Regulatory policies and procedures for the Domestic Public Land Mobile Radio Service--Federal Communications Commission. Proposed rule

Policies and procedures concerning objective need showings for applications requesting an additional one-way frequency for one-way signaling stations are being proposed. The present rules do not provide applicants with sufficient information as to what is required in need showings before applications can be granted. Applicants requesting an additional one-way frequency must show that the existing or projected grade of service is .50 before an additional channel is granted. The proposed standards are concurrently being adopted as an interim rule.     

Regulatory policies and procedures for the Domestic Public Land Mobile Radio Service--Federal Communications Commission. Second report and order

This Order eliminates the requirement that applicants in the Domestic Public Land Mobile Radio Service requesting one initial two-way frequency demonstrate a public need for the proposed service. This action will serve the public interest by making frequencies available for use by the public in a more timely manner, by reducing the costs associated with filing applications and by relieving the staff of an unnecessary processing burden. This action is necessary to speed service to the public and to reduce staff resources necessary to process applications.     

Private Land Mobile Radio Services--Federal Communications Commission. Final rule

The Commission adopts a Second Report and Order releasing reserved radio spectrum in the 806-821/851-866 MHz bands for Private Land Mobile Radio Service use. The rules adopted provide enhanced flexibility in radio system design and user options. The action is necessary to satisfy land mobile spectrum needs across the country.     

Allocation of spectrum in a certain MHz band and to establish other rules, policies, and procedures for one-way paging stations in the Domestic Public Land Mobile Radio Service--Federal Communications Commission. Final rule

This First Report and Order allocates 3 MHz of spectrum for paging services in the 929-932 MHz band. Private paging services will use frequency band 929-930 MHz, common carrier services will use frequency band 931-932 MHz, with a flexible boundary between the two bands effective after five years. The 930-931 MHz band will be reserved for advanced technology paging systems. This allocation was made in response to petitions filed by the Ad Hoc Private Paging Committee and Telocator Network of America. These new paging frequencies will allow for substantial growth of the paging industry, which has been restricted by a shortage of frequencies.     

Private land mobile radio services; bio-medical telemetry operations--Federal Communications Commission. Final rule

This action changes rules in the Special Emergency Radio Service to permit the limited use of bio-medical telemetry systems on certain medical services VHF frequencies. The operation is to be allowed only beyond fifty miles from the center of urbanized areas of 600,000 or more population (U.S. Census of 1970). The bio-medical telemetry system is used to send electrocardiograms from patients to hospitals.     

Private land mobile radio services; amendment of the Commission's rules concerning general eligibility in the industrial radio services: Federal Communications Commission. Final rule

This document adopts a rule amendment to permit the licensing of non-profit corporations and associations of eligible users in the Business and Special Industrial Radio Services in the bands below 512 MHz. The FCC now permits the licensing of non-profit corporations and associations of eligible users in each of the Industrial Radio Services except the Business and Special Industrial Radio Services below 800 MHz and permits it in all Industrial Radio Services including Business and Special Industrial above 800 MHz. The amendment will eliminate this exception.     

Private Land Mobile Radio Services; amendment of the commission's rules concerning mobile station, control point and control system authorization procedures for common user systems for a certain MHz frequency--Federal Communications Commission. Final rule

The Commission is amending its rules and regulations in Part 90--Private Land Mobile Radio Service, by adopting a new temporary licensing procedure for special mobile radio systems (SMRS's) and multiple licensed mobile relay stations operating in the 806-821 and the 851-866 megahertz (MHz) bands. This new system of licensing will benefit radio users by enabling them to begin operations more quickly than in the past, and will not in any way lessen the ability of the Commission to determine whether an applicant is eligible and otherwise possesses the necessary qualifications to be permanently licensed to operate in these bands. This new system is a part of the Commission's on-going program for reviewing its rules and regulations and eliminating unnecessary burdens on licensees to facilitate the administration of the Private Land Mobile Radio Service.     

Cooperative use and multiple licensing of stations in the private land mobile radio services--Federal Communications Commission. Final rule; report and order

The Federal Communications Commission is adopting rules to govern the cooperative sharing and multiple licensing of facilities in its private land mobile radio services. The rules which are adopted define the types of arrangements which will and will not be allowed. These rules have been adopted: (1) To remove certain procedural burdens heretofore required ot licensees and user eligibles; (2) To assure adequate licensee control; and (3) To codify permissible licensee and user practices relating to multiple licensed and cooperatively shared systems.     

Interconnection of private land mobile radio systems with the public switched telephone network in certain MHz bands--Federal Communications Commission. Final rule

This document adopts new rules to enable private radio communication systems licensed under Part 90 in the 800 MHz bands to interconnect with the facilities of the public switched telephone network. These rules are necessary to enable private licensees to better utilize their radio systems by allowing interconnected operation under certain conditions. An accompanying petition for rulemaking is dismissed as moot.     

Access charges; MTS and WATS market structure--Federal Communications Commission. Final rule

FCC, pursuant to the Fourth Supplemental Notice of Inquiry and Proposed Rulemaking published on June 21, 1982, at 47 FR 26668, adopts rules for the computation and assessment of end user and carrier's carrier access charges and the creation of an exchange carrier association to prepare access charge tariffs and distribute pooled access charge revenues. The Commission concluded that this action was necessary because existing methods of access compensation produced unlawful discrimination and preferences in interstate rates. These rules were designed to eliminate such unlawful discrimination and preferences.     

Amendment of the Commission's rule pursuant to its unregulatory program--Federal Communications Commission. Final rule

The Federal Communications Commission is amending the Rules concerning the land mobile radio services so as to eliminate those that are now unnecessary or outdated and to bring others into agreement with rules that were amended previously in other rulemaking actions.     

