Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and Recommendations

AGENCY:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION:

Notice with comment period.

SUMMARY:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part of its continuing effort to reduce public burden and maximize the utility of government information, invites the general public and other Federal agencies the opportunity to comment on a proposed and/or continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on a proposed information collection project titled “The National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS).” The NNDSS is the nation's public health surveillance system that monitors the occurrence and spread of diseases and conditions that are nationally notifiable or under standard surveillance.

DATES:

CDC must receive written comments on or before January 3, 2020.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2019-0096 by any of the following methods:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
• Mail: Jeffrey M. Zirger, Information Collection Review Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE, MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329.

Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name and Docket Number. CDC will post, without change, all relevant comments to Regulations.gov.

Please note: Submit all comments through the Federal eRulemaking portal (regulations.gov) or by U.S. mail to the address listed above.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

To request more information on the proposed project or to obtain a copy of the information collection plan and instruments, contact Jeffrey M. Zirger, Information Collection Review Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE, MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329; phone: 404-639-7570; Email: omb@cdc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of information they conduct or sponsor. In addition, the PRA also requires Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including each new proposed collection, each proposed extension of existing collection of information, and each reinstatement of previously approved information collection before submitting the collection to the OMB for approval. To comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a proposed data collection as described below.

The OMB is particularly interested in comments that will help:

1. Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility;

2. Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used;

3. Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and

4. Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submissions of responses.

5. Assess information collection costs.

Proposed Project

National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS)—Revision—Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology and Laboratory Services (CSELS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

The Public Health Services Act (42 U.S.C. 241) authorizes CDC to disseminate nationally notifiable condition information. The National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) is based on data collected at the state, territorial and local levels as a result of legislation and regulations in those jurisdictions that require health care providers, medical laboratories, and other entities to submit health-related data on reportable conditions to public health departments. These reportable conditions, which include infectious and non-infectious diseases, vary by jurisdiction depending upon each jurisdiction's health priorities and needs. Each year, the Council of State and Territorial Disease Epidemiologists (CSTE), supported by CDC, determines which reportable conditions should be designated nationally notifiable or under standardized surveillance.

CDC requests a three-year approval for a Revision to the NNDSS (OMB Control No. 0920-0728, Expiration Date 04/30/2022). This Revision includes requests for approval to: (1) Receive case notification data for Blastomycosis which is now under standardized surveillance; and (2) receive disease-specific data elements for Carbon Monoxide (CO) Poisoning, Congenital Syphilis, and Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD, not congenital).

The NNDSS currently facilitates the submission and aggregation of case notification data voluntarily submitted to CDC from 60 jurisdictions: Public health departments in every U.S. state, New York City, Washington DC, five U.S. territories (American Samoa, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands), and three freely associated states (Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau). This information is shared across jurisdictional boundaries and both surveillance and prevention and control activities are coordinated at regional and national levels.

Approximately 90% of case notifications are encrypted and submitted to NNDSS electronically from already existing databases by automated electronic messages. When automated transmission is not possible, case notifications are faxed, emailed, uploaded to a secure network or entered into a secure website. All case notifications that are faxed, emailed, and uploaded are done so in the form of an aggregate weekly or annual report, not individual cases. These different mechanisms used to send case notifications to CDC vary by the jurisdiction and the disease or condition. Private personally identifiable information (PII) is collected from automated electronic messages and information can be retrieved by PII. In addition, some combinations of submitted data elements could potentially be used to identify individuals. Private information is not to be disclosed unless otherwise compelled by law. All data are treated in a secure manner consistent with the technical, administrative, and operational controls required by the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA) and the 2010 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations. Weekly tables of nationally notifiable diseases are available through CDC WONDER and data.cdc.gov. Annual summaries of finalized nationally notifiable disease data are published on CDC WONDER and data.cdc.gov and disease-specific data are published by individual CDC programs.

The burden estimates include the number of hours that the public health department uses to process and send case notification data from their jurisdiction to CDC. Specifically, the burden estimates include separate burden hours incurred for automated and non-automated transmissions, separate weekly burden hours incurred for modernizing surveillance systems as part of NNDSS Modernization Initiative (NMI) implementation, separate burden hours incurred for annual data reconciliation and submission, and separate one-time burden hours incurred for the addition of new diseases and data elements. The burden estimates for the one-time burden for reporting jurisdictions for the addition of case notification data for Blastomycosis and disease-specific data elements for CO Poisoning, Congenital Syphilis, and Sexually Transmitted Disease (not congenital). The estimated annual burden for the 257 respondents is 18,354 hours.