[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 40 (Thursday, February 28, 2008)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 10715-10716]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-3720]


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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

20 CFR Parts 404, 405, and 416

[Docket No. SSA 2007-0053]
RIN 0960-AG54


Compassionate Allowances for Cancers; 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. We are calling 
this method ``Compassionate Allowances.'' We held one public hearing 
already and plan to hold additional public hearings this year. This is 
the second hearing in the series. The purpose of this hearing is to 
obtain your views about the advisability and possible methods of 
identifying and implementing compassionate allowances for children and 
adults with cancers. Our first hearing, on December 4-5, 2007, dealt 
with rare diseases. We will address other kinds of medical conditions 
in later hearings.

DATES: This hearing will be held April 7, 2008, between 8:45 a.m. and 
5:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), in Boston, MA. The hearing will 
be held at 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA, 02142, at the Broad 
Institute Auditorium of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
While the public is welcome to attend the hearing, only invited 
witnesses will present testimony. You may also watch the proceedings 
live via webcast beginning at 9 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). You 
may access the webcast link for the hearing on the Social Security 
Administration Web page at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances/hearings0407.htm.

ADDRESSES: You may submit written comments about the compassionate 
allowances initiative with respect to children and adults with cancers, 
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 [email protected]; or (3) mail to Diane 
Braunstein, Director, Office of Compassionate Allowances and Listings 
Improvements, ODP, ODISP, Social Security Administration, 4468 Annex, 
6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235-6401. We must receive 
written comments by May 9, 2008.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: [email protected]. You 
may also mail inquiries about this meeting to Diane Braunstein, 
Director, Office of Compassionate Allowances and Listings Improvements, 
ODP, ODISP, Social Security Administration, 4468 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

[[Page 10716]]

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 
allowance initiative ended on October 1, 2007. We reopened the comment 
period in connection with our first public hearing in order to receive 
comments with respect to children and adults with rare diseases. This 
notice constitutes a limited reopening of the comment period with 
respect to children and adults with cancers, as well as topics covered 
at the hearing on April 7, 2008.

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 allowance 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 held a hearing on rare diseases on December 4 and 5, 2007. You 
may access a transcript of the hearing at www.regulations.gov, when it 
becomes available. We plan to hold additional hearings on 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. (72 FR 62608)

    Dated: February 6, 2008.
Michael J. Astrue,
Commissioner of Social Security.
[FR Doc. E8-3720 Filed 2-27-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4191-02-P