CMS-10321.Emergency Justification

Justification for Emergency Clearance for Early Retiree Reinsurance Program PRA Package

In accordance with Section 1102 of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, P.L. 111-148, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is tasked with establishing, by June 21, 2010, a temporary reinsurance program to provide reimbursement to participating employment-based plans for a portion of the cost of providing health insurance coverage to early retirees (and to the eligible spouses, surviving spouses, and dependents of such retirees) during the period beginning June 21,2010 and ending on January 1, 2014. HHS intends to establish the program as of June 1, 2010, as will be stated in a program interim final rule to be published April 30, 2010.

Due to the urgency and the short time frames associated with this requirement, HHS does not have sufficient time to follow the normal Paperwork Reduction Act notice and comment periods associated with the normal PRA approval process. We are requesting an emergency review and approval for the information collection request. We propose to have the interim final rule associated with these data collection requirements (HHS-9996-IFC) serve as the emergency Federal Register notice. We will take all comments under advisement; however, due to the aggressive implementation timeline and system setup time required by our contractors, we will not be able to formally accept or implement suggested changes until some later date. We are requesting immediate OMB review and approval the information collection request.