Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to OMB for Review and Approval; Public Comment Request

AGENCY:

Office of the Secretary, HHS.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with section 3507(a)(1)(D) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Office of the Secretary (OS), Department of Health and Human Services, has submitted an Information Collection Request (ICR), described below, to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. The ICR is for a new collection. Comments submitted during the first public review of this ICR will be provided to OMB. OMB will accept further comments from the public on this ICR during the review and approval period.

DATES:

Comments on the ICR must be received on or before November 13, 2015.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments to OIRA_submission@omb.eop.gov or via facsimile to (202) 395-5806.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Information Collection Clearance staff, Information.CollectionClearance@hhs.gov or (202) 690-6162.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

When submitting comments or requesting information, please include the Information Collection Request Title and document identifier HHS-OS-0990-New-30D for reference.

Information Collection Request Title: State and Territorial Health Disparities Survey Abstract: The Office of Minority Health (OMH), Office of the Secretary (OS) is requesting approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a new data collection activity for the State and Territorial Health Disparities Survey (STHD Survey).

OMH has a long history of collaborating with states to improve minority health outcomes and reduce health and health care disparities. A strong partnership with state and territorial offices is a key to continue progress toward eliminating health disparities. To best facilitate continued partnerships, OMH needs information about the current activities, challenges, and resources within state and territorial offices of minority health. The State and Territorial Health Disparities Survey is intended to support OMH informational needs by collecting, organizing, and presenting a variety of information about states and U.S. territories, including the current status of minority health and health disparities, the organization and operation of state and territorial offices of minority health, and state/territorial implementation of federal standards and evidence-based practices designed to address disparities and improve minority health. The STHD Survey, which will focus on the activities, staffing, and funding of State Minority Health Entities, is part of a larger project to catalog the extent of health disparities and the activities underway to reduce them in each state and U.S. territory. The STHD Survey supports OMH's goals of working with states and territories to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations and eliminate health disparities. While existing, state/territorial-specific information sources (e.g., quantitative data points available from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's National Healthcare Disparities Report State Snapshots) offer important facts about the status of health disparities, they do not provide context around the efforts underway to reduce them. Likely Respondents—Data will be collected using semi-structured telephone interviews with state/territorial minority health entity directors (or their designees) in approximately 54 states and territories (50 states plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). The purpose of this interview is to collect qualitative information about state/territory program goals and activities, partnerships, and organizational structure, as well as quantitative data elements on staffing and funding.