[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 141 (Wednesday, July 23, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39532-39534]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-19246]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Health Resources and Services Administration


Proposed Program Requirements and Review Criteria for a 
Cooperative Agreement for a Center for Health Workforce Distribution 
Studies: A Federal-State Partnership Cooperative Agreement Program for 
Fiscal year 1997

    The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announces 
that applications will be accepted for a fiscal year (FY) 1997 
Cooperative Agreement for a Center for Health Workforce Distribution 
Studies: A Federal-State Partnership Cooperative Agreement Program. The 
cooperative agreement will be funded under the authority of section 792 
(42 USC 295k) of the Public Health Service Act, which authorizes 
research on health professions personnel.
    Research and studies for this cooperative agreement program will 
focus on the workforce distributional aspects of the legislation at the 
state (one or a few states) level for allied health personnel, 
dentists, nurses, physicians, and public health personnel as specified 
below.
    A proposed three-year period of support beginning in fiscal year 
1997 is anticipated, with approximately $250,000 per year. This is a 
one time competition and is not expected to be an ongoing cooperative 
agreement program. Applicants may request up to $250,000 per year in 
total costs (direct plus indirect costs), for up to three years.

Purpose

    The purpose of this cooperative agreement for a Center for Health 
Workforce Distribution Studies is to support research and analysis at 
the state level for one state or a few states only, including issues 
regarding the impact of federal initiatives aimed at improving the 
training of health professionals and meeting national workforce goals 
pertaining to:
    (1) Allied health data and distributional issues consistent with 
the (1995) recommendations of the National Commission on Allied Health 
and in close coordination with the activities of the Allied Health Data 
Collaborative Project;
    (2) Distribution of dentists, with emphasis on trends relating to 
educational background (for example, those with postdoctoral training 
in advanced general dentistry and/or public health dentistry) and 
practice in settings principally serving residents of medically 
underserved communities;
    (3) The designation of nursing shortage areas at the state level 
and, through a pilot exploration of a model approach, build a 
methodologic bridge to other states for applicability across the 
Nation;
    (4) The distribution of physicians, with emphasis on underserved 
areas and specialty services, including, for example OB/GYN, maternal 
and child health, general surgery, emergency medicine, and mental 
health; and addressing issues of substitution, using available tools 
such as the HRSA/BHPr Integrated Requirements Model (IRM), as 
applicable, and
    (5) The establishment of collaboration(s) between schools of public 
health and state and local public health agencies to assess public 
health workforce supply and distribution and to develop educational 
strategies to address imbalances; and to develop the nature of 
workforce planning for public health personnel at the state level.
    The cooperative agreement is to fund either the establishment and 
the operation of a new research center, or the operation of an existing 
research of a new research center, for the conduct of such research. 
The center must conduct high-quality research and disseminate findings 
to colleagues and policy-makers at the institutional, Federal and state 
levels.
    The successful applicant must have or establish the Center for 
Health Workforce Distribution Studies as an identifiable entity. This 
must be more than a set of discrete, investigator-initiated research 
projects proposed in one application. The center must have a director; 
a coherent, widely-recognized research agenda; and researchers who 
function as a team. The principal investigator must be an experienced 
researcher who will be primarily responsible for the organization and 
operation of the center and will provide research leadership. The 
center's researchers must collectively possess multidisciplinary 
skills, and have experience in health services research. There must be 
sufficient core staff with significant time commitments to the center, 
although the center will of necessity share common resources with other 
components of the applicant institution, including technical, clerical, 
and administrative personnel, and library and computer resources.
    The cooperative agreement funds will be available to provide basic 
support for the center, including: the development and implementation 
of the center's research agenda, administrative and research staff 
support, researcher time (although not necessarily 100% of researcher 
time), and dissemination of center research products through articles 
in peer-reviewed journals as well as center-sponsored publications. 
This cooperative agreement must not be the sole source of support for 
this type of enterprise. The applicant institution must demonstrate a 
commitment (including a matching contribution--see ``Program 
Requirements'' below) to support the organizational and management 
structure of the center, and its investigators should seek other funds 
for support of its research agenda.

