Regulations implementing the Byrd Amendments to the Black Lung Benefits Act: determining coal miners' and survivors' entitlement to benefits. Final rule.
This final rule revises the Black Lung Benefits Act (BLBA or Act) regulations to implement amendments made by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA amended the BLBA in two ways. First, it revived a rebuttable presumption of total disability or death due to pneumoconiosis for certain claims. Second, it reinstituted automatic entitlement to benefits for certain eligible survivors of coal miners whose lifetime benefit claims were awarded because they were totally disabled due to pneumoconiosis. These regulations clarify how the statutory presumption may be invoked and rebutted and the application and scope of the survivor-entitlement provision. The rule also eliminates several unnecessary or obsolete provisions.
D003032:Coal Mining / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D004608:Eligibility Determination / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D007342:Insurance Benefits / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D018868:Insurance, Disability / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; D011009:Pneumoconiosis; D017741:Survivors / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014481:United States