related musculoskeletal disorder, and section 1904.29(b)(7)(vi), which states that MSDs are not considered privacy concern cases. The effective date of these provisions is delayed from January 1, 2002 until January 1, 2003. OSHA will continue to evaluate sections 1904.10 and 1904.12 over the next year. OSHA is also adding a new paragraph(c) to section 1904.10, establishing criteria for recording cases of work-related hearing loss during calendar year 2002. Section 1904.10(c) codifies the enforcement policy in effect since 1991, under which employers must record work related shifts in hearing of an average of 25 dB or more at 2000, 3000 and 4000 hertz in either ear.     

Medicare and Medicaid; requirements for long term care facilities--HCFA. Final rule

In Federal Register document 91-22274, published on Thursday, September 26, 1991, beginning on page 48826, we amended Medicare and Medicaid rules applicable to requirements for long term care facilities. In addition to correcting typographical errors, we are making a limited number of technical corrections to our September 26, 1991 document to take into account changes made by other regulations, but not included in the document, or inconsistencies between preamble statements and the regulations text. All such technical corrections are explained in the preamble to this rule.     

Medicare and Medicaid; requirements for long term care facilities--HCFA. Final rule

These final regulations revise and consolidate the requirements that facilities furnishing long term care are required to meet to participate in either or both the Medicare and Medicaid programs. They revise our February 2, 1989 (54 FR 5316) final regulations to reflect our response to comments submitted by the public and to conform them to statutory provisions that were not in effect when we issued the prior rule, and to include various minor and technical changes in the requirements made by the Omnibus Budget.     

Respiratory protection--OSHA. Final rule; request for comment on paperwork requirements

This final standard, which replaces the respiratory protection standards adopted by OSHA in 1971 (29 CFR 1910.134 and 29 CFR 1926.103), applies to general industry, construction, shipyard, longshoring, and marine terminal workplaces. The standard requires employers to establish or maintain a respiratory protection program to protect their respirator-wearing employees. The standard contains requirements for program administration; worksite-specific procedures; respiratory selection; employee training; fit testing; medical evaluation; respiratory use; respirator cleaning, maintenance, and repair; and other provisions. The final standard also simplifies respirator requirements for employers by deleting respiratory provisions in other OSHA health standards that duplicate those in the final standard and revising other respirator-related provisions to make them consistent. In addition, the standard addresses the use of respirators in Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health (IDLH) atmospheres, including interior structural firefighting. During interior structural firefighting (an IDLH atmosphere by definition), self-contained breathing apparatus is required, and two firefighters must be on standby to provide assistance or perform rescue when two firefighters are inside the burning building. Based on the record in this rulemaking and the Agency's own experience in enforcing its prior respiratory protection standards, OSHA has concluded that compliance with the final rule will assist employers in protecting the health of employees exposed in the course of their work to airborne contaminants, physical hazards, and biological agents, and that the standard is therefore necessary and appropriate. The final respiratory protection standard covers an estimated 5 million respirator wearers working in an estimated 1.3 million workplaces in the covered sectors. OSHA's benefits analysis predicts that the standard will prevent many deaths and illnesses among respirator-wearing employees every year by protecting them from exposure to acute and chronic health hazards. OSHA estimates that compliance with this standard will avert hundreds of deaths and thousands of illnesses annually. The annual costs of the standard are estimated to be $111 million, or an average of $22 per covered employee per year.     

Sickness benefits. Railroad Retirement Board. Final rule

The Railroad Retirement Board (Board) hereby amends its regulations under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (RUIA) to permit a "nurse practitioner" to execute a statement of sickness in support of payments of sickness benefits under the RUIA. The Board does not currently accept statements executed by a nurse practitioner, which in some cases may delay payment of benefits.     

Determining disability. Railroad Retirement Board. Final rule

The Railroad Retirement Board (Board) hereby amends its disability regulations to discontinue the current policy of conducting continuing disability reviews (CDR's) for medical recovery of disability annuitants in medical improvement not expected (MINE) cases. The Board has found that these reviews have not been cost effective and impose an unnecessary burden on the annuitant.     

Medical devices; exception from general requirements for informed consent. Final rule

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is issuing a final regulation to confirm, with one change, the interim final rule (IFR) entitled "Medical Devices; Exception From General Requirements for Informed Consent." This final rule confirms the IFR's establishment of a new exception from the general requirements for informed consent to permit the use of investigational in vitro diagnostic devices to identify chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear agents without informed consent in certain circumstances. FDA has created this exception to help ensure that individuals who may have been exposed to a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear agent are able to benefit from the timely use of the most appropriate diagnostic devices, including those that are investigational. This final rule adds a requirement that the investigator submit the required documentation to FDA, in addition to submitting it to the reviewing Institutional Review Board (IRB).     

Exemption from import/export requirements for personal medical use. Final rule

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is amending its regulations to expressly incorporate the restrictions on personal use importation imposed by Congress in 1998 and to expand upon those restrictions to curtail the diversion that has continued even after the 1998 congressional amendment. Specifically, DEA is limiting to 50 dosage units the total amount of controlled substances that a United States resident may bring into the United States for legitimate personal medical use when returning from travel abroad at any location and by any means. This regulation will help prevent importation of controlled substances for unlawful use while still accommodating travelers who have a legitimate medical need for controlled substances during their journey.     

Labeling requirements for systemic antibacterial drug products intended for human use. Final rule

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is amending its regulations to require that the labeling for all systemic antibacterial drug products (i.e., antibiotics and their synthetic counterparts) intended for human use include certain statements about using antibiotics in a way that will reduce the development of drug-resistant bacterial strains. The final rule reflects a growing concern in FDA and the medical community that unnecessary use of systemic antibacterials has contributed to a dramatic increase in recent years in the prevalence of drug-resistant bacterial infections. The final rule is intended to encourage physicians to prescribe systemic antibacterial drugs only when clinically necessary. The final rule is also intended to encourage physicians to counsel their patients about the proper use of such drugs and the importance of taking them exactly as directed.