[[Page 39533]]

Substantial Programmatic Involvement

    Personnel of the Bureau of Health Professions will have substantial 
programmatic involvement with the planning, developing and 
administering of the Center for Health Workforce Distribution Studies 
and its outputs. The program officer will be assisted by the work in 
close coordination with program staff of the divisions contributing to 
this cooperative agreement. Federal guidance and involvement will 
include:
    1. Participating in identification of workforce study priorities;
    2. Assisting in the selection of research projects. This includes, 
but is not limited to, providing substantial guidance on Federal 
policy-relevant issues, and issues of particular national interest, 
that require research;
    3. Participating in the approval of study protocols and 
methodologies;
    4. Participating in review and selection of sub-contracts awarded 
under the cooperative agreement. If sub-contracts are awarded via a 
competitive process, a representative of the Bureau will serve on the 
review panel which will evaluate applications;
    5. Supplying data in areas relevant to studies of the health 
professions workforce. When data are not directly available from the 
Bureau of Health Professions, Bureau personnel will assist in 
identifying sources of data such as other Federal agencies, and 
other public and private organizations;
    6. Assisting with the preparation of project results for 
publication in peer-reviewed journals;
    7. Providing information about numerous Federal programs that 
impact health workforce studies.

Eligibility

    Eligible applicants include public and non-profit private entities. 
The applicant must bring together allied/dental/medical/nursing/public 
health schools and state agencies, must have experience in all five 
component areas, the assessment and evaluation of unmet need/
underserved areas, and in issues of non-physician provider 
substitution, and must have access to the allied and public health 
workforce data base in the state. Development of a methodology for the 
assessment of nursing shortage areas and of public health requirements 
and supply in a state must involve a state agency.

Proposed Program Requirements

    The award recipient's institution must share in the cost of the 
program as follows: For each year funds are awarded under this program, 
the matching contribution shall be at least one-third of the amount of 
the Federal award for that year. Up to 50% of the recipient's matching 
contribution may be in the form of in-kind donations of faculty time, 
staff time, use of computers or other shared resources.
    Applicants are urged to submit applications that address specific 
objectives of HRSA/BHPr. Health workforce surveillance reveals 
significant gaps in the Nation's health workforce ability to meet the 
population's needs. In some cases, these gaps are exacerbated by market 
forces. The BHPr attempts to address these in its four health workforce 
goals to improve the distribution, diversity, supply, and competence/
quality. Specifically,
    Distribution: there has been little progress in reducing the number 
of underserved areas, and access to generalist providers varies widely 
across states and counties;
    Diversity: few health professions reflect the diversity of the 
Nation's population, also there is strong evidence that 
underrepresented minority providers are more likely to serve vulnerable 
populations;
    Supply: shortages of some allied and public health providers 
coincide with a surfeit of specialist physicians
    Competance: most training is hospital-based and ill-suited to 
ambulatory health care delivery, which occurs in an increasingly 
managed care environment and requires skills in providing cost-
effective quality care. Also, an aging population created an unmet need 
for geriatric training.

Proposed Review Criteria

    Applications for this cooperative agreement will be evaluated on 
the basis of the following criteria:
    (1) The qualification and achievements of the proposed center's 
principal investigator and senior researchers, including level of 
productivity and quality of research in health workforce issues;
    (2) Demonstration of an understanding of the particular subject 
areas of health professions workforce research that are relevant to 
Federal policies and evidence of ability to manage research in such 
areas;
    (3) The appropriations of the time commitments of the principal 
investigator and senior researchers;
    (4) The strength of the applicant's plan to actively promote 
dissemination of research findings to all health professionals involved 
in health services research and to relevant national and state policy 
makers;
    (5) The appropriateness of the proposed budget;
    The planned level of commitment to the center from the applicant 
institution, as evidenced by specific plans for the type of financial 
support that will be offered, and for support of the organizations 
structure of the center. Evidence of a prior institutional commitment 
to generalizable research in health workforce studies will also be 
sought;
    (7) The past success and the future potential of the proposed 
center's researchers in receiving funding from other sources; and
    (8) The likely effectiveness of the organizational and management 
arrangements to operate the proposed center.

