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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 Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP) proposes to update the quality standards, which were last amended in 2000, to better reflect current medical technology and practice. OWCP also proposes to update the regulatory criteria used to evaluate the results of these tests.