[Code of Federal Regulations]

[Title 45, Volume 1]

[Revised as of October 1, 2006]

From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access

[CITE: 45CFR5.44]



[Page 25]

 

                        TITLE 45--PUBLIC WELFARE

 

                    SUBTITLE A--DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

                           AND HUMAN SERVICES

 

PART 5_FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REGULATIONS--Table of Contents

 

                             Subpart D_Fees

 

Sec.  5.44  Procedures for assessing and collecting fees.



    (a) Agreement to pay. We generally assume that when you request 

records you are willing to pay the fees we charge for services 

associated with your request. You may specify a limit on the amount you 

are willing to spend. We will notify you if it appears that the fees 

will exceed the limit and ask whether you nevertheless want us to 

proceed with the search.

    (b) Advance payment. If you have failed to pay previous bills in a 

timely fashion, or if our initial review of your request indicates that 

we will charge you fees exceeding $250, we will require you to pay your 

past due fees and/or the estimated fees, or a deposit, before we start 

searching for the records you want. If so, we will let you know promptly 

upon receiving your request. In such cases, the administrative time 

limits prescribed in Sec.  5.35 of the part (i.e., ten working days from 

receipt of initial requests and 20 working days from receipt of appeals 

from initial denials, plus permissible extensions of these time limits) 

will begin only after we come to an agreement with you over payment of 

fees, or decide that fee waiver or reduction is appropriate.

    (c) Billing and payment. We will normally require you to pay all 

fees before we furnish the records to you. We may, at our discretion, 

send you a bill along with or following the furnishing of the records. 

For example, we may do this if you have a history of prompt payment. We 

may also, at our discretion, aggregate the charges for certain time 

periods in order to avoid sending numerous small bills to frequent 

requesters, or to businesses or agents representing requesters. For 

example, we might send a bill to such a requester once a month. Fees 

should be paid in accordance with the instructions furnished by the 

person who responds to your requests.