Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 23 / Friday, February 4, 2005 / Rules and Regulations 5925

(ii) In the case of a customer who does 

not qualify as an ‘‘institutional 

customer’’ as defined in § 1.3(g) of this 

chapter, an introducing broker must 

obtain the customer’s prior consent 

through a signed acknowledgment, 

which may be accomplished in 

accordance with § 1.55(d) of this 

chapter.

* * * * *

Dated: January 27, 2005.

By the Commission. 

Jean A. Webb, 

Secretary of the Commission.

[FR Doc. 05–1906 Filed 2–3–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6351–01–M

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Drug Enforcement Administration 

21 CFR Parts 1310 and 1313 

[Docket No. DEA–137N] 

RIN 1117–AA31 

Chemical Mixtures; Temporary Waiver 

of Import/Export Requirements

AGENCY: Drug Enforcement 

Administration (DEA), Justice.

ACTION: Temporary waiver of import/

export requirements. 

SUMMARY: On December 15, 2004, the 

Drug Enforcement Administration 

(DEA) published a final rule that 

implemented regulations pertaining to 

chemical mixtures that contain any of 

27 listed chemicals regulated under the 

Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 

801 et seq.). That rulemaking became 

effective on January 14, 2005. 

Following publication of the final 

rule, certain segments of the chemical 

industry expressed concerns to DEA 

regarding difficulty in fully complying 

with DEA import/export notification 

requirements as specified in 21 CFR part 

1313 by this deadline. Therefore, in 

order to avoid interruption of legitimate 

import/export distributions, DEA is 

providing a waiver of the import/export 

reporting requirements as specified in 

21 CFR part 1313 until May 14, 2005. 

As such, regulated persons will 

temporarily not be required to submit 

advance notification for import, export 

and transshipment transactions for 

chemical mixtures regulated solely due 

to the presence of these 27 listed 

chemicals until May 14, 2005. This 

temporary waiver applies only to 

import, export and transshipment 

notification requirements; all other 

chemical control requirements set forth 

in the final rulemaking published on 

December 15, 2004, shall remain in full 

force and effect.

DATES: Effective February 4, 2005. The 

new deadline for providing import, 

export and transshipment notification 

for regulated chemical mixtures 

containing these 27 listed chemicals 

will be May 14, 2005.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Christine A. Sannerud, Ph.D., Chief, 

Drug & Chemical Evaluation Section, 

Office of Diversion Control, Drug 

Enforcement Administration, 

Washington, DC 20537, telephone (202) 

307–7183

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On 

December 15, 2004, the Drug 

Enforcement Administration (DEA) 

published a final rule (69 FR 74957) that 

implemented regulations pertaining to 

chemical mixtures that contain any of 

27 listed chemicals regulated under the 

Controlled Substances Act (CSA). That 

rulemaking became effective on January 

14, 2005. 

Following publication of the final rule 

concerns were raised by various 

segments of the chemical industry 

regarding their difficulty in fully 

complying with DEA import/export 

notification requirements as specified in 

21 CFR part 1313 by this deadline. DEA 

received correspondence from two 

national chemical associations and from 

one major chemical producer. 

Additionally, DEA received verbal 

communication from industry that 

expressed concerns regarding the large 

number of potentially affected mixtures 

and the difficulty industry was having 

in meeting deadlines for submitting 

import/export notification. After 

carefully considering the concerns 

expressed by industry, DEA has decided 

to postpone the implementation of the 

import/export notification requirements 

as specified in 21 CFR part 1313 until 

May 14, 2005. This temporary waiver 

shall apply only to chemical mixtures 

which became regulated under the 

December 15, 2004 final rule (69 FR 

74957). 

While the submission of import, 

export and transshipment information 

to DEA is an important provision in 

countering the potential diversion of 

these materials, this temporary waiver is 

being provided to allow industry ample 

time to ensure their full compliance 

with CSA import/export regulatory 

requirements as specified in 21 CFR part 

1313. As such, DEA will be temporarily 

waiving the requirement for regulated 

persons to submit advance notification 

for import, export and transshipment 

transactions for chemical mixtures 

which are regulated solely due to the 

presence of the 27 listed chemicals 

which were the subject of the December 

15, 2004 final rule. This temporary 

waiver applies only to import, export 

and transshipment notification 

requirements. All other chemical 

control requirements set forth in the 

final rulemaking published on 

December 15, 2004 (69 FR 74957) shall 

remain in full force and effect. 

