70506 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 227 / Friday, November 24, 2000 / Rules and Regulations

element to be considered in determining

whether a belief would be reasonable is

the time period over which the requests

have occurred. The CSB will presume

that multiple requests of this type made

within a 30-day period have been made

in order to evade fees. Where requests

are separated by a longer period, the

CSB shall aggregate them only where

there exists a solid basis for determining

that such aggregation is warranted, e.g.,

where the requests involve clearly

related matters. Multiple requests

regarding unrelated matters will not be

aggregated.

(c) Advance payment of fees. (1) The

CSB does not require an advance

payment before work is commenced or

continued, unless:

(i) The CSB estimates or determines

that the fees are likely to exceed $250.

If it appears that the fees will exceed

$250, the CSB will notify the requester

of the likely cost and obtain satisfactory

assurance of full payment where the

requester has a history of prompt

payment of FOIA fees. In the case of

requesters with no history of payment,

the CSB may require an advance

payment of fees in an amount up to the

full estimated charge that will be

incurred; or

(ii) The requester has previously

failed to pay a fee in a timely fashion,

i.e., within 30 days of the date of a

billing. In such cases, the CSB may

require the requester to pay the full

amount owed plus any applicable

interest, as provided in paragraph (d) of

this section, or demonstrate that the fee

owed has been paid, prior to processing

any further record request. Under these

circumstances, the CSB may require the

requester to make an advance payment

of the full amount of the fees anticipated

before processing a new request or

finishing processing of a pending

request from that requester.

(2) A request for an advance deposit

shall ordinarily include an offer to the

requester to confer with identified CSB

personnel to attempt to reformulate the

request in a manner which will meet the

needs of the requester at a lower cost.

(3) When the CSB requests an advance

payment of fees, the administrative time

limits described in 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(6)

begin only after the CSB has received

the advance payment.

(d) Interest. The CSB may assess

interest charges on an unpaid bill

starting on the 31st day following the

day on which the bill was sent. Once a

fee payment has been received by the

CSB, even if not processed, the accrual

of interest shall be stayed. Interest

charges shall be assessed at the rate

prescribed in 31 U.S.C. 3717 and shall

accrue from the date of the billing.

(e) Whenever a total fee calculated

under paragraph (d) of this section is

$14.00 or less for any request, no fee

will be charged.

Dated: November 16, 2000.

Christopher W. Warner,

General Counsel.

[FR Doc. 00–29973 Filed 11–22–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6350–01–U

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND

HUMAN SERVICES

Office of the Secretary

Office of Inspector General

45 CFR Part 61

RIN 0906–AA46

Health Care Fraud and Abuse Data

Collection Program: Reporting of Final

Adverse Actions; Correction

AGENCY: Office of Inspector General

(OIG), HHS.

ACTION: Final rule; correction

amendment.

SUMMARY: This document contains a

correction to the final regulations which

were published in the Federal Register

on October 26, 1999 (64 FR 57740).

These regulations established a national

health care fraud and abuse data

collection program for the reporting and

disclosing of certain adverse actions

taken against health care providers,

suppliers and practitioners, and for

maintaining a data base of final adverse

actions taken against health care

providers, suppliers and practitioners.

An inadvertent error appeared in the

text of the regulations concerning the

definition of the term ‘‘health plan.’’ As

a result, we are making a correction to

45 CFR 61.3, Definitions, to assure the

technical correctness of these

regulations.

EFFECTIVE DATE: November 24, 2000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joel

Schaer, OIG Regulations Officer, (202)

619–0089.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The HHS

Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued

final regulations on October 26, 1999

(64 FR 57740) that established a

national health care fraud and abuse

data collection program—the Healthcare

Integrity and Protection Data Bank

(HIPDB)—for the reporting and

disclosing of certain final adverse

actions taken against health care

providers, suppliers and practitioners,

and for maintaining a data base of final

adverse actions taken against health care

providers, suppliers and practitioners.

