Coal miners' clinics get easier paperwork: Bureaucracy's tiny mercy
Published Date: 8/20/2026
Notice
Summary
HRSA is updating how it collects info from Black Lung Clinics to make reporting easier and clearer. This affects clinics helping coal miners with lung disease and aims to improve care tracking. Public comments are open until September 21, 2026, before final approval, with no new costs expected.
Analyzed Economic Effects
6 provisions identified: 5 benefits, 1 costs, 0 mixed.
Performance Measures Revised (questions changed)
HRSA revised the Black Lung Clinics Program performance measures by deleting five questions, adding three new questions, and changing three existing questions to make reporting clearer and easier for awardees.
Clinical Diagnosis Fields Consolidated
HRSA will replace separate clinical diagnosis fields for primary, secondary, and other diagnoses with a single consolidated diagnosis datapoint to reduce subjectivity and reporting burden for clinics.
COVID-Related Fields Removed
HRSA removed COVID-related data fields from the Black Lung Clinics Program performance measures because they are now less relevant, which reduces reporting burden on awardees.
New Cardiology Diagnosis Field Added
A new cardiology diagnosis field will be added to the performance measures to better capture conditions linked to pulmonary disease and help HRSA track population needs for programmatic updates.
Benefits Counseling Data Enhanced
Benefits counseling measures are expanded to collect filing dates and case status details so HRSA can track case timelines and monitor counseling service implementation.
Reporting Burden: 15 Clinics, 7 Hours Each
The ICR estimates 15 Black Lung Clinics Program awardees will each submit one annual response requiring an average of 7 hours per response, for a total estimated annual burden of 105 hours.
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