The new deadline for providing 

import, export and transshipment 

notification for regulated chemical 

mixtures containing these 27 listed 

chemicals will be May 14, 2005. 

Provisions of December 15, 2004 Final 

Rule (69 FR 74957) Which Do Not 

Change 

For any person distributing, 

importing, or exporting any amount of 

a regulated mixture containing a List I 

chemical, the CSA requires that person 

to obtain a DEA registration. DEA 

recognizes that it is not possible for 

persons who are subject to the 

registration requirement to immediately 

complete and submit an application for 

registration and for DEA to immediately 

issue registrations for those activities. 

Therefore, in order to allow continued 

legitimate commerce in regulated 

mixtures, the December 15, 2004 final 

rule established a temporary exemption 

from the registration requirement (in 21 

CFR 1310.09) for persons desiring to 

engage in activities with regulated 

mixtures that are subject to registration 

requirements, provided that DEA 

receives a properly completed 

application for registration or an 

application for exemption (pursuant to 

21 CFR 1310.13) for their chemical 

mixture(s) on or before February 14, 

2005. The temporary exemption from 

registration for such persons will remain 

in effect until DEA takes final action on 

their application(s). 

Any person whose application for 

exemption is subsequently rejected by 

DEA must obtain a registration with 

DEA. A temporary exemption from the 

registration requirement will also be 

provided for these persons, if DEA 

receives a properly completed 

application for registration on or before 

30 days following the date of official 

DEA notification that the application for 

exemption has not been approved. The 

deadline for submission of an 

application for registration, or an 

application for exemption, remains 

February 14, 2005 in order to obtain the 

temporary exemption from registration. 

None of the temporary exemptions 

discussed in this rulemaking suspend 

applicable federal criminal laws relating 

to the regulated mixtures, nor does it 

supersede state or local laws or 

regulations. All handlers of a regulated 

5926 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 23 / Friday, February 4, 2005 / Rules and Regulations 

mixture must comply with applicable 

state and local requirements in addition 

to the CSA regulatory controls.

Dated: January 28, 2005. 

William J. Walker, 

Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of 

Diversion Control.

[FR Doc. 05–2212 Filed 2–3–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4410–09–P

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS 

AFFAIRS 

38 CFR Part 17 

RIN 2900–AK94 

Payment for Non-VA Physician and 

Other Health Care Professional 

Services Associated With Either 

Outpatient or Inpatient Care Provided 

at Non-VA Facilities

AGENCY: Department of Veterans Affairs.

ACTION: Final rule.

SUMMARY: This final rule amends the 

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) 

medical regulations concerning 

payment for non-VA health care 

professional services that are associated 

with either outpatient or inpatient care 

provided to eligible VA beneficiaries at 

non-VA facilities. Currently, the 

medical regulations require all VA 

facilities to reimburse for non-VA health 

care professional services based upon 

the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid 

Services (CMS) physician fee schedule 

in effect at the time the services are 

provided. However, if the standard 

payment methodology is implemented 

in Alaska, VA payments will be 

significantly less than the usual and 

customary charges for the state. This 

may limit VA patient access to non-VA 

health care. Since a large portion of VA 

health care provided in Alaska is 

obtained from non-VA sources, this 

could negatively impact the quality of 

care provided veterans living in that 

state. This rule establishes an Alaskaspecific payment methodology for 

inpatient and outpatient non-VA health 

care professional services within that 

state. The rule ensures that amounts 

paid to health care providers represent 

the local cost to furnish a service, while 

continuing to achieve program cost 

reductions.

DATES: Effective Date: This rule shall 

become effective on March 7, 2005. 

Applicability Date: This rule shall be 

applicable to all claims for payment for 

services rendered on or after April 1, 

2005.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Susan Schmetzer, Chief, Policy & 

Compliance Division, Health 

Administration Center, Department of 

Veterans Affairs, P.O. Box 65020, 

Denver, CO 80206, telephone 303–331–

7552. (This is not a toll-free number.)

