Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 160 / Friday, August 17, 2018 / Notices 41073 

Commercial Issues Amendment, 

Comment Period Ends: 10/12/2018, 

Contact: Emily Gilbert 978–491–8024 

EIS No. 20180182, Draft, USFS, NV, Lee 

Canyon EIS, Comment Period Ends: 

10/01/2018, Contact: Jonathan Stein 

702–515–5418 

EIS No. 20180183, Draft, TVA, TN, 

Transmission System Vegetation 

Management Programmatic EIS, 

Comment Period Ends: 10/01/2018, 

Contact: Anita E. Masters 423–751– 

8697 

EIS No. 20180184, Draft, BLM, UT, Draft 

Bears Ears National Monument Indian 

Creek and Shash Jaa Units Monument 

Management Plans and Associated 

Environmental Impact Statement, 

Comment Period Ends: 11/15/2018, 

Contact: Lance Porter 435–259–2100 

EIS No. 20180185, Draft, BLM, UT, 

Grand Staircase-Escalante National 

Monument-Grand Staircase, 

Kaiparowits, and Escalante Canyon 

Units and Federal Lands Previously 

Included in the Monument That Are 

Excluded From the Boundaries Draft 

Resource Management Plans and 

Associated Environmental Impact 

Statement, Comment Period Ends: 11/ 

15/2018, Contact: Matt Betenson 435– 

644–1200 

EIS No. 20180186, Final, USFS, OR, 

East Hills Project, Review Period 

Ends: 09/17/2018, Contact: Jody 

Perozzi 541–353–2723 

Amended Notice 

Revision to the Federal Register 

Notice published 07/06/2018, extend 

comment period from 08/20/2018 to 09/ 

04/2018. 

EIS No. 20180149, Draft, FHWA, ND, 

Little Missouri Crossing, Contact: 

Gary Goff 701–221–9466 

Dated: August 14, 2018. 

Robert Tomiak, 

Director, Office of Federal Activities. 

[FR Doc. 2018–17747 Filed 8–16–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY 

COMMISSION 

Sunshine Act Meetings 

TIME AND DATE: Friday, August 24, 2018, 

9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. 

PLACE: Jacqueline A. Berrien Training 

Center on the First Floor of the EEOC 

Office Building, 131 ‘‘M’’ Street NE, 

Washington, DC 20507. 

STATUS: The meeting will be closed to 

the public. 

MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED: 

Closed Session 

The Associate Legal Counsel has 

certified that, in her opinion, exemption 

10 of the Sunshine Act, 5 U.S.C. 

552b(c)(10) and 29 CFR 1612.4(j), 

permits consideration of the scheduled 

matters at the closed meeting. 

Agency Adjudication and 

Determination on Federal Agency 

Discrimination Complaint Appeals: 

The Commission will be considering 

four (4) cases. 

Note: Any matter not discussed or 

concluded may be carried over to a later 

meeting. (In addition to publishing 

notices on EEOC Commission meetings 

in the Federal Register, the Commission 

also provides information about 

Commission meetings on its website, 

www.eeoc.gov., and provides a recorded 

announcement a week in advance on 

future Commission sessions.) 

Please telephone (202) 663–7100 

(voice) and (202) 663–4074 (TTY) at any 

time for information on these meetings. 

The EEOC provides sign language 

interpretation and Communication 

Access Realtime Translation (CART) 

services at Commission meetings for the 

hearing impaired. Requests for other 

reasonable accommodations may be 

made by using the voice and TTY 

numbers listed above. 

CONTACT PERSON FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION: Bernadette B. Wilson, 

Executive Officer on (202) 663–4077. 

Dated: August 15, 2018. 

Bernadette B. Wilson, 

Executive Officer, Executive Secretariat. 

[FR Doc. 2018–17922 Filed 8–15–18; 4:15 pm] 

BILLING CODE 6570–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 

Services 

[CMS–3357–FN] 

Medicare and Medicaid Program; 

Application From DNV GL—Healthcare 

(DNV GL) for Continued Approval of Its 

Hospital Accreditation Program 

AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS. 

ACTION: Final notice. 

SUMMARY: This final notice announces 

our decision to approve the DNV GL— 

Healthcare for continued recognition as 

a national accrediting organization for 

hospitals that wish to participate in the 

Medicare or Medicaid programs. 

