_{by Meghan Maury}

Proposed Rule of the Week: Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: ASTP/ONC Deregulatory Actions To Unleash Prosperity. This proposed rule aims to "remove duplicative and unnecessary requirements of the ONC Health IT Certification Program." To achieve this goal, HHS is removing more than half of its health IT certification criteria, changing a half dozen of the remaining criteria, and maintaining the remaining 19 criteria as is. The patient demographics criteria are being revised to remove requirements to collect sexual orientation, gender identity, name to use, and pronouns.  HHS is also removing criteria related to restrictions on data re-disclosure, care plans, transparency and risk-management requirements, privacy and security, and accessibility-centered design.
Comments due February 27.

Every time the government makes a change to a survey or a form — or introduces a new survey or form — you have the right to weigh in on that decision. The Take Action! newsletter highlights surveys or forms the government is changing, renewing, or introducing. Click the links to tell the government what you think about the changes they are making.

Note: The Take Action tab of dataindex.us provides information about even more surveys, forms, evaluations, and records notices than are listed in your weekly newsletter.

Healthcare

• Request for Information: Accelerating the Adoption and Use of Artificial Intelligence as Part of Clinical Care. In this RFI, HHS is seeking feedback from those building, buying, evaluating, using, and receiving care from AI tools that are part of clinical care as well as from those who wish to do so but face barriers. According to the listing, this feedback will inform HHS-wide use of three different approaches: regulation, reimbursement, and research & development. In general, HHS seeks feedback on ways in which these approaches can be most effectively applied to support the rapid adoption and use of AI in clinical care, to foster public trust and confidence in modern technology solutions, to reduce uncertainty that impedes AI innovation, and to align federal incentives so that AI is deployed in ways that enhance productivity, reduce burden, lower health care costs, and improve health outcomes for patients, caregivers, and communities.
  Comments due February 23.

• Transparency in Coverage. Among many other things, this proposed rule is intended to improve the standardization, accuracy, and accessibility of public pricing disclosures from health insurance providers. New requirements include new contextual files and additional data elements like product type, network name, and enrollment counts; changing the reporting level for aggregation of data; removing in-network rates for unlikely provider-to-service mappings; increasing the reporting period and lowering the claims threshold for out-of-network historical data; and reducing the reporting cadence. It is also intended to improve the findability of publicly disclosed machine-readable files required under the Transparency in Coverage rules, including the prescription drug file, by requiring a text file and footer with website URLs and contact information for the files.
  Comments due February 23.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

• Civil Rights and Conscience Complaint and Health Information Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Complaint. These forms collect the minimum information needed from individuals filing complaints with the Office of Civil Rights to form the basis for the initial processing of those complaints. While the changes being made to the forms are somewhat unclear, according to the listing the forms are being revised to reduce burden and to conform with a court case which put on hold the HHS Section 1557 rule, which defined sex discrimination as including “sex characteristics, including intersex traits”; “pregnancy or related conditions”; “sexual orientation”; “gender identity”; and “sex stereotypes.”
  Comments due March 2.

Food Access

• SNAP Review of Major Changes in Program Design and Management Evaluation Systems. When state agencies make a major change to the operations of their SNAP programs, including integrating automation tools (including AI and bots) or increasing the use of non-merit staff (such as contractors or temporary employees), they use this form to notify FNS and to provide FNS with the information they need to identify and correct any adverse effects on program integrity or access. If FNS determines that a change meets the "major change" threshold, states are required to collect and report monthly State-level data on application processing metrics - although the notice specifies that sub-state level data may be collected in some instances. FNS also notes in the listing that "Depending on the nature of the major change, State agencies may be required to report more specific or timely information concerning impacts on payment accuracy, which may include additional caseload data focused on households with particular characteristics."
  Comments due March 9.

Disability

• Annual State Application Under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Act. This set of forms is used to determine whether a state is eligible for Part B funding under the IDEA. ED is revising the collection to remove the Significant Disproportionality data collection, which was used to determine if significant disproportionality based on race or ethnicity is occurring in the State with respect to the identification of children as children with disabilities, including identification as children with particular impairments; the placement of children in particular educational settings; and the incidence, duration, and type of disciplinary actions, including suspensions and expulsions. When this change was initially announced, ED received scores of public comments challenging their decision. Although ED made no changes in response to those public comments, they did affirm in supplementary documents that states are still required to meet the significant disproportionality requirements in the law. Unfortunately, ED will now lack information to enforce this requirement.
  Comments due February 9.

• Independent Living Services for Older Individuals Who Are Blind Annual Report. ED uses this form to collect information about program staffing, individuals served, types of services provided, and other program management information. ED made several changes to its proposed form in response to public comments received in response to an earlier posting on this form, but determined that other proposed changes to fields were prohibited by statute or Executive Orders.
  Comments due February 9.

Data Sharing

• VA and IRS Data Sharing Agreement. Under this data sharing agreement, the IRS will disclose tax return information to the VA's Veterans Health Administration (VHA). VA/VHA will use the tax return information to verify veterans' employment status and earnings to determine eligibility for its health benefit programs.
  Comments due February 8.

• SSA Data Sharing Agreements. SSA is modifying its Office of Disability Determinations records system to allow for sharing with the office of the President in response to an inquiry, with the DOJ for litigation, and with the Department of Treasury for the purposes of identifying, preventing or recouping improper payments.
  Comments due February 9.

Evaluation

• Evaluation of the Trafficking Victim Assistance Program (TVAP) and Aspire: Child Trafficking Victim Assistance Program. Through this notice, HHS is announcing a new evaluation which will examine the goals of TVAP and Aspire following redesign in 2022, how the programs are structured and administered, how partnerships are developed and maintained, how clients reach the programs, how comprehensive case management services are provided, and factors that affect program implementation.
  Comments due February 9.