[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 216 (Tuesday, November 8, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 78599-78600]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-26923]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Community Living


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Public Comment Request; Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) Program National 
Beneficiary Survey

AGENCY: Administration for Community Living, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Administration for Community Living (ACL) is announcing 
that the proposed collection of information listed above has been 
submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and 
clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES: Submit written comments on the collection of information by 
December 8, 2016.

ADDRESSES: Submit written comments on the collection of information by 
fax 202-395-5806 or by email to

[[Page 78600]]

[email protected], Attn: OMB Desk Officer for ACL.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Katherine Glendening by phone: 202-
795-7350 or email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In compliance with section 44 U.S.C. 3507, 
ACL has submitted the following proposed collection of information to 
OMB for review and clearance.
    Proposed Collection: Evaluation of the Senior Medicare Patrols 
(SMP) program, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. 
Administration for Community Living (ACL).
    Need and Use of Information Collection: The SMP Customer 
Satisfaction Survey is a survey of individuals who attend Senior 
Medicare Patrol (SMP) presentations to understand the potential for 
fraud, waste, and abuse within health care programs generally and 
Medicare/Medicaid specifically. The Senior Medicare Patrols Program 
(SMP) was created under Titles II and IV of the Older Americans Act (42 
U.S.C. 3032), the amendments of 2006 (Pub. L. 109-365) and the Health 
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-191). 
The mission of the SMP program is to empower and assist Medicare 
beneficiaries, their families, and caregivers to prevent, detect, and 
report health care fraud, errors, and abuse through outreach, 
counseling, and education. The SMP program empowers Medicare 
beneficiaries through increased awareness and understanding of 
healthcare programs and helps them protect themselves from the economic 
and health-related consequences of Medicare fraud, waste, and abuse. 
The SMP program provides services through a national network of SMP 
grantees that are located in every state, the District of Columbia, 
Puerto Rico, and Guam. In 2014, SMPs conducted more than 14,000 
education session presentations, with a total audience of 450,000 
individuals. The survey will focus on education session presentations 
and the individuals who attend them, to determine if the target 
audience is satisfied with the information they are receiving. While 
the SMP program currently tracks output and outcome measures such as 
number of SMP Team members, group outreach and education events, 
individual interactions, and savings, customer satisfaction is not one 
of them. As a result, there is no current understanding of the link 
between the quality of the information received and the likelihood to 
avoid healthcare fraud, errors, and abuse.

Comments in Response to the 60-Day Federal Register Notice

    A notice was published in the Federal Register in Vol. 81, No. 125/
Wednesday, June 29, 2016, Pages 42360-42361, announcing that ACL was 
requesting approval of a data collection (ICR New). No comments were 
received.

Estimated Data Burden

    The SMP survey will be conducted over a three-year period beginning 
in Fiscal Year 2017 (FY 2017). Sites in each of the 50 states, the 
District of Columbia, and the territories of Guam and Puerto Rico will 
be surveyed once during the three-year period. Results from the surveys 
will be used to understand satisfaction among individuals who attend 
SMP education sessions, as well as how the program can be improved to 
provide better service to its target population. Eighteen (18) unique 
states/territories will be surveyed in FY17, with each state or 
territory expected to generate 75 unique responses, for a total of 
1,350 individual responses in Year 1. This process will then be 
replicated in Year 2 (FY18), with a different group of 18 states and 
territories being surveyed. In Year 3 (FY19), the final 17 states/
territories will be surveyed. By the end of FY19, SMP will obtain 3,975 
completed surveys to measure satisfaction at the national level (53 
states/territories x 75 responses per state/territory). SMP will use 
the following factors to draw a representative sample of education 
session attendees:
     Randomly select 18 states and territories to be surveyed 
in Years 1 and 2 and 17 states/territories in Year 3, with the states/
territories stratified by the average number of education session 
attendees per month.
     Survey a specific site no more than once.
     Sample from at least five presenters in each state/
territory.
     Survey no fewer than five events and no more than 20 
events in each state/territory.
     Survey no more than two events per month in each state/
territory.
    To generate a sample with a 95% confidence level at the national 
level, a minimum of 384 responses will be required, which is based on 
over 450,000 education session attendees in 2014. SMP anticipates 
collecting 75 completed surveys per state/territory, for a total 
collection of 3,975 completed surveys. This larger collection will 
enable ACL to make state-to-state comparisons, which is an important 
feature of this survey. Specifically, state-to-state comparisons will 
allow ACL to identify which states/territories are providing the best 
services to their beneficiaries, and what best practices can be shared 
across states/territories. The larger collection will also provide each 
state/territory with sufficient information to take local action to 
improve service within budgetary constraints.
    The proposed survey instrument may be viewed on the ACL Web site: 
http://www.acl.gov/Programs/CIP/OHIC/index.aspx.
    OMB approval is requested for 3 years. There are no costs to 
respondents other than their time. The average annual burden associated 
with these activities is summarized below:

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                                                                                Average  burden   Total average
               Respondent type                   Number of      Responses  per     hours  per     annual burden
                                                respondents       respondent    response  (hrs)       (hrs)
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Stratified Random Sample....................           1,325                1             5/60            110.4
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    Dated: October 27, 2016.
Edwin L. Walker,
Acting Administrator and Assistant Secretary for Aging.
[FR Doc. 2016-26923 Filed 11-7-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4154-01-P