Medical benefits for newborn children of certain woman veterans. Final rule

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is amending its regulation concerning the medical benefits package offered to veterans enrolled in the VA health care system. This rulemaking updates the regulation to conform to amendments made by the enactment of the Caregivers and Veteran Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010, which authorized VA to provide certain health care services to a newborn child of a woman veteran who is receiving maternity care furnished by VA. Health services for newborn care will be authorized for no more than seven days after the birth of the child if the veteran delivered the child in a VA facility or in another facility pursuant to a VA contract for maternity services.     

Dental care--provision of one-time outpatient dental care for certain veterans. Final rule

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is amending its regulations regarding the authority to provide one-time outpatient dental treatment to eligible veterans following discharge or release from active duty. In section 1709 of Public Law 110-181, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, Congress amended the eligibility criteria for the one-time dental treatment benefit. This rule is necessary to incorporate the statutory amendments into VA regulations.     

Health care for homeless veterans. Final rule

This final rule establishes regulations for contracting with community-based treatment facilities in the Health Care for Homeless Veterans (HCHV) program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The HCHV program assists certain homeless veterans in obtaining treatment from non-VA community-based providers. The final rule formalizes VA's policies and procedures in connection with this program and clarifies that veterans with substance use disorders may qualify for the program.     

Eligibility rules for special emergency paging--FCC. Final rule

This action modifies 90.38 of the Commission's Rules by expanding the eligibility of end users to which special emergency paging licensees can provide service. Hospital paging systems could not be used to inform participants in an organ donor program of the availability of a suitable organ. The Commission has decided that patients actively awaiting an organ transplant should be eligible under the Special Emergency Radio Service to receive paging service.     

Federal employees health benefits children's equity. Final rule

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing final regulations to implement the Federal Employees Health Benefits Children's Equity Act of 2000, which was enacted October 30, 2000. This law mandates the enrollment of a Federal employee for self and family coverage in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program, if the employee is subject to a court or administrative order requiring him or her to provide health benefits for his or her child or children and the employee does not provide documentation of compliance with the order.     

Inmate fees for health care services. Final rule

The Bureau of Prisons (Bureau) finalizes rules describing procedures we will follow for charging inmates fees for certain kinds of health services, as required under the Federal Prisoner Health Care Copayment Act of 2000 (Pub. L. 106-294, October 12, 2000, 114 Stat 1038, codified at 18 U.S.C. 4048).     

Medicare and Medicaid programs; fire safety requirements for certain health care facilities. Final rule

This final rule amends the fire safety standards for hospitals, long-term care facilities, intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded, ambulatory surgery centers, hospices that provide inpatient services, religious nonmedical health care institutions, critical access hospitals, and Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly facilities. Further, this final rule adopts the 2000 edition of the Life Safety Code and eliminates references in our regulations to all earlier editions.     

Federal employees health benefits program: debarment--OPM. Final rule

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing final regulations to incorporate into regulations the statutory requirement that carriers in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program may not deny claims for services or supplies due to the debarment of the providers who supplied them if the claimants could not have known that the provider was debarred. The purpose of these regulations is to comply with the provision of law that requires OPM to prescribe regulations on this issue.     

Federal employees health benefits program: disenrollment--OPM. Final rule

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing final regulations that are consistent with existing administrative procedures requiring employing offices to provide information about enrollees in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program to the carriers of the FEHB plans in which they are enrolled. Carriers are also required to use the information provided by employing offices to reconcile their enrollment records. These regulations will regularize the conditions that would allow carriers to disenroll individuals when their employing office of record does not show them as enrolled in the carrier's plan and the carrier is otherwise unable to verify the enrollment. The purpose of these regulations is to facilitate reconciliation of carrier and employing office enrollment records, especially in cases where the carrier has not previously received a notice showing an enrollment no longer is valid.     

Compensation for certain undiagnosed illnesses--VA. Final rule

This document adopts as a final rule the provisions of an interim final rule which amended the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) adjudication regulations regarding compensation for disabilities resulting from undiagnosed illnesses suffered by Persian Gulf Veterans. This amendment is necessary to expand the period within which such disabilities must become manifest to a compensable degree in order for entitlement for compensation to be established. The intended effect of this amendment is to ensure that veterans with compensable disabilities due to undiagnosed illnesses that may be related to active service in the Southwest Asia theater of operations during the Persian Gulf War may qualify for benefits.     

Age Discrimination in Employment Act; retiree health benefits. Final rule

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is publishing this final rule so that employers may create, adopt, and maintain a wide range of retiree health plan designs, such as Medicare bridge plans and Medicare wrap-around plans, without violating the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA). To address concerns that the ADEA may be construed to create an incentive for employers to eliminate or reduce retiree health benefits, EEOC is creating a narrow exemption from the prohibitions of the ADEA for the practice of coordinating employer-sponsored retiree health benefits with eligibility for Medicare or a comparable State health benefits program. The rule does not otherwise affect an employer's ability to offer health or other employment benefits to retirees, consistent with the law.     

