[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 167 (Friday, August 28, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52291-52292]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-21343]



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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-15-15BCU; Docket No. CDC-2015-0074]


Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of 
Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION: Notice with comment period.

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SUMMARY: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part 
of its continuing effort to reduce public burden and maximize the 
utility of government information, invites the general public and other 
Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or 
continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on the National 
Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) on Culturally and Linguistically 
Appropriate Services (CLAS) Survey. The purpose of the NAMCS CLAS 
survey is to describe the awareness, training, adoption, and 
implementation of the Enhanced Standards for CLAS in Health and Health 
Care among office-based physicians.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before October 27, 2015.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2015-
0074 by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Leroy A. Richardson, Information Collection Review 
Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road 
NE., MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and Docket Number. All relevant comments received will be posted 
without change to Regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided. For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to Regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Leroy A. Richardson, Information 
Collection Review Office, Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention,1600 Clifton Road NE., MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329; 
phone: 404-639-7570.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of 
information they conduct or sponsor. In addition, the PRA also requires 
Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register 
concerning each proposed collection of information, including each new 
proposed collection, each proposed extension of existing collection of 
information, and each reinstatement of previously approved information 
collection before submitting the collection to OMB for approval. To 
comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a 
proposed data collection as described below.
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (d) ways to 
minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including through the use of automated collection techniques or other 
forms of information technology; and (e) estimates of capital or start-
up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and purchase of services 
to provide information. Burden means the total time, effort, or 
financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, 
disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. 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.

Proposed Project

    National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) on Culturally and 
Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Survey--New--National Center 
for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    As the population of the United States becomes increasingly 
diverse, it is important that health care providers deliver culturally 
and linguistically competent services. Culturally and linguistically 
appropriate services (CLAS) are respectful of and responsive to 
individual cultural health beliefs and practices, preferred languages, 
health literacy levels, and communication needs. The National CLAS 
Standards in Health and Health Care were established in 2000 by the 
Office of Minority Health (OMH), Department of Health and Human 
Services (DHHS) to advance health equity, improve quality, and 
eliminate health care disparities. In 2013, OMH published the Enhanced 
Standards for CLAS in Health and Health Care to revise the National 
CLAS Standards in order to reflect advancements made since 2000, expand 
their scope and improve their clarity to ensure better understanding 
and implementation. Although there has been increased awareness and 
efforts to train culturally and linguistically competent health care 
providers, there has not been a systematic evaluation of the level of 
adoption or implementation of the National CLAS Standards among 
physicians. Due to the limited understanding of how the Standards are 
adopted and implemented, it is difficult to know what goals have been 
achieved and which need more work.
    OMH came to NCHS' Division of Health Care Statistics with this 
project because of our expertise collecting data from physicians in the 
NAMCS. The NAMCS CLAS project meets two of the Division's missions: 
Conduct multidisciplinary research directed towards development of new 
scientific knowledge on the provision, use, quality, and 
appropriateness of ambulatory care; and develop and sustain 
collaborative partnerships internally within DHHS and externally with 
public, private, domestic and international entities on health care 
statistics programs. The purpose of the NAMCS CLAS survey is to 
describe the awareness, training, adoption, and implementation of the 
Enhanced Standards for CLAS in Health and Health Care among office-
based physicians. The information will be collected directly from 
physician

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respondents through an online survey, paper form or telephone 
administration. Information that will be collected includes demographic 
information, specialty, number of years the physician has provided 
direct patient care, training related to cultural competency and the 
National CLAS Standards, provision of CLAS to patients, organizational 
characteristics that helped or prevented provision of CLAS, and 
awareness of the National CLAS Standards.
    The target universe of the CLAS survey includes non-federally 
employed physicians who were classified by the American Medical 
Association or the American Osteopathic Association as providing 
``office-based, patient care.'' The target universe excludes physicians 
in the specialties of anesthesiology, radiology, and pathology. The 
survey sample of 2,400 physicians will be used as the basis to provide 
regional and national estimates. Participation in the CLAS survey is 
voluntary. There will be no financial incentive to participate.
    The CLAS survey will be a self-administered online questionnaire, 
with paper form and telephone administration as follow-up alternatives 
for non-respondents. A three-year approval will be requested.
    There is no cost to the respondents other than their time.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                     Number of    Average burden
      Type of respondent            Form name        Number of     responses per   per response    Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent      (in hours)         hours
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Office-based physicians.......  NAMCS CLAS                   800               1           30/60             400
                                 Survey.
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.....................  ................  ..............  ..............  ..............             400
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Leroy A. Richardson,
Chief, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 
Integrity, Office of the Associate Director for Science, Office of the 
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2015-21343 Filed 8-27-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P