Federal register
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Subtitle 2 of Title XXI of the Public Health Service Act, as enacted by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, as amended (the Act), governs the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). The VICP, administered by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the Secretary), provides that a proceeding for compensation for a vaccine-related injury or death shall be initiated by service upon the Secretary, and the filing of a petition with the United States Court of Federal Claims (the Court). In some cases, the injured individual may receive compensation for future lost earnings, less appropriate taxes and the "average cost of a health insurance policy, as determined by the Secretary." The final rule establishes the new method of calculating the average cost of a health insurance policy and determines the amount of the average cost of a health insurance policy to be deducted from the compensation award.
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is issuing a final rule regarding current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) for dietary supplements. The final rule establishes the minimum CGMPs necessary for activities related to manufacturing, packaging, labeling, or holding dietary supplements to ensure the quality of the dietary supplement. The final rule is one of many actions related to dietary supplements that we are taking to promote and protect the public health.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is issuing this interim final rule to amend its adjudication regulations regarding compensation for disabilities resulting from undiagnosed illnesses suffered by veterans who served in the Persian Gulf War. This amendment is necessary to extend the presumptive period for qualifying chronic disabilities resulting from undiagnosed illnesses that must become manifest to a compensable degree in order that entitlement for compensation be established. The intended effect of this amendment is to provide consistency in VA adjudication policy and preserve certain rights afforded to Persian Gulf War veterans and ensure fairness for current and future Persian Gulf War veterans.
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This final rule with comment period addresses certain provisions of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, as well as making other changes to Medicare Part B payment policy. These changes are intended to ensure that our payment systems are updated to reflect changes in medical practice and the relative value of services. ⋯ In addition, this rule includes revisions to payment policies under the fee schedule for ambulance services and the ambulance inflation factor update for CY 2007. As required by the statute, we are announcing that the physician fee schedule update for CY 2007 is -5.0 percent, the initial estimate for the sustainable growth rate for CY 2007 is 2.0 percent and the CF for CY 2007 is $35.9848.
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We are revising the Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment systems (IPPS) for operating and capital-related costs to implement changes arising from our continuing experience with these systems, and to implement a number of changes made by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (Pub. L. 109-171). In addition, in the Addendum to this final rule, we describe the changes to the amounts and factors used to determine the rates for Medicare hospital inpatient services for operating costs and capital-related costs. ⋯ In addition, we are responding to public comments received on a proposed rule issued in the Federal Register on May 17, 2006 that proposed to revise the methodology for calculating the occupational mix adjustment to the wage index for the FY 2007 hospital inpatient prospective payment system by applying an adjustment to 100 percent of the wage index using new 2006 occupational mix survey data collected from hospitals. We are finalizing two policy documents published in the Federal Register relating to the implementation of the Health Care Infrastructure Improvement Program, a hospital loan program for cancer research, established under the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003. This final rule also revises the definition of the term "unit" to specify the exclusion of units of drugs sold to approved Medicare Competitive Acquisition Program (CAP) vendors for use under the CAP from average sales price (ASP) calculations for a period of up to 3 years, at which time we will reevaluate our policy.