[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 95 (Monday, May 17, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 27928-27929]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-11078]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[Program Announcement 04126]


Vital Statistics Re-engineering Program; Notice of Intent To Fund 
Single Eligibility Award

A. Purpose

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announces the 
intent to fund fiscal year (FY) 2004 funds for a cooperative agreement 
program to enhance the ability of state-owned vital statistics systems 
to provide timely and high quality information to the National Vital 
Statistics System based on the newly-approved U.S. Standard Certificate 
for Birth and Death and the Report of Fetal Death. The Catalog of 
Federal Domestic Assistance number for this program is 93.066.

B. Eligible Applicant

    Assistance will be provided only to a public or private non-profit 
organization whose primary mission is the support of state vital 
statistics and vital records programs. The National Vital Statistics 
System (NVSS) is one component of NCHS's health data collection 
program.
    NCHS operates this System to fulfill its legislatively mandated 
mission to produce national vital statistics based on data from the 
nation's birth and death records. The NVSS is a cooperative, 
decentralized system in which data from over 6 million vital event 
records are collected each year by all states and U.S. territories and 
transmitted to the NCHS for processing and analysis. These records are 
state-owned and are provided through state-owned and operated 
registration systems. No federal constitutional mandate or law exits 
requiring states to collect and/or report birth and death information 
to NCHS.
    Consequently, the collection of registration-based vital statistics 
at the national level depends on a cooperative relationship between 
states and the federal government. Since 1933, NAPHSIS and its 
predecessor organizations have collectively represented the states on 
policy and other agreements with the federal government. It is a 
professional, non-profit organization whose members include primarily, 
but not exclusively, the vital statistics registration executives and 
other employees of state registration offices. In addition to providing 
the states and territories with a common point of contact with the 
federal government, NAPHSIS also facilitates inter-state exchange of 
ideas, methods, and technology for the registration of vital events and 
dissemination of vital and other public health statistics. Since the 
inception of the NVSS Program, NAPHSIS has been the only national group 
whose decisions fully reflect the views of the state vital records 
offices and, accordingly, the state vital records office, generally 
adhere to NAPHSIS' policy and program decisions. As further evidence of 
its unique role with state vital statistics offices, NAPHSIS negotiates 
with NCHS on behalf of the states about the deliverables, schedule, 
quality, and other aspects of data provided for the NVSS. NAPHSIS is 
one of the affiliates of the Association of State and Territorial 
Health Organization.
    Over the past two years, NCHS has jointly worked with NAPHSIS to 
develop national, model standards and guidelines for how states may 
best re-engineer their vital records systems to meet state and federal 
needs. Those standards and guidelines will be available in early 2004, 
when the task shifts to motivating each state and territory to 
implement standards-based systems. The implementation of re-

[[Page 27929]]

engineered systems in all states is a top priority of NCHS. 
Accomplishing this goal will: (1) Significantly increase the ability of 
the NVSS to be responsive to emerging public health needs and user 
demands; (2) result in more timely and higher quality data that better 
describe the population by enabling a faster and more efficient 
transfer of data as well as enhanced data integration among federal, 
state, and local entities; and (3) permit the various vital 
registration jurisdictions to implement the recently-approved U.S. 
Standard Certificates of Birth and Death, and Report of Fetal Death, 
thus providing the means to collect the most meaningful and uniform 
health information related to births and deaths. NCHS'' ability to 
produce a national vital statistics dataset is dependent on all states 
fully reengineering their data collection systems and implementing the 
revised certificates and report. Because vital statistics is a 
decentralized, state-based system, we believe that the best and only 
effective strategy for convincing all states is by working through 
their own association, which is NAPHSIS.
    NAPHSIS has a history of working collaboratively with NCHS and the 
other CIOs within CDC on vital statistics related initiatives. Some of 
these initiatives include:
     The NVSS contract and policy negotiations on deliverables/
schedules/quality from state-owned vital statistics systems with CDC/
NCHS
     The National Death Index Program with CDC/NCHS
     The ``Improve State and Local Health Information Systems'' 
cooperative agreement with CDC/EPO
     The Newborn Hearing Screening Project with CDC Center for 
Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities
     The National Electronic Disease Surveillance Project with 
CDC-NEDSS Program
    This project has a relationship with two prior or ongoing CDC-
funded activities. First, this project focuses on the development of 
detailed systems (or non-functional) requirements for a model vital 
statistics system, which is Phase II of the Re-engineering Project. In 
Phase I, NAPHSIS was an active partner in the development of the 
functional requirements for the model system. Second, this project is 
related to the PHIN Project (previously NEDSS) currently underway in 
CDC. This project will be exploring the use of the PHIN messaging 
system with re-engineered vital statistics system, and will be 
developing guidelines on PHIN-compatible re-engineered vital statistics 
systems.

C. Funding

    Approximately $171,500 is available in FY 2004 to fund this award. 
It is expected that the award will begin on or before June 2004, and 
will be made for a 12-month budget period within a project period of up 
to three years. Funding estimates may change.

D. Where To Obtain Additional Information

    For general comments or questions about this announcement, contact:
    Technical Information Management, CDC Procurement and Grants 
Office, 2920 Brandywine Road, Atlanta, GA 30341-4146, Telephone: 770-
488-2700.
    For technical questions about this program, contact: Charles 
Rothwell, Project Officer, National Center for Health Statistics, 
Division of Vital Statistics, Room 7311, 3311 Toledo Road, Hyattsville, 
Maryland 20782, Telephone: 301-458-4468, E-mail: [email protected].

    Dated: May 11, 2004.
Wiliam P. Nichols,
Acting Director, Procurement and Grants Office, Centers for Disease 
Control, and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 04-11078 Filed 5-14-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P