Compensation for certain undiagnosed illnesses--VA. Final rule

This document amends the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) adjudication regulations to authorize compensation for disabilities resulting from the undiagnosed illnesses of Persian Gulf veterans. This amendment provides the necessary regulatory framework to allow the Secretary to pay compensation under the authority granted by the Persian Gulf War.     

Prepaid health care: obsolete provisions--HCFA. Final rule

This rule amends the regulations on prepaid health care to remove outdated content, convert undesignated center headings to designated subpart headings, and redesignate specified sections. These changes are necessary to--Make the section numbers of the redesignated sections available for rules needed to implement recent changes in law and policy; Preclude confusion as to the rules that are currently in effect; and Facilitate reference to different portions of part 417, through the use of the subpart titles.     

Medical: advance health care planning. Final rule

This document amends VA medical regulations to codify VA policy regarding advance health care planning. The final rule sets forth a mechanism for the use of written advance directives, i.e., a VA living will, a VA durable power of attorney for health care, and a State-authorized advance directive. The final rule also sets forth a mechanism for honoring verbal or non-verbal instructions from a patient when the patient is admitted to care when critically ill and loss of capacity may be imminent and the patient is not physically able to sign an advance directive form, or the appropriate form is not readily available. This is intended to help ensure that VA acts in compliance with patients' wishes concerning future health care.     

Medicare and Medicaid programs; fire safety requirements for certain health care facilities; amendment. Final rule

This final rule adopts the substance of the April 15, 2004 tentative interim amendment (TIA) 00-1 (101), Alcohol Based Hand Rub Solutions, an amendment to the 2000 edition of the Life Safety Code, published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). This amendment allows certain health care facilities to place alcohol-based hand rub dispensers in egress corridors under specified conditions. This final rule also requires that nursing facilities at least install battery-operated single station smoke alarms in resident rooms and common areas if they are not fully sprinklered or they do not have system-based smoke detectors in those areas. Finally, this final rule confirms as final the provisions of the March 25, 2005 interim final rule with changes and responds to public comments on that rule.     

Diseases specific to radiation-exposed veterans. Final rule

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is amending its adjudication regulations concerning presumptive service connection for certain diseases for veterans who participated in radiation-risk activities during active service or while members of reserve components during active duty for training or inactive duty training. This amendment adds cancers of the bone, brain, colon, lung, and ovary to the list of diseases which may be presumptively service connected and amends the definition of the term "radiation-risk activity." The intended effect of this amendment is to ensure that veterans who may have been exposed to radiation during military service do not have a higher burden of proof than civilians exposed to ionizing radiation who may be entitled to compensation for these cancers under comparable Federal statutes.     

Medicaid program; modification of certain requirements for health insuring organizations--HCFA. Final rule

This final rule implements statutory changes which expressly made certain Health Insuring Organizations (HIOs) subject to Medicaid Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) rules. The statute implemented in this rule requires that an HIO which became operational on or after January 1, 1986, and arranges for comprehensive health services for Medicaid recipients on a risk basis be subject to HMO requirements. The statute also provides that exemptions from certain HMO rules are permitted for HIOs which began operation on or after January 1, 1986, if the HIOs are operating under a section 1915(b) waiver obtained prior to that date, or if an HIO is otherwise identified in the law. The exemptions continue as long as the waiver under section 1915(b) of the Social Security Act remains in effect. The statutory provisions implemented in this rule were enacted in section 9517(c) of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, as amended by section 9435(e) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986, and section 1895(c)(4) of the Tax Reform Act of 1986.     

Rural health care support mechanism. Final rule; petition for reconsideration

In this document, the Commission grants American Telemedicine Association's (ATA) Petition for Reconsideration in part and extends for three years the Commission's prior determination to grandfather those health care providers who were eligible under the Commission's definition of "rural" prior to the Second Report and Order.     

Confidentiality of certain medical records--VA. Final rule

This document establishes Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regulations to implement specific provisions of the Veterans Omnibus Health Care Act of 1976 and the Veterans' Benefits and Services Act of 1988 concerning the confidentiality of certain medical records. These regulations protect the confidentiality of VA records pertaining to drug abuse, alcoholism or alcohol abuse, infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and sickle cell anemia.     

Per diem for nursing home care of veterans in State homes. Department of Veterans Affairs. Final rule

This document amends regulations regarding the payment of per diem to State homes that provide nursing home care to eligible veterans. The intended effect of the final rule is to ensure that veterans receive high quality care in State homes.