Operator service access and pay telephone compensation--Federal Communications Commission. Final rule; order on reconsideration

Five petitions for reconsideration or clarification were filed regarding Policies and Rules Concerning Operator Service Access and Pay Telephone Compensation, CC Docket No. 91-35: Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making, 6 FCC Rcd 4736, 56 FR 40,793 (1991) (hereinafter Report and Order), in which the Commission adopted policies and rules concerning consumer access to operator service providers (OSPs) and compensation for competitive public payphone owners for calls not utilizing their presubscribed OSPs. In response to the petitions, the Commission adopted an Order on Reconsideration (hereinafter Order) in which it reaffirmed that: (1) Call aggregators must allow consumers to use equal access ("10XXX") codes according to the schedule described in the original Report and Order, with certain clarifications; (2) all OSPs, except those exempted in the Order, must establish an 800 or 950 access number within six months of the effective date of the previously adopted rules; and (3) calls initiated with an 800 number that does not serve as an OSP's access code are not within the scope of the statutory provision that required the Commission to consider payphone compensation. In addition, the Commission granted the request to order local exchange carriers (LECs) to offer blocking and screening services designed to control potentially fraudulent 10XXX calling. The Commission deferred certain unblocking deadlines pending the deployment of the required LEC services.     

Establishment of a Medical Implant Communications Service in the 402-405 MHz band. Federal Communications Commission. Final rule

This document establishes a Medical Implant Communications Service (MICS) operating in the 402-405 MHz band. MICS operations will consist of high-speed, ultra-low power, non-voice transmissions to and from implanted medical devices such as cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators. The rules will allow use of newly-developed, life-saving medical technology without harming other users of the frequency band.     

Medicare program; prior determination for certain items and services. Final rule

This final rule establishes a process for Medicare contractors to provide eligible participating physicians and beneficiaries with a determination of coverage relating to medical necessity for certain physicians' services before the services are furnished. This rule is intended to afford the physician and beneficiary the opportunity to know the financial liability for a service before expenses are incurred. This final rule establishes reasonable limits on physicians' services for which a prior determination of coverage may be requested and discusses generally our plans for establishing the procedures by which those determinations may be obtained. This rule also responds to public comments on the August 30, 2005 proposed rule.     

Medical devices; procedures for investigational device exemptions--Food and Drug Administration. Final rule

This rule sets forth the procedures and conditions under which investigations of medical devices involving human subjects may be exempt from certain requirements of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, in accordance with the Medical Device Amendments of 1976. The rule sets out the procedures to obtain an investigational device exemption (IDE); it delineates the responsibilities of sponsors, institutional review boards, and clinical investigators with respect to clinical investigations of medical devices; and the rule also prescribes informed consent requirements and specifies recordkeeping and reporting requirements.     

Medicare program; Medicare and laboratory certification program; enforcement procedures for laboratories--HCFA. Final rule

These regulations set forth the rules for sanctions that HCFA may impose on laboratories that are found not to meet Federal requirements. These include the principal sanctions of suspending, limiting, or revoking the laboratory's certificate issued under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA), and cancelling the laboratory's approval to receive Medicare payment for its services, and the alternative sanctions that may be imposed instead of or before the principal sanctions. These amendments are necessary to conform HCFA regulations to changes made in the law by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (OBRA '87) and the 1988 amendments to section 353 of the Public Health Service Act (PHS Act). The latter are commonly referred to as "CLIA 88". The purpose of the amendments is to ensure that functioning laboratories are capable of providing accurate and reliable test results and that the health of individuals served by the laboratory and that of the general public is not adversely affected by laboratory operations and by testing procedures that do not meet the standards set forth in other subparts of part 493 of the HCFA regulations.     

Administrative practices and procedures; promulgation of regulations for the efficient enforcement of law--FDA. Final rule

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is amending its regulation governing notice-and-comment (informal) rulemaking by removing from the regulation the requirement that the agency issue interpretative rules and rules of agency practice and procedure by informal rulemaking. As amended, the regulation provides that informal rulemaking procedures by followed to the extent required by the Administrative Procedure Act.     

Medicare program; payment for physician outpatient maintenance dialysis services and other physician services for ESRD patients--HCFA. Final rule

This final rule reinstates a modified version of the initial method of payment for physician dialysis services and clarifies and modifies some of the principles of the monthly capitation payment method. Under both the initial method and the monthly capitation payment method, we specify that, to be payable, physician services must meet certain requirements that distinguish services furnished to individual patients from services furnished to facilities that benefit the facilities' patients generally. The reinstatement of a modified version of the initial method is necessitated by a court order.     

Medicare program; fee schedules for the services of certified registered nurse anesthetists--HCFA. Final rule

We are revising the Medicare regulations to allow certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) to receive Medicare payment for the anesthesia services and related care they furnish. In addition, this final rule sets forth the fee schedules under which payment is made for the services of CRNAs, except for the services of CRNAs in certain rural hospitals who are paid on a reasonable cost basis. This rule, which is effective for services furnished on or after January 1, 1989, implements section 9320 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986, as amended by section 4084 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987, section 411(i)(3) of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988, section 608(c) of the Family Support Act of 1988, and sections 6106, 6107 and 6132 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989. This final rule does not reflect the changes concerning the calculation of payment rates contained in section 1833(1)(4) of the Social Security Act, as enacted by section 4160 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990. Those changes apply to services furnished on or after January 1, 1991. Thus, the changes to the payment calculation provisions described and published below are applicable only to services furnished in calendar years 1989 and 1990.