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

AGENCY:

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Health and Human Services.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with Section 3507(a)(1)(D) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, HRSA has submitted an Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. Comments submitted during the first public review of this ICR will be provided to OMB. OMB will accept further comments from the public during the review and approval period.

DATES:

Comments on this ICR should be received no later than December 2, 2016.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments, including the Information Collection Request Title, to the desk officer for HRSA, either by email to OIRA_submission@omb.eop.gov or by fax to 202-395-5806.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

To request a copy of the clearance requests submitted to OMB for review, email the HRSA Information Collection Clearance Officer at paperwork@hrsa.gov or call (301) 443-1984.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Information Collection Request Title: Telehealth Outcome Measures OMB No. 0915-0311—Revision.

Abstract: To help carry out its mission, the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT) created a set of performance measures that grantees use to evaluate the effectiveness of their services programs and monitor their progress through the use of performance reporting data.

Need and Proposed Use of the Information: As required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, all federal agencies must develop strategic plans describing their overall goal and objectives. HRSA's Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP), OAT, has worked with its grantees to develop performance measures to be used to evaluate and monitor the progress of the grantees. Grantee goals are as follows: To improve access to needed services, reduce rural practitioner isolation, improve health system productivity and efficiency, and improve patient outcomes. In each of these categories, specific indicators were designed and are reported through a performance monitoring Web site. These measures cover the principal topic areas of interest to FORHP. The data are used for program improvement and grantees use the data for performance tracking and improvement. Revisions include minor additions to the OAT Performance Improvement Measurement System (PIMS) to capture minimal data on access to care, population demographics, insurance status, quality improvement and clinical measures.

Likely Respondents: Telehealth Network Grantees.

Burden Statement: Burden in this context means the time expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose or provide the information requested. This includes the time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, install and utilize technology and systems for the purpose of collecting, validating and verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; to train personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of information; to search data sources; to complete and review the collection of information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the information. The total annual burden hours estimated for this ICR are summarized in the table below.