[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 147 (Tuesday, July 31, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45354-45355]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-18683]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES


Notification of Single Source Cooperative Agreement Award for 
Project Hope

AGENCY: Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Assistant 
Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), Office of Policy and 
Planning (OPP).

ACTION: Notification of Single Source Cooperative Agreement Award for 
Project Hope, the publisher of Health Affairs, for strengthening 
emergency care delivery in the United States healthcare system through 
health information and promotion in Support of National Health Security 
Strategy (2009) and Implementation Plan (2012) and Homeland Security 
Presidential Directive-21 (2007). CFDA93.078.

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    Statutory Authority:  Public Health Service Act, Section 
1703(c), 42 U.S.C. Section 300u-2(c).

    Amount of Single Source Award: $50,000.
    Project Period: September 15, 2012 to December 15, 2012.

SUMMARY: In FY2012, HHS/ASPR/OPP plans to provide a single source 
cooperative agreement award to Project Hope to strengthen emergency 
care delivery in the United States healthcare system through health 
information and promotion in support of the Homeland Security 
Presidential Directive-21 (2007) and the National Health Security 
Strategy (2009) and Implementation Plan (2012).
    In the past decade, numerous studies have described the delivery of 
emergency care in the United States as fragmented, overburdened, 
underfunded, and challenged in its efforts to provide an appropriate 
level of high quality and cost effective emergency care for Americans 
on a daily basis and in response to a public health emergency or 
disaster. These studies have recommended that the emergency care 
delivery system be redesigned and more broadly integrated into the U.S. 
healthcare system and healthcare sub-systems. As these changes will 
have implications for the broader healthcare community, particularly 
the primary care sub-system, it is essential that both expert and non-
expert healthcare professionals, across the healthcare continuum, be 
informed and engaged in these key policy discussions.
    Project Hope will plan the publication of a Health Affairs thematic 
issue that will identify, explore and propose policy options for 
developing, strengthening and preparing a regionalized, accountable and 
coordinated system of emergency care that is broadly integrated into 
the United States healthcare system and capable of responding to a 
public health emergency or disaster. The project will serve to educate 
non-emergency medicine healthcare policy professionals and providers 
about the current state of emergency care delivery in the United 
States. It will also promote an interdisciplinary dialogue between 
emergency and other healthcare professionals and providers regarding 
policy options for the coordinated and integrated delivery of acute 
unscheduled care that might result from an acute onset of symptoms, 
exacerbation of a chronic disease, or a public health emergency or 
disaster. This project will focus on exploring, identifying and 
proposing policy options regarding workforce, finance, organization and 
medical care delivery that are essential to redesigning emergency care 
delivery and supporting its full integration into other healthcare sub-
systems as well as the broader U.S. healthcare system. This work will 
be performed in the context of Homeland Security Presidential 
Directive-21 and Strategic Objective (4) of the National Health 
Security Strategy (2009) and Implementation Plan (2012) that seek to 
foster integrated, scalable healthcare delivery systems that can meet 
both daily demands and medical surge demands resulting from a public 
health emergency or disaster.

Single Source Justification

    Over the past few years, emergency care delivery and systems 
research and policy have largely been discussed in research-focused 
academic journals, publications and forums that have primarily targeted 
expert emergency care and pre-hospital care communities. While these 
forums have been successful in engaging emergency care communities, 
they have had minimal success in engaging the rest of the U.S. 
healthcare system policy professionals and providers that impact or are 
impacted by emergency care delivery. In the past, HHS and other federal 
departments have addressed similar healthcare policy engagement 
challenges by having Project Hope develop, provide or, promote key 
healthcare policy information via easy-to-read Health Affairs thematic 
issues and targeted outreach activities that ensured optimal awareness, 
engagement and discussion by a wide audience of expert and non-expert 
healthcare policy professionals, healthcare providers, and the general 
public.
    The Project Hope Health Affairs journal is uniquely positioned to 
execute the proposed thematic issue. Although other publications can 
and do focus on scientific and clinical aspects of emergency care, none 
of the journals have a primary focus on policy matters related to 
workforce, financing, organization and the delivery of medical care. 
Health Affairs also has the largest circulation among healthcare policy 
publications with an estimated eleven thousand individual and 
institutional subscribers and more than fifty million online page views 
per year. Health Affairs is considered a trusted source for health 
policy--frequently cited in congressional testimony and the news 
media--and has a wide-ranging audience that includes healthcare 
professionals and providers, academia, private sector, health 
advocates, opinion leaders, industry decision makers, and government 
leaders. Project Hope has also successfully developed and published 
other key Health Affairs healthcare thematic issues that have 
significantly increased expert and non-expert interdisciplinary 
discussions and the general population's awareness and understanding of 
these topics.
    In making this award, ASPR will capitalize on Project Hope's 
extensive experience in producing and marketing thematic issues that 
ensure broader

[[Page 45355]]

healthcare professional and provider engagement, interdisciplinary 
discussion, and general public awareness. Utilizing Project Hope's best 
practices, this new investment will offer HHS and the healthcare 
community the opportunity to explore, identify, and propose key policy 
ideas and initiatives for developing, strengthening and preparing a 
regionalized, accountable, coordinated, and integrated system of 
emergency care that is able to meet daily demands and respond to and 
recover from a public health emergency or disaster.
    In summary, Project Hope's experience, status as a trusted policy 
source, and widespread subscribership and global audience will be 
critical to the viability of this cooperative agreement. This 
collaboration will support HHS efforts to develop a resilient U.S. 
healthcare system that is capable of providing integrated, cost-
effective and high-quality emergency care both daily and in response to 
a public health emergency or disaster.

Additional Information

    The agency program contact is Kristen Finne, who can be contacted 
by phone at (202) 691-2013 or via email at [email protected].

    Dated: July 25, 2012.
Edward J. Gabriel,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.
[FR Doc. 2012-18683 Filed 7-30-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-37-P