The Black Lung Benefits Act provides benefits to miners who are totally disabled due to coal mine employment and to certain miners’ survivors.  Determining entitlement necessarily entails evaluating the miner’s physical condition, particularly his or her respiratory system.  These evaluations usually involve medical tests that assess the miner’s respiratory capacity.  To ensure testing accuracy, the program regulations set out quality standards for administering and interpreting two commonly used tests: pulmonary function tests and arterial blood gas studies.  The existing standards, last amended in 2000, have fallen out of date and no longer reflect current medical technology or practice.  The Department intends to revise these regulations so that the quality standards comport with criteria currently accepted and used by the medical community.