100496 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 239 / Thursday, December 12, 2024 / Notices 

5Final Rule, Regulation D, 74 FR 25620 (May 29, 

2009); Press Release, ‘‘Board announces approval of 

final amendments to Regulation D pertaining to 

transfers from savings deposits and the 

establishment of excess balance accounts at Reserve 

Banks’’ (May 20, 2009), https://www.federal

reserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/ 

monetary20090520b.htm. 

6See 12 CFR 204.2(aa) (defining ‘‘excess balance 

account’’); 12 CFR 204.10(d)(4) (establishing 

interest payable on excess balance accounts). An 

EBA agent and participant may also be in a separate 

correspondent-respondent relationship, but not 

necessarily. 

traded at rates persistently below the 

interest rate on excess reserves.5 EBAs 

permit eligible institutions to earn 

interest on their excess balances without 

disrupting established correspondentrespondent relationships. An EBA is a 

limited-purpose account at a Federal 

Reserve Bank managed by an agent and 

established for maintaining the excess 

balances of one or more institutions 

(participants) that are eligible to earn 

interest on balances held at a Reserve 

Bank.6 The agent does not own the EBA 

or the balances therein and thus the 

balances held in the EBA are not 

included in the calculation of the 

agent’s regulatory leverage ratio. 

III. Current Scope of the Guidelines 

Currently, the Guidelines do not 

expressly state that EBA arrangements 

are in the scope of the Guidelines. The 

Board believes it is appropriate to 

amend the Guidelines to clarify that 

they apply to requests to be an agent for, 

or a participant in, an EBA. Expressly 

including EBAs in the Guidelines will 

clarify that the same standard of review 

will be applied to any institution 

requesting access to accounts and 

services. While EBAs are not used to 

access Reserve Bank financial 

1254ervicees, they are, in fact, limitedpurpose Reserve Bank accounts. This 

clarification, therefore, would prevent 

depository institutions that do not 

qualify for access to Federal Reserve 

accounts and services under the 

Guidelines from accessing the Federal 

Reserve’s balance sheet through EBAs. 

IV. Clarification to Scope of Guidelines 

For the reasons set forth in this 

document, the Board is amending and 

restating the text in footnote seven to 

the Guidelines to read as follows: 

Unless otherwise expressly excluded 

under the previous footnote, these 

principles apply to account requests 

from all institutions, including member 

banks, entities that meet the definition 

of a depository institution under section 

19(b) (12 U.S.C. 461(b)(1)(A)), Edge and 

Agreement Corporations (12 U.S.C. 601– 

604a, 611–631), and U.S. branches and 

agencies of foreign banks (12 U.S.C. 

347d), and to requests to be an agent or 

participant in an excess balance account 

(12 CFR 204.10(d)). 

By order of the Board of Governors of the 

Federal Reserve System. 

Ann E. Misback, 

Secretary of the Board. 

[FR Doc. 2024–29250 Filed 12–11–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE P 

FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM 

Formations of, Acquisitions by, and 

Mergers of Bank Holding Companies 

The companies listed in this notice 

have applied to the Board for approval, 

pursuant to the Bank Holding Company 

Act of 1956 (12 U.S.C. 1841 et seq.) 

(BHC Act), Regulation Y (12 CFR part 

225), and all other applicable statutes 

and regulations to become a bank 

holding company and/or to acquire the 

assets or the ownership of, control of, or 

the power to vote shares of a bank or 

bank holding company and all of the 

banks and nonbanking companies 

owned by the bank holding company, 

including the companies listed below. 

The public portions of the 

applications listed below, as well as 

other related filings required by the 

Board, if any, are available for 

immediate inspection at the Federal 

Reserve Bank(s) indicated below and at 

the offices of the Board of Governors. 

This information may also be obtained 

on an expedited basis, upon request, by 

contacting the appropriate Federal 

Reserve Bank and from the Board’s 

Freedom of Information Office at 

https://www.federalreserve.gov/foia/ 

request.htm. Interested persons may 

express their views in writing on the 

standards enumerated in the BHC Act 

(12 U.S.C. 1842(c)). 