The final rule established a new 45 CFR

part 61 to implement the requirements

for reporting of specific data elements

to, and procedures for obtaining

information from, the HIPDB. In that

final rule, an inadvertent error appeared

in § 61.3—the definitions section of the

regulations—and is now being

corrected.

Section 61.3 expanded on previous

regulatory definitions and provided

additional examples of the scope of

various terms set fort in the statute. In

the preamble of the final rule, we

reiterated that the statutory intent of the

definition for the term ‘‘health plan’’

was not meant to be exclusive or

exhaustive, and interpreted

congressional use of the word

‘‘includes’’ in the statutory definition of

this term as an indication that

additional entities may be recognized as

‘‘health plans’’ if they meet the basic

definition of providing health benefits.

The preamble of the final rule stated

that the statutory language indicated

that Congress intended that guarantors

of payment for health care items and

services—including ‘‘self insured

employers’’ who are often the subjects

of health care fraud—have access to

HIPDB information. As a result, in order

to make the term more inclusive, we

indicated our intention of modifying the

fourth element defining this term to

include, but not be limited to, a plan,

program, agreement or other mechanism

established, maintained or made

available by a self insured employer or

group of self insured employers. This

clarifying language, however, was not

properly reflected in the regulatory text

that appeared in the October 26, 1999

final regulations.

To be consistent with the intent of the

final rule’s preamble, we are correcting

the inadvertent error that appeared in

§ 61.3 that failed to accurately reflect the

definition of the term ‘‘health plan.’’

List of Subjects in 45 CFR Part 61

Billing and transportation services,

Durable medical equipment suppliers

and manufacturers, Health care insurers,

Health maintenance organizations,

Health professions, Home health care

agencies, Hospitals, Penalties,

Pharmaceutical suppliers and

manufacturers, Privacy, Reporting and

recordkeeping requirements, Skilled

nursing facilities.

Accordingly, 45 CFR part 61 is

corrected by making the following

correcting amendment.

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 227 / Friday, November 24, 2000 / Rules and Regulations 70507

PART 61—HEALTHCARE INTEGRITY

AND PROTECTION DATA BANK FOR

FINAL ADVERSE INFORMATION ON

HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS,

SUPPLIERS AND PRACTITIONERS

1. The authority citation for part 61

continues to read as follows:

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 1320a–7e.

2. Section 61.3 is amended by

republishing the introductory text, and

by revising the definition for the term

Health plan to read as follows:

§ 61.3 Definitions.

The following definitions apply to

this part:

* * * * *

Health plan means a plan, program or

organization that provides health

benefits, whether directly, through

insurance, reimbursement or otherwise,

and includes but is not limited to—

(1) A policy of health insurance;

(2) A contract of a service benefit

organization;

(3) A membership agreement with a

health maintenance organization or

other prepaid health plan;

(4) A plan, program, agreement or

other mechanism established,

maintained or made available by a self

insured employer or group of self

insured employers, a practitioner,

provider or supplier group, third party

administrator, integrated health care

delivery system, employee welfare

association, public service group or

organization or professional association;

and

(5) An insurance company, insurance

service or insurance organization that is

licensed to engage in the business of

selling health care insurance in a State

and which is subject to State law which

regulates health insurance.

* * * * *

Dated: November 1, 2000.

William E. Clark,

Acting Director for Information Resource

Management.

[FR Doc. 00–29991 Filed 11–22–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4152–01–M

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND

HUMAN SERVICES

Office of the Secretary

45 CFR Parts 160 and 162

[HCFA–0149–CN]

RIN 0938–AI58

Health Insurance Reform: Standards

for Electronic Transactions; Correction

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HHS.

ACTION: Correction of final rule.

SUMMARY: This document corrects

technical and typographical errors that

appeared in the final rule published in

the Federal Register on August 17,

2000, entitled ‘‘Health Insurance

Reform: Standards for Electronic

Transactions’’ (65 FR 50312). The final

rule adopted standards for eight

electronic transactions and for code sets

to be used in those transactions.