National Health Objectives for the Year 2000

    The Public Health Service urges applicants to submit work plans 
that address specific objectives of Healthy People 2000. Potential 
applicants may obtain a copy of Healthy People 2000 (Full Report; Stock 
No. 017-001-00474-0) or Healthy People 2000 (Summary Report; Stock No. 
017-001-00473-1) through the Superintendent of Documents, Government 
Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402-9325 (Telephone 202-783-3238).

Academic and Community Partnerships

    As part of its long-range planning, HRSA will be targeting its 
efforts to strengthening linkages between U.S. Public Health Service 
education programs and programs which provide comprehensive primary 
care services to the underserved.

Smoke-Free Workplace

    The Public Health Service strongly encourages all grant recipients 
to provide a smoke-free workplace and to promote the non-use of all 
tobacco products and Pub. L. 103-227, the Pro-Children Act of 1994, 
prohibits smoking in certain facilities that receive Federal funds in 
which education, library, day care, health care, and early childhood 
development services are provided to children.

Additional Information

    Interested persons are invited to comment on the proposed program 
requirements and review criteria. The comment period is 30 days. All 
comments received on or before August 22, 1997 will be considered 
before the final program requirements and review criteria are 
established. Written comments should be addressed to: Mr. B. Jerald 
McClendon, Director, Office of Research and Planning, Bureau of Health 
Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration, Parklawn

[[Page 39534]]

Building, Room 8-47, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20857.
    All comments receive will be available for public inspection and 
copying at the Office of Research and Planning, Bureau of Health 
Professions, at the above address, weekdays (Federal holidays excepted) 
between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

Application Requests

    Application materials are available on the World Wide Web at 
address: ``http://www.hrsa.dhhs.gov/bhpr/grants.html''. In fiscal year 
1997, the Bureau of Health Professions (BHPr) will use Adobe Acrobat to 
publish the grants documents on the Web page. In order to download, 
view and print these grants documents, you will need a copy of Adobe 
Acrobat Reader. This can be obtained without charge from the Internet 
by going to the adobe Web page (``http://www.adobe.com'') and 
downloading the version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader which is 
appropriate for your operating system, i.e., Windows, Unix, Macintosh, 
etc. A set of more detailed instructions on how to download and use the 
Adobe Acrobat Reader can be found on the BHPr Grants Web page under 
``Notes on this WWW Page.
    For applicants who are unable to access application materials 
electronically, a hard copy will be provided by contacting the HRSA 
Grants Application Center. The Center may be contacted by:
    Telephone Number: 1-888-300-HRSA.
    FAX Number: 301-309-0579.
    Email Address: [email protected].
    Completed applications should be returned to: Grant Management 
Officer (CFDA#), HRSA Grants Applications Center, 40 West Gude Drive, 
Suite 100, Rockville, Maryland 20850.
    Questions regarding grants policy and business management issues 
should be directed to: Ms. Diane Murray, Grants Management Specialist, 
Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services 
Administration, Parklawn Building, Room 8C-26, 5600 Fishers Lane, 
Rockville, Maryland 20857, Telephone: (301) 443-6857, FAX: (301) 443-
6343, Email: [email protected]
    If additional programmatic information is needed, please contact: 
Herbert Traxler, Ph.D., Office of Research and Planning, Bureau of 
Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration, 
Parklawn Building, Room 8-47, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 
20857, Telephone: (301) 443-6662 or 3148, FAX: (301) 443-8003 Email: 
[email protected]

Paperwork Reduction Act

    The standard application form PHS 398, Application for Public 
Health Service Grant, will be used for this program and has been 
approved by the Office of Management and Budget under the Paperwork 
Reduction Act. The OMB Clearance Number is 0925-0001.
    The deadline date for receipt of applications is August 22, 1997. 
Applications will be considered to be ``on time'' if they are either:
    (1) Received on or before the established deadline date, or
    (2) Sent on or before the established deadline date and received in 
time for orderly processing. (Applicants should request a legibly dated 
U.S. Postal Service postmark or obtain a legibly dated receipt from a 
commercial carrier or U.S. Postal Service. Private metered postmarks 
shall not be acceptable as proof of timely mailing.)
    Late applications not accepted for processing will be returned to 
the applicant.

    Dated: July 16, 1997.
Claude Earl Fox,
Acting Administrator.
[FR Doc. 97-19246 Filed 7-22-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160-15-M