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Under the current Extended Care Health Option (ECHO), ECHO beneficiaries are eligible for 16 hours of respite care per month in any month during which the beneficiary receives another ECHO authorized benefit (other than the ECHO Home Health Care (EHHC) benefit). This final rule will eliminate the concurrent ECHO benefit requirement and allow ECHO beneficiaries to receive a maximum of 16 hours of respite care per month, regardless of whether another ECHO benefit is received in the same month. This regulation will be finalized under the authority of 5 U.S.C. 301, which allows the Secretary of Defense to prescribe regulations for the government of DoD; and 10 U.S.C. 1079(d) and (e), which directs the Secretary of Defense to establish a program to provide extended benefits for eligible active duty dependents, which may include the provision of comprehensive health care services, including case management services, to assist in the reduction of the disabling effects of a qualifying condition of an eligible dependent. The Department is authorized to provide "respite care for the primary caregiver of the eligible dependent" as one of the specifically enumerated extended benefits under the ECHO program pursuant to 10 U.S.C. 1079(e)(6). The ECHO program has been implemented through regulation at 32 CFR 199.5.