[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 214 (Tuesday, November 6, 2007)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 62607-62608]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-21828]


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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

20 CFR Parts 404, 405, and 416

[Docket No. SSA-2007-0053]


Compassionate Allowances for Rare Diseases; Office of the 
Commissioner, Hearing

AGENCY: Social Security Administration (SSA).

ACTION: Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; Announcement of Public 
Hearing and Limited Reopening of Comment Period.

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SUMMARY: We are considering ways to quickly identify diseases and other 
serious medical conditions that obviously meet the definition of 
disability under the Social Security Act (the Act) and can be 
identified with minimal objective medical information. At present, we 
are calling this method ``Compassionate Allowances.'' We plan to hold 
four public hearings over the next year. The purpose of this first 
hearing is to obtain your views about the advisability and possible 
methods of identifying and implementing compassionate allowances for 
children and adults with rare diseases. We will address other kinds of 
medical conditions in later hearings.

DATES: Dates and location: We must receive written comments by December 
21, 2007. Comments made at the hearings will be considered in 
preparation of a final rule. The first hearing will be held on December 
4 and December 5, 2007, between 8:45 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Eastern 
Standard Time (EST), in Washington, DC. The hearings will be held at 
500 E Street, SW., Washington, DC 20436, in the main hearing room of 
the International Trade Commission. Space limitations and time 
constraints require hearing attendance to be by invitation only. 
However, you may listen to the proceedings by calling 1-888-456-0278, 
at 9 a.m., EST, the mornings of December 4 and 5. If you plan to listen 
in, please send an e-mail to ssa.gov">Compassionate.Allowances@ssa.gov by 
November 21, 2007. Your e-mail will help ensure that we have enough

[[Page 62608]]

telephone lines for everyone interested in listening to the 
proceedings.

ADDRESSES: You may submit up to two pages of written comments about the 
compassionate allowances initiative with respect to children and adults 
with rare diseases, as well as topics covered at the hearing by: (1) 
Internet through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov (2) e-mail addressed to ssa.gov">Compassionate.Allowances@ssa.gov or (3) mail to Diane Braunstein, Director, Office of 
Compassionate Allowances and Listings Improvement, ODP, ODISP, Social 
Security Administration, 4535 Annex, 6401 Security Boulevard, 
Baltimore, MD 21235-6401.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: ssa.gov">Compassionate.Allowances@ssa.gov. You 
may also mail inquiries about this meeting to Diane Braunstein, 
Director, Office of Compassionate Allowances and Listings Improvement, 
ODP, ODISP, Social Security Administration, 4535 Annex, 6401 Security 
Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235-6401. For information on eligibility or 
filing for benefits, call our national toll-free number 1-800-772-1213 
or TTY 1-800-325-0778, or visit our Internet site, Social Security 
Online, at http://www.socialsecurity.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    Under titles II and XVI of the Act, we pay benefits to individuals 
who meet our rules for entitlement and have medically determinable 
physical or mental impairments that are severe enough to meet the 
definition of disability in the Act. The rules for determining 
disability can be very complicated, but some individuals have such 
serious medical conditions that their conditions obviously meet our 
disability standards. To better address the needs of these individuals, 
we are looking into ways to allow benefits as quickly as possible.
    On July 31, 2007, we published an advance notice of proposed 
rulemaking (ANPRM) in the Federal Register to solicit the public's 
views on what standards we should use for making compassionate 
allowances, methods we might use to identify compassionate allowances 
and suggestions for how to implement those standards and methods. (See 
72 FR 41649.) You may read the ANPRM at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html, or at http://www.regulations.gov where you may also read 
the public comments we received. The 60-day comment period on the 
overall compassionate allowances initiative ended on October 1, 2007. 
This notice constitutes a limited reopening of the comment period with 
respect to children and adults with rare diseases, as well as topics 
covered at the hearing on December 4 and 5, 2007.

Will We Respond to Your Comments?

    We will carefully consider your comments, although we will not 
respond directly to comments sent in response to this notice or the 
hearing. Thereafter, we will decide whether to implement the 
compassionate allowances initiative and, if so, how the initiative will 
be implemented. If we decide to issue regulations addressing 
compassionate allowances, we will publish a notice of proposed 
rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register. In accordance with the usual 
rulemaking procedures we follow, you will have a chance to comment on 
the revisions we propose in the NPRM, and we will summarize and respond 
to the significant comments in the preamble to any final rules.

Additional Hearings

    We plan to hold additional hearings on cancers, chronic conditions, 
and traumatic injuries, and will announce those hearings later with 
notices in the Federal Register.

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Program Nos. 96.001, Social 
Security--Disability Insurance; 96.006, Supplemental Security 
Income.)

    Dated: October 31, 2007.
Michael J. Astrue,
Commissioner of Social Security.
 [FR Doc. E7-21828 Filed 11-5-07; 8:45 am]
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