Comments received are subject to 

public disclosure. In general, comments 

received will be made available without 

change and will not be modified to 

remove personal or business 

information including confidential, 

contact, or other identifying 

information. Comments should not 

include any information such as 

confidential information that would not 

be appropriate for public disclosure. 

Comments regarding each of these 

applications must be received at the 

Reserve Bank indicated or the offices of 

the Board of Governors, Ann E. 

Misback, Secretary of the Board, 20th 

Street and Constitution Avenue NW, 

Washington, DC 20551–0001, not later 

than January 13, 2025. 

A. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston 

(Prabal Chakrabarti, Senior Vice 

President) 600 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, 

Massachusetts 02210–2204. Comments 

can also be sent electronically to 

BOS.SRC.Applications.Comments@

bos.frb.org: 

1. Liberty Financial Corporation, 

Middletown, Connecticut; to become a 

bank holding company by acquiring 

Liberty Bank, also of Middletown, 

Connecticut. 

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 

System. 

Michele Taylor Fennell, 

Associate Secretary of the Board. 

[FR Doc. 2024–29278 Filed 12–11–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6210–01–P 

GENERAL SERVICES 

ADMINISTRATION 

[OMB Control No. 3090–0324; Docket No. 

2024–0001; Sequence No.14] 

Submission for OMB Review; General 

Services Administration Acquisition 

Regulation; Foreign Ownership and 

Financing Representation for HighSecurity Leased Space 

AGENCY: Office of Acquisition Policy, 

General Services Administration (GSA). 

ACTION: Notice; request for comments. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, and 

the Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) regulations, GSA invites the 

public to comment on an extension 

concerning disclosure of foreign 

ownership information under highsecurity lease space acquisitions. 

DATES: Submit comments on or before 

January 13, 2025. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments and 

recommendations for this information 

collection should be sent within 30 days 

of publication of this notice to 

www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 

Find this particular information 

collection by selecting ‘‘Currently under 

Review—Open for Public Comments’’ or 

by using the search function. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. 

Amy Lara, 816–589–3783, General 

Services Acquisition Policy Division, by 

email at gsarpolicy@gsa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

A. Purpose 

The purpose of this information 

collection supports the implementation 

of the Secure Federal LEASEs Act (Pub. 

L. 116–276) to reduce security risks in 

high-security leased space. Section 3 of 

the bill requires agencies, before 

entering into a lease agreement for highsecurity leased space, to require the 

contractor to identify the immediate or 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 239 / Thursday, December 12, 2024 / Notices 100497 

highest-level owner of the space, 

including any financing entity, and 

disclose whether that owner is a foreign 

person or entity, including the country 

associated with the ownership entity. 

This information collection covers 

GSA’s implementation of the Act 

through GSAR clause 552.270–33. As 

this information is still required, GSA 

seeks to have this information collection 

extended for three years. 

B. Annual Reporting Burden 

The annual reporting burden is 

estimated as follows: 

1. Initial Disclosure 

Baseline Representation 

Estimated annual responses: 542. 

Estimated hours per response: 2. 

Additional Representation 

Estimated annual responses: 54. 

Estimated hours per response: 10. 

Total Initial Response Burden Hours: 

1,624. 

2. Annual Updates 

Estimated annual responses: 542. 

Estimated hours per response: 0.50. 

Total Update Response Burden Hours: 

271. 

C. Public Comments 

A 60-day notice published in the 

Federal Register at 89 FR 78305 on 

September 25, 2024. No public 

comments were received. 

Jeffrey A. Koses, 

Senior Procurement Executive, Office of 

Acquisition Policy, Office of Governmentwide Policy. 

[FR Doc. 2024–29130 Filed 12–11–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6820–61–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Agency for Healthcare Research and 

Quality 

Request for Information Regarding 

Diagnostic Excellence Measurement 

AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research 

and Quality, Department of Health and 

Human Services. 

ACTION: Notice of Request for 

Information (RFI) regarding diagnostic 

excellence measurement. 

SUMMARY: The Agency for Healthcare 

Research and Quality (AHRQ) invites 

public comment in response to this 

Request for Information (RFI) on the 

development of measures of diagnostic 

excellence that may be calculated using 

administrative data or electronic health 

record (EHR) data. The purpose of 

diagnostic excellence measurement is to 

identify potential opportunities to 

improve the diagnostic process at a 

health system or geographic level. 

