[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 126 (Thursday, June 30, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38396-38397]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-16435]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Notice of Availability of Proposed Data Collection Standards for
Race, Ethnicity, Primary Language, Sex, and Disability Status Required
by Section 4302 of the Affordable Care Act
AGENCY: Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the
Assistant Secretary for Health, Office of Minority Health.
ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is seeking
public comment on the proposed data collection standards for race,
ethnicity, sex, primary language and disability status, as required by
Section 4302 of the Affordable Care Act. The proposed data collection
standards are now available on the HHS Web site minorityhealth.hhs.gov/section4302.
DATES: Submit comments on or before August 1, 2011.
Instructions for Submitting Comments
You may submit comments, identified by docket ID number HHS-OMH-
2011-0013 by one of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Enter the above docket ID number in the ``Enter Keyword or ID'' field
and click on ``Search.'' On the next web page, click on the ``Submit a
Comment'' action and follow the instructions.
Standard U.S. Mail: Office of Minority Health Resource
Center, Attention: Affordable Care Act Section 4302 Data Standard
Comments, P.O. Box 37337, Washington, DC 20013-73337. Mailed comments
must be postmarked by July 27, 2011.
Express or Overnight Mail/Courier: Office of Minority
Health Resource Center, Attention: Affordable Care Act Section 4302
Data Standard Comments, 1101 Wooton Parkway, Suite 650, Rockville, MD
20852. For courier
[[Page 38397]]
delivery, please call (800) 444-6472 in advance to schedule delivery.
The Office of Minority Health strongly encourages commenters to
submit comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Comments received,
including any personal information, will be posted without change to
the docket at http://www.regulations.gov as they are submitted, usually
within 1 week after submission. While the comment period remains open,
individuals may also provide comments in response to already submitted
comments that have been posted to the docket.
The submission of comments in response to this notice should not
exceed 5 pages, not including appendices and supplemental documents.
Any information you submit will be made public. Consequently, do not
send proprietary, commercial, financial, business confidential, trade
secret, or personal information that you do not wish to be made public.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rochelle Rollins, PhD, MPH, Office of
Minority Health, 1101 Wootton Parkway, Suite 600, Rockville, MD 20852;
Phone (800) 444-6472; E-mail [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Introduction
DHHS reports, dating back to the landmark 1985 Secretary's Task
Force on Black and Minority Health, note the critical importance of
rich data systems and culturally competent research to understand and
reduce health disparities among population subgroups. Such disparities
reflect the interactive effects of multiple social, economic,
behavioral, and environmental determinants of health, including access
to high quality health care services. Data improvement efforts enhance
the ability of the public health and healthcare systems to identify and
track disparities in health and health care, and facilitate greater
accountability for reducing them. Although there have been government-
wide standards for the collection of race and ethnicity for many years,
the lack of standards related to data collection on population
subgroups defined by other characteristics--such as primary language
and disability--remains a challenge for reporting and tracking data on
health disparities.
Overview of Section 4302 of the Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act includes multiple provisions aimed at
eliminating health disparities in America. Section 4302 (Understanding
health disparities: Data collection and analysis) of the Affordable
Care Act focuses on the standardization, collection, analysis, and
reporting of health disparities data. While data alone will not reduce
disparities, it can be foundational to our efforts to characterize the
disparities, design effective responses, and evaluate our progress.
Section 4302 begins by requiring the Secretary of DHHS to establish
data collection standards for race, ethnicity, sex, primary language,
and disability status. The law requires that, once established, these
data collection standards be used, to the extent practicable, in HHS
national population health surveys. The law also requires that any DHHS
data standards be in compliance with standards created by the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB), such as those for race and ethnicity. As
such, OMB's standards are not the subject of comment in this notice.
The focus of this announcement is for data collection standards
related to race, ethnicity, primary language, sex, and disability
status, as outlined in Section 4302 of the Affordable Care Act. The law
also requires that these data collection standards be used for the
purposes of measuring quality and reporting for any federally
sponsored, federally conducted, or supported health care or public
health program, activity, or survey. Additional subsections of the law
relate to data collection standards require the Department to develop
data collection standards for access to care for persons with
disabilities. The law also gives the Secretary the authority to require
that additional demographic data be collected on all Departmental
surveys and to develop appropriate data collection standards. The full
text of Section 4302 of the Affordable Care Act can be found at
minorityhealth.hhs.gov/section4302.
Implementation of Section 4302 of the Affordable Care Act
The Department proposed data collection standards for race,
ethnicity, sex, primary language and disability status were guided by
existing federal data standards, the results of studies and public
reports, consultation with statistical agencies and programs, and the
expertise of subject matter experts who have leadership roles with
collecting and analyzing this type of data. The focus was to develop
data collection standards for race, ethnicity, sex, primary language
and disability status that are appropriate for the purposes and methods
of population health surveys for self-reported data.
The proposed data collection standards and rationale are for race,
ethnicity, primary language, sex, and disability status and pertain
only to self-reported data. These proposed data collection standards
represent the first round of implementation of Section 4302 of the
Affordable Care Act related to race, ethnicity, sex, primary language
and disability status. Implementation efforts related to additional
subsections of Section 4302 of the Affordable Care Act continue.
The Department is also in the process of developing and validating
standard approaches for collecting data about sexual orientation and
gender identity.
With this notice, the Office of Minority Health requests comment
from the public and interested stakeholders on the proposed data
collection standards for race, ethnicity, sex, primary language, and
disability status.
The text of the proposed data standards is available in HTML and
PDF formats through the Office of Minority Health Web site at
minorityhealth.hhs.gov/section4302 and the http://www.regulations.gov,
docket ID number HHS-OMH-2011-0013. The full text of Section 4302 of
the Affordable Care Act can be found at minorityhealth.hhs.gov/section4302. For those who may not have Internet access, a hard copy
can be requested from the point of contact, Rochelle Rollins, PhD, MPH,
Office of the Minority Health, 1101 Wootton Parkway, Suite 600,
Rockville, MD 20852; Phone (800) 444-6472; E-mail
[email protected].
June 24, 2011.
Garth Graham,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health, Office of Assistant
Secretary for Health .
[FR Doc. 2011-16435 Filed 6-29-11; 8:45 am]
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