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In a 

document published in the Federal 

Register on July 29, 2003 (68 FR 44507) 

we proposed to amend VA’s medical 

regulations at 38 CFR part 17 to provide 

for the payment of non-VA physician 

services in Alaska that are associated 

with either outpatient or inpatient care 

provided to eligible VA beneficiaries at 

non-VA facilities. We provided a 60-day 

comment period that ended on 

September 29, 2003. We received one 

comment, in which the commenter 

suggested that VA adopt the Official 

Alaska Workers’ Compensation Medical 

Fee Schedule as a basis for such 

payments. No changes are made based 

on this comment, as adoption of the 

Official Alaska Workers’ Compensation 

Medical Fee Schedule would not 

achieve the dual goal of ensuring that 

the amounts paid to health care 

providers better represent the local cost 

to furnish a service, while continuing to 

achieve program cost reductions. 

A number of technical changes of a 

non-substantive nature have been made 

in this final rule. The proposed rule 

described the title of this rule as 

Payment for Non-VA Physician Services 

Associated with Either Outpatient or 

Inpatient Care Provided at Non-VA 

Facilities. The use of the phrase ‘‘nonVA physician,’’ both in the title of 38 

CFR 17.56 and throughout the 

regulation, is imprecise, as the rule 

applies to all non-VA physician and 

other health care professional services 

associated with outpatient or inpatient 

care provided at non-VA facilities. In 

order to reconcile the terminology used 

in this rule with common practice in 

VA, the phrase ‘‘non-VA physician’’

will be replaced with ‘‘non-VA health 

care professional services.’’

Additionally, the language was clarified 

to state the rates payable are based on 

the geographic location of where the 

services were rendered. 

The proposed rule stated that VA 

would rely on Current Procedural 

Terminology (CPT) codes utilized by 

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid 

Services (CMS) to pay for these non-VA 

services. The reference to CPT codes 

was too restrictive, as CMS uses other 

national coding sets for health care 

professional services. Therefore, the 

references to CPT codes were removed. 

The final rule refers generally to the use 

of national standard code sets.

The proposed rule referenced Fiscal 

Year (FY) 2002 as the base year for 

determining various costs. In light of the 

passage of time since publication of the 

proposed rule, and in order to reflect the 

most up-to-date data, this reference has 

been changed to FY 2003 throughout the 

final rule. 

The proposed rule stated that for 

services that VA did not have occasion 

to pay for in Alaska in FY 2002, and for 

services represented by CPT codes 

established after FY 2002, VA will take 

the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid 

Services’ rate for each unpaid code and 

multiply it times the average percentage 

paid by VA in Alaska for Centers for 

Medicare and Medicaid Services-like 

codes. Applying this rule only to 

services that VA had no occasion to pay 

during the previous Fiscal Year was 

unnecessarily narrow and would limit 

VA’s ability to accurately gauge a 

reasonable payment. It is also 

inconsistent with other provisions of 

this rule, which require a minimum of 

eight occurrences. Therefore, the final 

rule has been revised to apply this rule 

to services that VA provided less than 

eight times in Alaska during the 

previous Fiscal Year. Clarification was 

also made that this rule would be 

applicable to unit-based codes as the VA 

moved from a single payment per code 

irrespective of units to unit-based 

payment in FY 2004, and development 

of a fee schedule that is not unit-based 

would be inconsistent and inaccurate. 

The proposed rule stated that VA 

would increase the amounts on the VA 

Fee Schedule for Alaska annually in 

accordance with annual inflation rate 

adjustments published by CMS. The VA 

will use the national Medicare 

Economic Index (MEI) for that purpose. 

The MEI measures inflation in 

physician practice cost and general 

wage levels. The VA will not make 

modifications to the MEI based on 

regional factors because doing so would 

not achieve the dual goal of ensuring 

that the amounts paid to health care 

providers represent the local cost to 

furnish a service, while continuing to 

achieve program cost reductions. 

Administrative Procedure Act 

The modifications in this final rule 

are logical and reasonable outgrowths of 

the proposed changes set forth in the 

proposed rule and are intended to 

clarify the intent of the proposed rule. 

Based on the rationales set forth in the 

proposed rule and those contained in 

this document, we are adopting the 

provisions of the proposed rule as a 

final rule with the modifications 

described above.