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Study: HHS adds $9.1 billion in new regs in January

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Betsi Fores The Daily Caller News Foundation
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The Department of Health and Human Services passed three new rules over the course of just four days, adding $9.1 billion of regulatory burden during the first month of the new year, a new report claims.

According to a study by the American Action Forum released Friday morning, the new regulations will “account for 797 pages, $9.1 billion in new costs, and 10.6 million additional paperwork burden hours.”

One of the major costs came from the expansion of Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the state-based health insurance exchange programs, all mandated under the Affordable Care Act. The total price tag is $2.6 billion with a paperwork burden of 518,432  hours.  HHS only allowed 17 working days to submit comment on the nearly 500-page overhaul of Medicaid and SCHIP programs.

The other two rules come from the Food and Drug Administration. One rule is to create standards for harvesting and holding produce for humans to consume is expected to cost $3.2 billion over a seven year period andg 1.3 million in paperwork hours.

The last regulation is to standardize and modernize manufacturing practices and analysis for hazardous food, which will cost between $2.2 billion to $3.3 billion over a seven-year period, adding 8.8 billion hours of paperwork burden.

Combined, these two FDA rules will add “10.1 million additional paperwork burden hours that would require 5,005 employees dedicated solely to red tape compliance,” the study says.

“The burdens from these three proposed rules represent a fast start to 2013,” American Action Forum concludes.

 

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Betsi Fores