AHRQ welcomes comments on the 

importance and usability of existing 

measures and those that may be under 

development. 

DATES: Comments on this notice must be 

received by February 13, 2025. 

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may 

submit comments electronically to 

qisupport@ahrq.hhs.gov with the 

subject line ‘‘Diagnostic Excellence 

Measurement.’’ 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Questions may be addressed to Judy 

George, judy.george@ahrq.hhs.gov, (301) 

427–1717. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

COVID–19 pandemic led to disruptions 

in healthcare service delivery and 

reversed some of the gains made in 

patient safety over the previous two 

decades. In 2024, AHRQ on behalf of 

HHS, officially launched the National 

Action Alliance for Patient and 

Workforce Safety (https://

www.ahrq.gov/action-alliance/ 

index.html), a collaboration between 

public and private partners to recommit 

to patient and workforce safety and to 

eliminate preventable harm in 

healthcare. Diagnostic safety events are 

an important contributor to patient 

safety, with diagnostic errors potentially 

impacting millions of U.S. residents 

each year (https://

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/ 

PMC5502242/). Diagnostic error is ‘‘the 

failure to (a) establish an accurate and 

timely explanation of the patient’s 

health problem(s) or (b) communicate 

that explanation to the patient’’ (https:// 

doi.org/10.17226/21794). However, in 

order to improve patient safety, a focus 

on diagnostic error reduction alone is 

not sufficient. Efforts are needed to 

improve the diagnostic process as a 

whole, with an emphasis on diagnostic 

excellence. 

Diagnostic excellence may be defined 

as ‘‘an optimal process to attain an 

accurate and precise explanation about 

a patient’s condition’’ (https://

jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/articleabstract/2785845). This process should 

be ‘‘timely, cost-effective, convenient, 

and understandable to the patient.’’ 

Diagnostic excellence ‘‘embraces the six 

dimensions of quality enumerated by 

the Institute of Medicine in 2001: care 

that is safe, effective, patient-centered, 

timely, efficient, and equitable’’ (https:// 

jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/articleabstract/2785845). 

Several efforts have been underway to 

develop measures that provide 

information on the state of diagnostic 

excellence, including research funded 

by AHRQ and the Gordon and Betty 

Moore Foundation. The AHRQ Quality 

Indicators (QI) Program develops 

indicators of healthcare quality and 

patient safety in a variety of healthcare 

settings. The QI Program is actively 

engaged in collecting information on 

measures that can contribute to 

diagnostic excellence measurement. 

AHRQ is considering measures that rely 

on administrative claims data (for state 

and regional health departments with 

limited access to clinical data), as well 

as electronic health record data (for 

healthcare systems with full access to 

clinical data). AHRQ aims to address 

gaps in diagnostic excellence 

measurement with a population health 

lens and with the following goals: 

1. Develop a starter set of 

standardized measures to support 

population-level diagnostic excellence 

surveillance. 

2. Generate measures that are 

accessible and applicable across 

different types of users, especially those 

with limited access to clinical data 

sources. 

3. Produce national benchmarks for 

population-level surveillance of 

diagnostic excellence. 

4. Foster healthcare quality 

improvement in the area of diagnostic 

excellence. 

AHRQ requests information from the 

public on existing measures that may be 

used in diagnostic excellence 

measurement and others that may be 

under development. 

Criteria. Diagnostic excellence 

measures should be important, 

scientifically acceptable, feasible, and 

useful. These concepts are defined as 

follows: 

Important. (1) There is evidence 

linking the measure to important 

outcomes (including either process 

outcomes or clinical outcomes); (2) 

there is evidence of inequalities across 

groups or opportunity for improvement 

on that measure; or (3) the target 

population of the measure (e.g., 

patients) or users of the measure (e.g., 

researchers, providers) value the 

measurement and find it meaningful. 

Scientifically acceptable. A 

scientifically acceptable measure is both 

(1) valid (the measure accurately 

represents the concept it is trying to 

measure) and (2) reliable (the measure 

consistently produces the same result 

over time and in different contexts). 

Feasible. A measure is feasible if it is 

possible to implement with existing 

data systems and clinical processes. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1