DATES: This decision is effective August 

17, 2018 through September 26, 2022. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Karena Meushaw (410) 786–6609, or 

Monda Shaver (410) 786–3410. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

Under the Medicare program, eligible 

beneficiaries may receive covered 

services from a hospital, provided that 

certain requirements are met. Section 

1861(e) of the Social Security Act (the 

Act), establishes distinct criteria for 

facilities seeking designation as a 

hospital. Regulations concerning 

provider agreements are at 42 CFR part 

489 and those pertaining to activities 

relating to the survey and certification 

of facilities are at 42 CFR part 488. The 

regulations at 42 CFR part 482 specify 

the minimum conditions that a hospital 

must meet to participate in the Medicare 

program. 

Generally, to enter into an agreement, 

a hospital must first be certified by a 

State survey agency as complying with 

the conditions or requirements set forth 

in part 482 of our regulations. 

Thereafter, the hospital is subject to 

regular surveys by a State survey agency 

to determine whether it continues to 

meet these requirements. There is an 

alternative, however, to surveys by State 

agencies. 

Section 1865(a)(1) of the Act provides 

that, if a provider entity demonstrates 

through accreditation by an approved 

national accrediting organization that all 

applicable Medicare conditions are met 

or exceeded, we may deem those 

provider entities as having met the 

requirements. Accreditation by an 

accrediting organization is voluntary 

and is not required for Medicare 

participation. 

If an accrediting organization is 

recognized by the Secretary of the 

Department of Health and Human 

Services as having standards for 

accreditation that meet or exceed 

Medicare requirements, any provider 

entity accredited by the national 

accrediting body’s approved program 

may be deemed to meet the Medicare 

conditions. A national accrediting 

organization applying for approval of its 

accreditation program under part 488, 

subpart A, must provide the Centers for 

Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 

with reasonable assurance that the 

accrediting organization requires the 

accredited provider entities to meet 

requirements that are at least as 

stringent as the Medicare conditions. 

Our regulations concerning the approval 

of accrediting organizations are set forth 

at § 488.5. The regulations at 

§ 488.5(e)(2)(i) require accrediting 

organizations to reapply for continued 

approval of its accreditation program 


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41074 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 160 / Friday, August 17, 2018 / Notices 

every 6 years or sooner as determined 

by CMS. DNV GL’s current term of 

approval for their hospital accreditation 

program expires September 26, 2018. 

II. Application Approval Process 

Section 1865(a)(3)(A) of the Act 

provides a statutory timetable to ensure 

that our review of applications for CMSapproval of an accreditation program is 

conducted in a timely manner. The Act 

provides us 210 days after the date of 

receipt of a complete application, with 

any documentation necessary to make 

the determination, to complete our 

survey activities and application 

process. Within 60 days after receiving 

a complete application, we must 

publish a notice in the Federal Register 

that identifies the national accrediting 

body making the request, describes the 

request, and provides no less than a 30- 

day public comment period. At the end 

of the 210-day period, we must publish 

a notice in the Federal Register 

approving or denying the application. 

III. Provisions of the Proposed Notice 

In the April 17, 2018 Federal Register 

(83 FR 16862), we published a proposed 

notice announcing DNV GL’s request for 

continued approval of its Medicare 

hospital accreditation program. In the 

proposed notice, we detailed our 

evaluation criteria. Under section 

1865(a)(2) of the Act and in our 

regulations at § 488.5, we conducted a 

review of DNV GL’s Medicare hospital 

accreditation renewal application in 

accordance with the criteria specified by 

our regulations, which include, but are 

not limited to the following: 

• An onsite administrative review of 

DNV GL’s: (1) Corporate policies; (2) 

financial and human resources available 

to accomplish the proposed surveys; (3) 

procedures for training, monitoring, and 

evaluation of its hospital surveyors; (4) 

ability to investigate and respond 

appropriately to complaints against 

accredited hospitals; and, (5) survey 

review and decision-making process for 

accreditation. 

• The comparison of DNV GL’s 

Medicare hospital accreditation program 

standards to our current Medicare 

hospitals Conditions of Participation 

(CoPs). 

• A documentation review of 

hospital’s survey process to: 

++ Determine the composition of the 

survey team, surveyor qualifications, 

and DNV GL’s ability to provide 

continuing surveyor training. 

++ Compare DNV GL’s processes to 

those we require of state survey 

agencies, including periodic resurvey 

and the ability to investigate and 

respond appropriately to complaints 

against accredited hospitals. 

++ Evaluate DNV GL’s procedures for 

monitoring hospitals it has found to be 

out of compliance with DNV GL’s 

program requirements. (This pertains 

only to monitoring procedures when 

DNV GL identifies non-compliance. If 

noncompliance is identified by a state 

survey agency through a validation 

survey, the state survey agency monitors 

corrections as specified at § 488.9(c)). 

++ Assess DNV GL’s ability to report 

deficiencies to the surveyed hospital 

and respond to the hospital’s plan of 

correction in a timely manner. 