DATES: The effective date of this

correction notice is November 24, 2000.

The final rule adopted standards for

eight electronic transactions and for

code sets to be used in those

transactions.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joy

Glass, (410) 786–6125.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The

August 17, 2000 final rule published at

65 FR 50312 (FR Doc. 00–20820)

contained technical and typographical

errors. Therefore, we are making the

following corrections:

1. On page 50312, in the middle

column, in the eighteenth and

nineteenth lines, ‘‘http://

www.access.gpo.gov/su-docs/aces/

aces140.html’’ is corrected to read

‘‘http://www.access.gpo.gov/suldocs/

aces/aces140.html.’’

2. On page 50324, in the first column,

in the twenty-ninth line, paragraph ‘‘6.

Proprietary coding systems’’ is corrected

to read, ‘‘b. Proprietary coding systems.’’

3. On page 50332, in the first column,

in the fourth line from the bottom, ‘‘276

comments’’ is corrected to read ‘‘267

comments.’’

4. On page 50338, in the first column,

in the twelfth line, ‘‘Title VII’’ is

corrected to read ‘‘Title VI.’’

5. On page 50358, in Table 4—Ten

Year Net Savings, the figure ‘‘0.1’’ for

Savings from Manual Transactions for

Health Plans in 2007 is corrected to read

‘‘0.0.’’

6. On page 50361, in the third

column, section ‘‘N. Transaction

Standards’’ is corrected as follows:

A. Paragraph N.1. is corrected to read

as follows:

‘‘Specific Impact of Adoption of the

NCPDP Telecommunication Standard

Implementation Guide, Version 5

Release 1 and Equivalent Batch

Standard Implementation Guide Version

1 Release 0 for the Health Care Claim

and Equivalent Encounter Information,

Eligibility for a Health Plan, Referral

Certification and Authorization, and

Coordination of Benefits Transactions.’’

B. In paragraph 1.a., in the sixth line,

the words ‘‘encounter is’’ are corrected

to read ‘‘encounter, eligibility, and

referral certification and authorization

are.’’

C. In paragraph 1.a., in the third

sentence, the word ‘‘claim’’ is removed.

D. In paragraph 1.b., in the last line

of the column, the word ‘‘claim’’ is

removed.

Authority: Secs. 1171 through 1179 of the

Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320d–1320d–

8), as added by sec. 262 of Public Law 104–

191, 110 Stat. 2021–2031, and sec. 264 of

Pub. L. 104–191, 110 Stat. 2033–2034 (42

U.S.C. 1320d–2 (note)).

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance

Program No. 93.774, Medicare—

Supplementary Medical Insurance Program)

Dated: November 17, 2000.

Brian P. Burns,

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information

Resources Management.

[FR Doc. 00–29989 Filed 11–22–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4120–01–M

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND

HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and

Families

45 CFR Parts 1355, 1356 and 1357

[RIN 0970–AA97]

Title IV–E Foster Care Eligibility

Reviews and Child and Family

Services State Plan Reviews

AGENCY: Administration on Children,

Youth and Families (ACYF),

Administration for Children and

Families (ACHF), Department of Health

and Human Services (DHHS).

ACTION: Final rule; correction.

SUMMARY: This document corrects the

regulatory text of the final rule on Title

IV–E Foster Care Eligibility Reviews and

Child and Family Services State Plan

Reviews published in the Federal

Register on January 25, 2000 (65 FR

4019–4093).

DATES: Effective November 24, 2000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Kathleen McHugh, Children’s Bureau,

202–401–5789.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Correction

In the final rule, 45 CFR Part 1355

through 1357, beginning on page 4019

in the issue of January 25, 2000, make

the following correction. On page 4075

in the second column, instruction 2

currently says, ‘‘Section 1355.20 is

amended by revising the definition of

Foster care and by adding the following

definitions in alphabetical order to read

as follow:’’ It is corrected to read,

‘‘Section 1355.20 is amended by

revising the definitions of Foster care