[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 118 (Wednesday, June 19, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36782-36783]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-14591]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Office of the Secretary

[Document Identifier HHS-OS-18774-30D]


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

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with section 3507(a)(1)(D) of the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for 
Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), Department of Health and Human 
Services, has submitted an Information Collection Request (ICR), 
described below, to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 
review and approval. The ICR is for a new collection. Comments 
submitted during the first public review of this ICR will be provided 
to OMB. OMB will accept further comments from the public on this ICR 
during the review and approval period.

DATES: Comments on the ICR must be received on or before July 19, 2013.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments to [email protected] or via 
facsimile to (202) 395-5806.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Information Collection Clearance 
staff, [email protected] or (202) 690-6162.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: When submitting comments or requesting 
information, please include the Information Collection Request Title 
and document identifier HHS-ASPE-18774-30D for reference.
    Information Collection Request Title: Survey of Physician Time Use 
Patterns Under the Medicare Fee Schedule
    Abstract: The objectives of this study are to conduct initial 
exploration of the time inputs to the Medicare Fee Schedule. The 
information, to be collected through primary data collection and 
analysis of administrative data, will help Assistant Secretary Planning 
and Evaluation (ASPE) to better understand--for a limited number of 
services and specialties--one aspect of how clinical services are 
delivered and the relationships between the clinical time spent by 
physicians and the time that is currently part of the fee schedule. The 
total average burden hours for which we are seeking approval in this 
package is 200 hours. The survey will be multi-mode, with 50% of 
responses anticipated via the web survey, 45% through the mail, and 5% 
over the phone. The latter will be obtained by interviewers who conduct 
a follow up with non-respondents by telephone to prompt completion of 
the survey; they will provide an opportunity to complete the paper 
survey over the phone. The surveys are estimated to take an average of 
20 minutes to complete. Need and Proposed Use of the Information: The 
intended data collection effort is a survey of physician providers in 
five specialties (family medicine, radiology, cardiology, 
ophthalmology, and orthopedics) to gather information on the clinical 
time spent by the physician and associated non-physician providers in 
providing selected services as well as related information on the 
physician's practice. The information collected focuses on the time 
data that is used as an input in the fee schedule. As part of the 
project, the time data collected in the survey of physicians will be 
analyzed along with time input data from the fee schedule to examine 
(i) the strength of the correlation between physician-reported clinical 
time and fee-schedule time values for surveyed services; (ii) how 
consistent the relationships are across services and across 
specialties; (iii) whether the relationships vary across physicians in 
different types of practice settings; and (iv) whether this approach to 
gathering time data is feasible and could be scaled up for a larger 
effort.
    Likely Respondents: A total of 600 physicians are expected to 
complete the survey. This includes 120 primary care physicians and 480 
specialists including Ophthalmologists, Orthopedists, Radiologists, and 
Cardiologists.
    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.

[[Page 36783]]



                                    Total Estimated Annualized Burden--Hours
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                                                                                      Average
                                                     Number of       Number of      burden per     Total burden
                    Form name                       respondents    responses per   response (in        hours
                                                                    respondent        hours)
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Primary Care....................................             120               1           20/60              40
Specialists.....................................             480               1           20/60             160
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    Total.......................................             600             600             200             200
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Darius Taylor,
Deputy Information Collection Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2013-14591 Filed 6-18-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-05-P