++ Establish DNV GL’s ability to 

provide us with electronic data and 

reports necessary for effective validation 

and assessment of the organization’s 

survey process. 

++ Determine the adequacy of DNV 

GL’s staff and other resources. 

++ Confirm DNV GL’s ability to 

provide adequate funding for 

performing required surveys. 

++ Confirm DNV GL’s policies with 

respect to surveys being unannounced. 

++ Obtain DNV GL’s agreement to 

provide us with a copy of the most 

current accreditation survey together 

with any other information related to 

the survey as we may require, including 

corrective action plans. 

In accordance with section 

1865(a)(3)(A) of the Act, the April 17, 

2018 proposed notice also solicited 

public comments regarding whether 

DNV GL’s requirements met or exceeded 

the Medicare CoPs for hospitals. We 

received two comments in response to 

our proposed notice. All of the 

comments received expressed 

unanimous support for DNV GL’s 

hospital accreditation program. 

IV. Provisions of the Final Notice 

A. Differences Between DNV GL’s 

Standards and Requirements for 

Accreditation and Medicare Conditions 

and Survey Requirements 

We compared DNV GL’s hospital 

accreditation program requirements and 

survey process with the Medicare CoPs 

at 42 CFR part 482, and the survey and 

certification process requirements of 

Parts 488 and 489. Our review and 

evaluation of DNV GL’s hospital 

application, which were conducted as 

described in section III of this final 

notice, yielded the following areas 

where, as of the date of this notice, DNV 

GL has revised its standards and 

certification processes in order to meet 

the requirements at: 

• Section 482.11 through 482.58, to 

ensure its standards replace the use of 

the word ‘‘shall’’ to ‘‘must’’ in all 

situations where CMS regulations use 

the word ‘‘must’’ or, clarify in DNV’s 

glossary the intended definition of the 

word ‘‘shall’’ means ‘‘must.’’ 

• State Operations Manual, Section 

3012, to ensure that DNV GL’s policies 

related to the timeframe(s) for follow-up 

activities, including follow-up surveys, 

for facilities that have previously 

demonstrated non-compliance at the 

condition level. 

• Section 488.5(a)(4)(iv), to ensure 

that the hospital and provider-based 

locations (or a sample when allowed) 

are included in the hospital survey and 

deficiencies cited under the appropriate 

CoPs. 

• Section 488.5(a)(11)(ii), to ensure 

that the data submitted in to CMS is 

timely, complete and accurate. 

• Section 488.5(a)(12), to ensure a 

clearly defined complaint investigation 

process is in place that meets the 

requirements in the State Operations 

Manual Chapter 5 Section 5010 and 

Chapter 5 Section 5075.2 that includes 

the following: 

++ Complete and accurate tracking of 

complaints as well as a process for 

maintaining a documented record of 

contacts made (for example, phone, 

email and United States mail) with the 

complainant, and others, if applicable; 

++ Define the number of contact 

attempts required before closing out a 

complaint, if the complainant does not 

respond; 

++ Educate DNV GL complaint intake 

staff that when complaint allegations 

could potentially result in conditionlevel non-compliance affecting the 

health and safety of patients, a survey is 

to be considered regardless if the 

allegation also involves payment related 

allegations; and, 

++ The complaint must be 

investigated onsite within an 

appropriate timeframe. 

• Section 488.26(b), to ensure that 

DNV GL survey documentation includes 

a detailed deficiency statement that 

clearly supports the manner and degree 

of non-compliance and that all observed 

non-compliance is cited at the 

appropriate level (condition verses 

standard level). 

• Section 488.26(c)(4), to ensure that 

DNV GL surveyors review a sufficient 

number of inpatient and outpatient 

medical records during the survey 

process; the appropriate number of 

documents, logs, personnel and 

credentialing files are reviewed during 

the survey process; the document 

sources are clearly identified in the 

survey file; and that DNV GL surveyors 

have been appropriately trained and 

determined by DNV GL to be competent 

in identifying Immediate Jeopardy (IJ) 


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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 160 / Friday, August 17, 2018 / Notices 41075 

situations and appropriateness of 

facility actions to mitigate IJ risk factors 

prior to the exit of the survey team. 

• Section 488.28(a), to ensure that the 

corrective action plan submitted by 

hospitals fully addresses the 

deficiencies cited and that the hospital’s 

corrective actions are hospital wide and 

not focused solely on the area in which 

the deficiency was identified. 

• Section 488.28(d), to ensure that all 

corrective action plans contain an 

expected correction completion date, 

consistent with CMS requirements. 

• Section 488.18(a), to ensure all 

observations of non-compliance are 

adequately documented in the survey 

report and ensure corrective action is 

required by the hospital. 

