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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 their 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)  will propose 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.  Finally, OWCP will review the geographic restrictions on the medical facilities and physicians a miner may select for their examination to ensure they are appropriately tailored.