For the period from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2028, TRS Fund compensation for the provision of Video Relay Service (VRS) shall be as described in this section.

(a) First year. For Fund Year 2023-24, TRS Fund compensation shall be paid in accordance with the following formulas.

(1) The Compensation Amount for VRS providers handling one million conversation minutes or less in a month shall be $7.77 per minute.

(2) The Compensation Amount for VRS providers handling more than one million conversation minutes in a month shall be:

(i) $6.27 per minute for the first 1,000,000 conversation minutes each month;

(ii) $3.92 per minute for monthly conversation minutes in excess of 1,000,000.

(3) For Video-Text Service, as defined in this subpart, in addition to the applicable Compensation Amount under paragraph (a)(1) or (2) of this section, an additional Compensation Amount of $0.19 per minute shall be paid for each conversation minute.

(b) Succeeding years. For each succeeding Fund Year through June 30, 2028, each per-minute Compensation Amount described in paragraph (a) of this section shall be redetermined in accordance with the following equation:

AFY = AFY−1 * (1+IFFY) Where: AFY is the Compensation Amount for the new Fund Year, AFY-1 is the Compensation Amount for the previous Fund Year, IFFY is the Inflation Adjustment Factor for the new Fund Year.

(c) Inflation Adjustment Factor. The Inflation Adjustment Factor for a Fund Year (IFFY), to be determined annually on or before June 30, is equal to the difference between the Initial Value and the Final Value, as defined herein, divided by the Initial Value. The Initial Value and Final Value, respectively, are the values of the Employment Cost Index compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, for total compensation for private industry workers in professional, scientific, and technical services, for the following periods:

(1) Final Value—The fourth quarter of the Calendar Year ending 6 months before the beginning of the Fund Year; and

(2) Initial Value—The fourth quarter of the preceding Calendar Year.

(d) Exogenous cost adjustments. In addition to LFY, a VRS provider shall be paid a per-minute exogenous cost adjustment if claims for exogenous cost recovery are submitted by the provider and approved by the Commission on or before June 30. Such exogenous cost adjustment shall equal the amount of such approved claims divided by the provider's projected minutes for the Fund Year. An exogenous cost adjustment shall be paid if a VRS provider incurs well-documented costs that:

(1) Belong to a category of costs that the Commission has deemed allowable;

(2) Result from new TRS requirements or other causes beyond the provider's control;

(3) Are new costs that were not factored into the applicable compensation formula; and

(4) If unrecovered, would cause a provider's current allowable-expenses-plus-operating margin to exceed its revenues.

[88 FR 72006, Oct. 19, 2023]