B. Term of Approval 

Based on our review and observations 

described in section III of this final 

notice, we approve DNV GL as a 

national accreditation organization for 

hospitals that request participation in 

the Medicare program, effective August 

17, 2018 through September 26, 2022. 

To verify DNV GL’s continued 

compliance with the provisions of this 

final notice, CMS will conduct a followup corporate on-site visit and survey 

observation within 18 months of the 

publication date of this notice. 

V. Collection of Information 

Requirements 

This document does not impose 

information collection requirements, 

that is, reporting, recordkeeping or 

third-party disclosure requirements. 

Consequently, there is no need for 

review by the Office of Management and 

Budget under the authority of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 

U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). 

Dated: August 6, 2018. 

Seema Verma, 

Administrator, Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services. 

[FR Doc. 2018–17815 Filed 8–16–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Administration for Children and 

Families 

Proposed Information Collection 

Activity; Comment Request 

Proposed Projects: LIHEAP 

Household Report FRN1 Clearance. 

Title: Annual Report on Households 

Assisted by the Low Income Home 

Energy Assistance (LIHEAP). 

OMB No.: 0970–0060. 

Description: This report is an annual 

activity required by statute (42 U.S.C. 

8629) and Federal regulations (45 CFR 

96.92) for the Low Income Home Energy 

Assistance Program (LIHEAP). 

Submission of the completed report is 

one requirement for LIHEAP grantees 

applying for Federal LIHEAP block 

grant funds. 

States, the District of Columbia, and 

the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico are 

required to report statistics for the 

previous Federal fiscal year on: 

• Assisted and applicant households, 

by type of LIHEAP assistance; 

• Assisted and applicant households, 

by type of LIHEAP assistance and 

poverty level; 

• Assisted households receiving 

nominal payments of $50 or less; 

• Assisted households receiving only 

utility payment assistance; this 

information will automatically be 

transferred to the grantee’s Performance 

Data Form. 

• Assisted households, regardless of 

the type(s) of LIHEAP assistance, 

excluding households that only receive 

nominal payments of $50 or less; 

• Assisted households, by type of 

LIHEAP assistance, having at least one 

vulnerable member who is at least 60 

years or older, disabled, or five years old 

or younger; 

• Assisted households, by type of 

LIHEAP assistance, with at least one 

member age 2 years or under; 

• Assisted households, by type of 

LIHEAP assistance, with at least one 

member ages 3 years through 5 years; 

and 

• Assisted households, regardless of 

the type(s) of LIHEAP assistance, having 

at least one member 60 years or older, 

disabled, or five years old or younger. 

Insular areas (other than the 

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico) and 

Indian Tribal Grantees are required to 

submit data only on the number of 

households receiving heating, cooling, 

energy crisis, and/or weatherization 

benefits. 

The information is being collected for 

the Department’s annual LIHEAP Report 

to Congress. The data also provides 

information about the need for LIHEAP 

funds. Finally, the data are used in the 

calculation of LIHEAP performance 

measures under the Government 

Performance and Results Act of 1993. 

The data elements will allow the 

accuracy of measuring LIHEAP targeting 

performance and LIHEAP cost 

efficiency. 

Respondents: State Governments, 

Tribal Governments, Insular Areas, and 

the District of Columbia. 

ANNUAL BURDEN ESTIMATES

Instrument Number of 

respondents 

Number of 

responses per 

respondent 

Average 

burden hours 

per response 

Total burden 

hours 

Assisted Household Report-Long Form .......................................................... 56 1 39 2,184 

Assisted Household Report-Short Form .......................................................... 160 1 1 160 

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours ..................................................... ........................ ........................ ........................ 2,344 

In compliance with the requirements 

of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

(Pub. L. 104–13, 44 U.S.C. Chap. 35), the 

Administration for Children and 

Families is soliciting public comment 

on the specific aspects of the 

information collection described above. 

Copies of the proposed collection of 

information can be obtained and 

comments may be forwarded by writing 

to the Administration for Children and 

Families, Office of Planning, Research 

and Evaluation, 330 C Street SW, 

Washington, DC 20201. Attn: ACF 

Reports Clearance Officer. Email 

address: infocollection@acf.hhs.gov. All 

requests should be identified by the title 

of the information collection. 

The Department specifically requests 

comments on: (a) Whether the proposed 

collection of information is necessary 

for the proper performance of the 

functions of the agency, including 

whether the information shall have 

practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the 

agency’s estimate of the burden of the 

proposed collection of information; (c) 

the quality, utility, and clarity of the 

information to be collected; and (d) 

ways to minimize the burden of the 

collection of information on 

respondents, including through the use 

of automated collection techniques or 


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