7814 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 20 / Tuesday, February 2, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 

January 20, 2021, from the Assistant to 

the President and Chief of Staff, entitled 

‘‘Regulatory Freeze Pending Review.’’ 

Norris Cochran, 

Acting Secretary, Department of Health and 

Human Services. 

[FR Doc. 2021–02181 Filed 1–29–21; 11:15 am] 

BILLING CODE 4120–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 

Services 

42 CFR Part 486 

[CMS–3380–F2] 

RIN 0938–AU02 

Medicare and Medicaid Programs; 

Organ Procurement Organizations 

Conditions for Coverage: Revisions to 

the Outcome Measure Requirements 

for Organ Procurement Organizations; 

Public Comment Period; Delay of 

Effective Date 

AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services (CMS), Health and 

Human Services (HHS). 

ACTION: Final rule; public comment 

period; delay of effective date. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

memorandum of January 20, 2021, from 

the Assistant to the President and Chief 

of Staff, entitled ‘‘Regulatory Freeze 

Pending Review,’’ this action 

temporarily delays for 60 days the 

effective date of part of the final rule 

entitled, ‘‘Medicare and Medicaid 

Programs; Organ Procurement 

Organizations Conditions for Coverage: 

Revisions to the Outcome Measure 

Requirements for Organ Procurement 

Organizations; Final rule’’ published in 

the Federal Register on December 2, 

2020. We are also providing an 

additional 30-day public comment 

period. 

DATES: The February 1, 2021, effective 

date of the rule amending 42 CFR part 

486, published at 85 FR 77898 on 

December 2, 2020, is delayed to March 

30, 2021. 

Comment date: To be assured 

consideration, comments must be 

received at one of the addresses 

provided below, by March 4, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: In commenting, please refer 

to file code CMS–3380–F2. 

Comments, including mass comment 

submissions, must be submitted in one 

of the following three ways (please 

choose only one of the ways listed): 

1. Electronically. You may submit 

electronic comments on this regulation 

to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow 

the ‘‘Submit a comment’’ instructions. 

2. By regular mail. You may mail 

written comments to the following 

address ONLY: Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services, Department of 

Health and Human Services, Attention: 

CMS-3380–F2, P.O. Box 8010, 

Baltimore, MD 21244–8010. 

Please allow sufficient time for mailed 

comments to be received before the 

close of the comment period. 

3. By express or overnight mail. You 

may send written comments to the 

following address ONLY: Centers for 

Medicare & Medicaid Services, 

Department of Health and Human 

Services, Attention: CMS-3380–F2, Mail 

Stop C4–26–05, 7500 Security 

Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21244–1850. 

For information on viewing public 

comments, see the beginning of the 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Diane Corning, (410) 786–8486; Jesse 

Roach, (410) 786–1000; Kristin Shifflett, 

(410) 786–4133; CAPT James Cowher, 

(410) 786–1948; or Alpha-Banu Wilson, 

(410) 786–8687. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Inspection of Public Comments: All 

comments received before the close of 

the comment period are available for 

viewing by the public, including any 

personally identifiable or confidential 

business information that is included in 

a comment. We post all comments 

received before the close of the 

comment period on the following 

website as soon as possible after they 

have been received: http://

www.regulations.gov. Follow the search 

instructions on that website to view 

public comments. CMS will not post on 

Regulations.gov public comments that 

make threats to individuals or 

institutions or suggest that the 

individual will take actions to harm the 

individual. CMS continues to encourage 

individuals not to submit duplicative 

comments. We will post acceptable 

comments from multiple unique 

commenters even if the content is 

identical or nearly identical to other 

comments. 

I. Background 

The January 20, 2021 memorandum 

from the Assistant to the President and 

Chief of Staff, entitled ‘‘Regulatory 

Freeze Pending Review,’’ instructed 

Federal agencies to delay the effective 

date of rules published in the Federal 

Register, but which have not yet taken 

effect, for a period of 60 days. On 

December 2, 2020, we published a final 

rule in the Federal Register entitled 

‘‘Medicare and Medicaid Programs; 

Organ Procurement Organizations 

Conditions for Coverage: Revisions to 

the Outcome Measure Requirements for 

Organ Procurement Organizations; Final 

rule’’ (85 FR 77898). The December 

2020 final rule revises the Organ 

Procurement Organizations Conditions 

for Coverage to increase donation rates 

and organ transplantation rates by 

replacing the current outcome measures 

with new transparent, reliable, and 

objective outcome measures and 

increasing competition for open 

donation service areas. The effective 

date of that rule, except for amendment 

number 3, which would have been 

February 1, 2021, is now March 30, 

2021. We are also providing a 30-day 

public comment period. The 60-day 

delay in effective date is necessary to 

give Department officials the 

opportunity for further review of the 

issues of fact, law, and policy raised by 

this rule. In addition, this action 

provides a comment period on the 

policies set out in the December 2, 2020 

final rule to allow interested parties to 

provide comments about issues of fact, 

law and policy raised by the rule. 

II. Response to Comments 

Because of the large number of public 

comments we normally receive on 

Federal Register documents, we are not 

able to acknowledge or respond to them 

individually. We will consider all 

comments we receive by the date and 

time specified in the DATES section of 

this preamble, and, when we proceed 

with a subsequent document, we will 

respond to the comments in the 

preamble to that document. 

Norris Cochran, 

Acting Secretary, Department of Health and 

Human Services. 

[FR Doc. 2021–02180 Filed 1–29–21; 11:15 am] 

BILLING CODE 4120–01–P 


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