Medical Information Disclosure Rule

On April 26, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor published a final rule amending the regulations that implement the Black Lung Benefits Act. The full text of the amendments and the preamble to the final rule may be found here. The effective date for the final rule was May 26, 2016.

Among other amendments, 20 C.F.R. § 725.413(c) requires each party to “disclose medical information the party or the party’s agent receives by sending a complete copy of the information to all other parties in the claim within 30 days after receipt.”

“Medical information” is defined at new Section 725.413(a). In accordance with new Section 725.413(e), an “adjudication officer” will be empowered to impose sanctions on a party or representative who does not timely disclose such medical information.

This “disclosure of medical information” rule applies to all claims filed after May 26, 2016, and various scenarios in which a pending claim was filed before this effective date. For example, new Section 725.413(f)(2) states that this rule will apply to “[p]ending claims not yet adjudicated by an administrative law judge, except that medical information received prior to May 26, 2016 and not previously disclosed must be provided to the other parties within 60 days of May 26, 2016.”

Parties with claims pending before the Office of Administrative Law Judges are advised to inform themselves of these and other changes created by the recent amendments and the impact such changes will have on federal black lung practice.