Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Elimination of Internal Agency Process for Implementation of the Federally-Facilitated User Fee Adjustment

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is issuing this final rule to eliminate references to internal Executive Branch procedures provided for under Office of Management and Budget (OMB) circular A-25R in connection with an adjustment to the Federally- facilitated Exchange (FFE) user fee. HHS is amending these regulations because it has determined that an exception to OMB circular A-25R is not required to effectuate the FFE user fee adjustment. Thus, this final rule removes the language that refers to an exception under OMB circular A-25R as an aspect of reducing a participating issuer's FFE user fee obligation. This rule does not affect the ability of an issuer to obtain an applicable reduction in FFE user fee obligations, amend the calculation of the FFE user fee credit provided to a participating issuer, change the application of the monthly user fee adjustment, or alter any of the other standards that participating issuers must meet to qualify for the user fee adjustment.