3728 Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 9 / Wednesday, January 15, 2025 / Proposed Rules 

1 89 FR 85750 (Oct. 28, 2024). 

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY 

Internal Revenue Service 

26 CFR Part 54 

[REG–110878–24] 

RIN 1545–BR35 

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 

Employee Benefits Security 

Administration 

29 CFR Part 2590 

RIN 1210–AC25 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

45 CFR Part 147 

[CMS–9887–WN] 

RIN 0938–AV57 

Enhancing Coverage of Preventive 

Services Under the Affordable Care 

Act 

AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service, 

Department of the Treasury; Employee 

Benefits Security Administration, 

Department of Labor; Centers for 

Medicare & Medicaid Services, 

Department of Health and Human 

Services. 

ACTION: Withdrawal of notice of 

proposed rulemaking. 

SUMMARY: This document withdraws a 

notice of proposed rulemaking that 

appeared in the Federal Register on 

October 28, 2024, regarding coverage of 

certain preventive services under the 

Affordable Care Act. 

DATES: As of January 15, 2025, the 

notice of proposed rulemaking that 

appeared in the Federal Register on 

October 28, 2024, at 89 FR 85750 is 

withdrawn. 

ADDRESSES: Comments received on the 

proposed rule can be viewed at https:// 

www.regulations.gov/docket/HHS_

FRDOC_0001/document. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Regan Rusher, Internal Revenue Service, 

Department of the Treasury, at (202) 

317–5500. Matthew Meidell, Employee 

Benefits Security Administration, 

Department of Labor, at (202) 693–8335. 

Rebecca Miller, Employee Benefits 

Security Administration, Department of 

Labor, at (202) 693–8335. Geraldine 

Doetzer, Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services, Department of 

Health and Human Services at (667) 

290–8855. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 

2713 of the Public Health Service Act 

(PHS Act), as added by the Affordable 

Care Act and incorporated into the 

Employee Retirement Income Security 

Act and the Internal Revenue Code, 

requires non-grandfathered group health 

plans and health insurance issuers 

offering non-grandfathered group or 

individual health insurance coverage to 

provide coverage of certain 

recommended preventive services 

without imposing any cost-sharing 

requirements. Section 2715A of the PHS 

Act provides that non-grandfathered 

group health plans and health insurance 

issuers offering non-grandfathered 

group or individual health insurance 

coverage must comply with section 

1311(e)(3) of the Affordable Care Act, 

which addresses transparency in health 

coverage and imposes certain reporting 

and disclosure requirements for health 

plans that are seeking certification as 

qualified health plans to be offered on 

an American Health Benefits Exchange 

(generally referred to as an Exchange). 

On October 28, 2024, the Departments 

of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and 

Human Services (collectively, the 

Departments) issued proposed rules 

under PHS Act sections 2713 and 2715A 

titled, ‘‘Enhancing Coverage of 

Preventive Services Under the 

Affordable Care Act.’’ 1 The proposed 

rules sought to address ongoing 

complaints and reports of 

noncompliance with section 2713 of the 

PHS Act and its implementing 

regulations. These complaints and 

reports indicate that participants, 

beneficiaries, and enrollees face barriers 

when attempting to use their coverage to 

access recommended preventive 

services without cost sharing. As a 

result of these concerns, the 

Departments proposed to amend the 

regulations governing coverage of 

recommended preventive services to 

ensure that participants, beneficiaries, 

and enrollees would be able to access 

the full range of recommended 

preventive services to which they are 

entitled, with particular focus on 

strengthening coverage requirements 

with respect to recommended 

contraceptive items for women. 

The proposed rules would have 

required plans and issuers that utilize 

reasonable medical management 

techniques with respect to any 

recommended preventive services to 

provide an easily accessible, 

transparent, and sufficiently expedient 

exceptions process that allows an 

individual to receive coverage without 

cost sharing for the preventive service 

according to the frequency, method, 

treatment, or setting that is medically 

necessary for them, as determined by 

the individual’s attending provider. The 

proposed rules would also have 

required plans and issuers to cover 

certain recommended over-the-counter 

contraceptive items without requiring a 

prescription and without imposing costsharing requirements. In addition, the 

proposed rules would have required 

plans and issuers to cover certain 

recommended contraceptive items that 

are drugs and drug-led combination 

products without imposing cost-sharing 

requirements, unless a therapeutic 

equivalent of the drug or drug-led 

combination product is covered without 

cost sharing. Finally, the proposed rules 

would have required plans and issuers 

to provide a disclosure pertaining to 

coverage and cost-sharing requirements 

for recommended over-the-counter 

contraceptive items in plans’ and 

issuers’ Transparency in Coverage 

internet-based self-service tools or, if 

requested by the individual, on paper. 

