[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 62 (Monday, April 1, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Page 19496]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-07455]



[[Page 19496]]

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Health Resources and Services Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for 
Review and Approval; Public Comment Request

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), the Health Resources and 
Services Administration (HRSA) will submit an Information Collection 
Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Comments 
submitted during the first public review of this ICR will be provided 
to OMB. OMB will accept further comments from the public during the 
review and approval period. To request a copy of the clearance requests 
submitted to OMB for review, email [email protected] or call the HRSA 
Reports Clearance Office at (301) 443-1984.
    Information Collection Request Title: Bureau of Health Professions 
Performance Data Collection (OMB No. 0915-0061)--[Revision].
    Abstract: Over 40 BHPr programs award grants to health professions 
schools and training programs across the United States to develop, 
expand, and enhance training; and to strengthen the distribution of the 
health workforce. Many of these programs are governed by the Public 
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 201 et seq.), specifically Titles III, 
VII, and VIII. Performance information is collected in the HRSA 
Performance Report for Grants and Cooperative Agreements (PRGCA).
    Data collection activities at application, progress, and annual 
performance satisfy statutory and programmatic requirements for 
performance measurement and evaluation (including specific Title III, 
VII and VIII requirements), as well as Government Performance and 
Results Act (GPRA) requirements. The Affordable Care Act (Pub. L. 111-
148) impacted a broad range of health workforce programs administered 
by BHPr. It reauthorized most of these programs and, in some cases, 
expanded eligibility, modified program activities, and/or established 
new requirements. The Affordable Care Act also created new health 
professions programs. Therefore, it was necessary to reexamine BHPr's 
existing performance measures to ensure that they address these 
changes, meet evolving program management needs, and respond to 
emerging workforce concerns.
    The proposed revised data collection will enhance analysis and 
reporting of grantee training and education activities, outcomes, and 
intended practice locations. Data collected from these grant programs 
will also provide a description of the program activities of more than 
1,600 reporting grantees to better inform policymakers on the barriers, 
opportunities, and outcomes involved in health care workforce 
development. The proposed measures focus on five key outcomes: (1) 
Increasing the workforce supply of diverse well-educated practitioners; 
(2) influencing the distribution of practitioners to practice in 
underserved and rural areas; (3) enhancing the quality of education; 
(4) diversifying the pipeline for new health professionals; and (5) 
supporting educational infrastructure to increase the capacity to train 
more health professionals. Revisions to the current reporting will 
require the collection of baseline data at the grant application and 
award stages and will include performance reporting semi-annually by 
the type of programs: direct financial support programs, infrastructure 
programs, and multipurpose or hybrid programs (could be direct 
financial support, infrastructure or both within the same grant 
program). Measures will be reported at the individual, program-specific 
and/or program cluster-levels.
    Burden Statement: Burden in this context means the time expended by 
persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose or provide the 
information requested. This includes the time needed to review 
instructions, to develop, acquire, install and utilize technology and 
systems for the purpose of collecting, validating and verifying 
information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and 
providing information, to train personnel and to be able to respond to 
a collection of information, to search data sources, to complete and 
review the collection of information, and to transmit or otherwise 
disclose the information. The total annual burden hours estimated for 
this ICR are summarized in the table below.
    The annual estimate of burden is as follows:

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                                                                                      Average
                                     Number of       Number of         Total        burden per     Total burden
       Type of respondent           respondents    responses per     responses     response  (in       Hours
                                                    respondent                        hours)
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Direct Financial Support Program           1,000               2           2,000             1.4           2,800
Infrastructure Program..........             283               2             566            3.16           1,789
Multipurpose or Hybrid Program..             480               2             960            3.28           3,148
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    Total.......................           1,763  ..............           3,526  ..............           7,737
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ADDRESSES: Submit your comments to the desk officer for HRSA, either by 
email to [email protected] or by fax to 202-395-5806. Please 
direct all correspondence to the ``attention of the desk officer for 
HRSA.''
    Deadline: Comments on this ICR should be received within 30 days of 
this notice.

    Dated: March 26, 2013.
Bahar Niakan,
Director, Division of Policy and Information Coordination.
[FR Doc. 2013-07455 Filed 3-29-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4165-15-P