[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 88 (Monday, May 7, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20079-20080]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-09674]


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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; Small Health Care Provider 
Quality Improvement Program, OMB No. 0915-0387--Revision

AGENCY: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department 
of Health and Human Services.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 
HRSA has submitted an Information Collection Request (ICR) to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. HRSA 
published the 60-Day notice on January 8, 2018, FR Doc. 2018-00173. 
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.

DATES: Comments on this ICR should be received no later than June 6, 
2018.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, including the ICR Title, to the desk 
officer for HRSA, either by email to [email protected] or by 
fax to 202-395-5806.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request a copy of the clearance 
requests submitted to OMB for review, email Lisa Wright-Solomon, the 
HRSA Information Collection Clearance Officer at [email protected] or 
call (301) 443-1984.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: When submitting comments or requesting 
information, please include the information request collection title 
for reference, in compliance with Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.
    Information Collection Request Title: Small Health Care Provider 
Quality Improvement Program, OMB No. 0915-0387--Revision.
    Abstract: This program is authorized by Title III, Public Health 
Service Act, Section 330A(g) (42 U.S.C. 254c(g)), as amended. This 
authority permits the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) to 
support grants that expand access to, coordinate, contain the cost of, 
and improve the quality of essential health care services, including 
preventive and emergency services, through the development of health 
care networks in rural and frontier areas and regions. The authority 
also allows HRSA to provide funds to rural and frontier communities to 
support the direct delivery of health care and related services, expand 
existing services, or enhance health service delivery through 
education, promotion, and prevention programs.
    The purpose of the Small Health Care Provider Quality Improvement 
Grant (Rural Quality) Program is to provide support to rural primary 
care providers for implementation of quality improvement activities. 
The program promotes the development of an evidence-based culture and 
delivery of coordinated care in the primary care setting. Additional 
objectives of the program include improved health outcomes for 
patients, enhanced chronic disease management, and better engagement of 
patients and their caregivers. Organizations participating in the 
program are required to use an evidence-based quality improvement 
model; develop, implement and assess effectiveness of quality 
improvement initiatives; and use health information technology (HIT) to 
collect and report data. HIT may include an electronic patient registry 
or an electronic health record, and is a critical component for 
improving quality and patient outcomes. With HIT, it is possible to 
generate timely and meaningful data, which helps providers track and 
plan care.
    Need and Proposed Use of the Information: FORHP collects this 
information to quantify the impact of grant funding on access to health 
care, quality of services, and improvement of health outcomes. FORHP 
uses the data for program improvement, and grantees use the data for 
performance tracking. The measures encompass access to care, population 
demographics, consortium/network, sustainability, quality improvement 
implementation strategies, clinical; and optional topic utilization.

[[Page 20080]]

    The proposed Rural Quality draft measures reflect a reduced number 
of required measures and improvements to the number of optional 
measures including the following: 24 total measures (previously 43), 
which includes 16 required measures applicable to all awardees in 
addition to improved optional measure choices for 8 total optional 
measures (previously 4). Proposed revisions specifically include the 
following: (1) Alignment of clinical measures to current National 
Quality Forum endorsement recommendations and (2) broadened orientation 
of measures for improved applicability across variety of rural quality 
improvement project topic areas.
    With the continuing shift in the healthcare environment towards 
provision of value-based care and utilization of reimbursement 
strategies through Centers for Medicare and Medicaid quality reporting 
programs, the latest competitive cohort also aligns with this shift. An 
increased number of sophisticated applicants leveraging increasingly 
intricate reporting methodologies for quality data collection, 
utilization, and analysis has resulted in an estimate of burden hours 
more in line with the realities of the health care landscape.
    Likely Respondents: The respondents would be award recipients of 
the Small Health Care Provider Quality Improvement Program.
    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.

                                    Total Estimated Annualized Burden--Hours
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                                                     Number of                    Average burden
            Form name                Number of     responses per       Total       per response    Total burden
                                    respondents     respondent       responses      (in hours)         hours
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Small Health Care Provider                    32               1              32              22             704
 Quality Improvement Program
 Performance Improvement
 Measurement System (PIMS)
 Measurement....................
                                              32  ..............              32  ..............             704
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Amy P. McNulty,
Acting Director, Division of the Executive Secretariat.
[FR Doc. 2018-09674 Filed 5-4-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4165-15-P