The Departments requested comments 

on all aspects of the proposed rules, as 

well as on a number of specific issues. 

The comment period on the proposed 

rules closed on December 27, 2024, and 

the Departments received 268 comments 

to review. The comments addressed a 

range of issues, including operational 

and cost issues related to the 

Departments’ contraceptive coverage 

proposals. 

The Departments have determined it 

is appropriate to withdraw the proposed 

rules at this time, focusing instead on 

other matters. For example, the 

Departments have identified Cost 

Sharing Under the Affordable Care Act 

(RIN 0938–AV59); Requirements 

Related to Advanced Explanation of 

Benefits and Other Provisions Under the 

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 

(RIN 0938–AU98); Independent Dispute 

Resolution Operations (RIN 0938– 

AV15); Requirements Related to Air 

Ambulance Services, Agent and Broker 

Disclosures, and Provider Enforcement 

(RIN 0938–AU61); and Provider 

Nondiscrimination Requirements for 

Group Health Plans and Health 

Insurance Issuers in the Group and 

Individual Markets (RIN 0938–AU64) in 

their respective Fall 2024 Regulatory 

Agendas, as potential matters on which 

to focus. Moreover, should the 

Departments decide in the future that it 

is a priority to move forward with 

rulemaking regarding all or a subset of 

the preventive services coverage 

requirements of PHS Act section 2713, 

the Departments want to ensure that 

they will have the benefit of the most 

up-to-date facts and information on the 

basis of any specific proposals that they 

determine to put forward at such time. 


lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with PROPOSALS1
Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 9 / Wednesday, January 15, 2025 / Proposed Rules 3729 

For these independently sufficient 

reasons, the Departments are 

withdrawing the proposed rules, and 

may propose new rules in the future, as 

appropriate to meet these goals. 

This withdrawal action does not limit 

the Departments’ ability to make new 

regulatory proposals in the areas 

addressed by the withdrawn proposed 

rules, including new proposals that may 

be substantially identical or similar to 

those described therein. In addition, this 

withdrawal action does not affect the 

Departments’ ongoing application of 

existing statutory and regulatory 

requirements or their responsibility to 

faithfully administer the statutory 

requirements the proposed rules would 

have implemented if finalized. 

Douglas W. O’Donnell, 

Deputy Commissioner, Internal Revenue 

Service. 

Lisa M. Gomez, 

Assistant Secretary, Employee Benefits 

Security Administration, Department of 

Labor. 

Xavier Becerra, 

Secretary, Department of Health and Human 

Services. 

[FR Doc. 2025–00774 Filed 1–13–25; 4:15 pm] 

BILLING CODE 4830–01;–P; 4510–29–P; 4120–;01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND 

SECURITY 

Coast Guard 

33 CFR Part 165 

[Docket Number USCG–2024–1093] 

RIN 1625–AA00 

Safety Zone; Cable Laying Corridor, 

Atlantic Ocean, Virginia Beach, 

Virginia 

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking. 

SUMMARY: The Coast Guard is proposing 

to establish a temporary moving safety 

zone to surround nearshore operations 

conducted by a cable laying barge. Cable 

lay and burial operations will create 

navigational hazards moving along a 

corridor from shore extending seaward 

12 NM. This action is necessary to 

provide for the safety of life on these 

navigable waters near Virginia Beach, 

Virginia. This proposed rulemaking 

would prohibit persons and vessels 

from entering the safety zone unless 

authorized by the Captain of the Port 

Sector Virginia or a designated 

representative. We invite your 

comments on this proposed rulemaking. 

