NOTICES
INDEPENDENT REGULATORY REVIEW COMMISSION
Notice of Comments Issued
[29 Pa.B. 2626] Section 5(g) of the Regulatory Review Act (act) (71 P. S. § 745.5(g)) provides that the designated standing committees may issue comments within 20 days of the close of the public comment period, and the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (Commission) may issue comments within 10 days of the close of the committee comment period. The Commission comments are based upon the criteria contained in section 5a(h) and (I) of the act (75 P. S. § 745.5a(h)(I)).
The Commission has issued comments on the following proposed regulations. The agency must consider these comments in preparing the final-form regulation. The final-form regulations must be submitted by the dates indicated.
Final-Form Submission Reg. No. Agency/Title Issued Deadline 16A-548 Department of State
State Board of
Pharmacy
Application Fees4/29/99 3/29/01
29 Pa.B. 1088 (February 27, 1999)
State Board of Pharmacy Regulation No. 16A-548 Application Fees
April 29, 1999We have reviewed this proposed regulation from the State Board of Pharmacy (Board) and submit for consideration the following objections and recommendations. Subsections 5.1(h) and 5.1(i) of the Regulatory Review Act (71 P. S. § 745.5a(h) and (i)) specify the criteria the Commission must employ to determine whether a regulation is in the public interest. In applying these criteria, our Comments address issues that relate to fiscal impact, consistency and clarity. We recommend that these Comments be carefully considered as you prepare the final-form regulation.
1. Section 27.91. Schedule of fees.--Fiscal Impact, Consistency and Clarity
Administrative overhead costs
In the proposed regulation's fee report forms, there are significant differences in the costs covered by different fees except for ''Administrative Overhead'' costs. We met and discussed this situation with staff from the Department of State and its Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs (BPOA). They indicated that each fee's overhead cost is calculated by dividing total overhead costs by the number of active licensees. On the other hand, the staff costs are based on the actual time BPOA staff spends performing the tasks covered by each fee.
Although their methodology is reasonable, there is no indication that the fees will recover the actual ''overhead'' costs. This is because there is no relationship to the service covered by the fees and because the costs are based on past expenditures rather than on projected expenditures. Hence, there is no certainty that the fees' projected revenues ''will meet or exceed projected expenditures'' under section 8.2(a) of the Pharmacy Act (63 P. S. § 390-8.2(a)).
We question the use of a constant overhead cost that is unrelated to the actual costs of activities covered by different fees. Even though this process was used for other fees, why should BPOA maintain this approach? The Board and BPOA should thoroughly examine its cost allocation methodology for overhead expenses and itemize the overhead costs to be recouped by these fees.
Board duties for certification and verification
The House Professional Licensure Committee requested additional information from the Board in two areas. First, it questioned the Board's role in the certification of scores and intern hours. In addition, it noted that the description of Board staff functions in the fee report forms for certification and verification fees were the same. However, there was a significant difference in the staff time and costs for these fees. Staff time for certification equaled 45 minutes at a cost of $15.23. Staff time for verification was 4.8 minutes at a cost of $1.62.
Why does the Board certify scores? How much work is required to provide the services covered by these three fees? The Board should explain in detail the answers to these questions when it submits the final-form version of this regulation.
JOHN R. MCGINLEY, Jr.,
Chairperson
[Pa.B. Doc. No. 99-798. Filed for public inspection May 14, 1999, 9:00 a.m.]
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