DATES: Comments and related material 

must be received by the Coast Guard on 

or before January 29, 2025. A shorter 

comment period is necessary for this 

rule to provide ample time to review 

and address comments on the proposed 

rule prior to the day the rule is needs 

to take effect to protect the public from 

the hazards it addresses. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

identified by docket number USCG– 

2024–1093 using the Federal DecisionMaking Portal at https://

www.regulations.gov. See the ‘‘Public 

Participation and Request for 

Comments’’ portion of the 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section for 

further instructions on submitting 

comments. This notice of proposed 

rulemaking with its plain-language, 100- 

word-or-less proposed rule summary 

will be available in this same docket. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If 

you have questions about this proposed 

rulemaking, call or email LCDR Justin 

Strassfield, Sector Virginia, Waterways 

Management Division, U.S. Coast 

Guard, Telephone: (757) 668–5581; or 

virginiawaterways@uscg.mil. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Table of Abbreviations 

CLB Cable Laying Barge 

CFR Code of Federal Regulations 

COTP Captain of the Port 

DHS Department of Homeland Security 

FR Federal Register 

NM Nautical Miles 

NPRM Notice of proposed rulemaking 

§ Section 

U.S.C. United States Code 

II. Background, Purpose, and Legal 

Basis 

On December 3, 2024, Dominion 

Energy notified the Coast Guard with a 

request for a moving safety zone to 

encompass the operations conducted by 

the CLB ULISSE, to extend 1000-yards 

from the center of the barge. The Sector 

Virgnia COTP has determined that 

potential hazards associated with the 

anchorage arrangements necessary for 

the cable laying barge to conduct 

operations would be a safety concern for 

anyone within a 1000-yard radius of the 

barge. 

The purpose of this proposed 

rulemaking is to ensure the safety of 

vessels and the navigable waters within 

a 1000-yard radius of the CLB during its 

operations. The Coast Guard is 

proposing this rulemaking under 

authority in 46 U.S.C. 70034. 

III. Discussion of Proposed Rule 

The COTP is proposing to establish a 

safety zone on January 25, 2025, for 365 

days. The safety zone would cover all 

navigable waters within 1000 yards of 

the CBL ULISSE, only while it conducts 

cable handling and burial in the 

Atlantic Ocean beginning roughly 300 

yards from the shore of the State 

Military Reservation in Virginia Beach, 

Virginia out to 12 NM, the U.S. 

Territorial Seas border. The duration of 

the zone is intended to ensure the safety 

of vessels and these navigable waters 

during the 365-day period. No vessel or 

person would be permitted to enter the 

safety zone without obtaining 

permission from the COTP or a 

designated representative. Due to the 

stability required for the cable laying 

and burial process, the multipoint 

anchorage configurations used are 

highly dynamic and create large unseen 

hazards to navigation requiring someone 

familiar with the current anchoring 

positions to determine if safe transit 

corridors exist or if a transiting vessel 

must avoid the full 1000 yards radius of 

the zone to mitigate the hazards present. 

A designated representative, in 

communication with the anchor 

handling vessels, can communicate 

these hazards and possible safe transit 

corridors, decreasing the burden on the 

non-project vessels seeking access 

through or around the zone. The 

regulatory text we are proposing appears 

at the end of this document. 

IV. Regulatory Analyses 

We developed this proposed rule after 

considering numerous statutes and 

Executive orders related to rulemaking. 

Below we summarize our analyses 

based on a number of these statutes and 

Executive orders, and we discuss First 

Amendment rights of protestors. 

A. Regulatory Planning and Review 

Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 

direct agencies to assess the costs and 

benefits of available regulatory 

alternatives and, if regulation is 

necessary, to select regulatory 

approaches that maximize net benefits. 

This NPRM has not been designated a 

‘‘significant regulatory action,’’ under 

section 3(f) of Executive Order 12866, as 

amended by Executive Order 14094 

(Modernizing Regulatory Review). 

Accordingly, the NPRM has not been 

reviewed by the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB). 

This regulatory action determination 

is based on the size, location, and 

duration of the safety zone. Vessel 

traffic would be able to safely transit 

around this safety zone to the east 

initially without losing sight of land and 

the impact the nearshore recreational 

boaters near Rudee Inlet in Virginia 

Beach, Virginia would be reduced 

further as the CLB moves further from 

shore, providing safe transit options to 

the west along the shoreline. 


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