[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 234 (Thursday, December 6, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62866-62867]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-26352]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-19-0853; Docket No. CDC-2018-0105]


Proposed Data Collection 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 the opportunity to comment on a proposed and/or 
continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on a proposed 
information collection project titled ``Asthma Information Reporting 
System (AIRS)'' (OMB Control No. 0920-0853, expiration date 6/30/2019). 
The purpose of AIRS to collect performance measure and surveillance 
data spreadsheets designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness 
of state asthma programs and to monitor the impact of the state and 
national programs.

DATES: CDC must receive written comments on or before February 4, 2019.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2018-
0105 by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Jeffrey M. Zirger, 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. CDC will post, without change, all relevant comments 
to Regulations.gov.
    Please note: Submit all comments through the Federal eRulemaking 
portal (regulations.gov) or by U.S. mail to the address listed above.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on the 
proposed project or to obtain a copy of the information collection plan 
and instruments, contact Jeffrey M. Zirger, Information Collection 
Review Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton 
Road NE, MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329; phone: 404-639-7570; Email: 
[email protected].

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 the OMB for approval. To 
comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a 
proposed data collection as described below.
    The OMB is particularly interested in comments that will help:
    1. Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
    2. Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of 
the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used;
    3. Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected; and
    4. Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic 
submissions of responses.
    5. Assess information collection costs.

Proposed Project

    Asthma Information and Reporting System (AIRS)--Revision--National 
Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    In 1999, the CDC began its National Asthma Control Program (NACP), 
a public health approach to address the burden of asthma. The program 
supports the goals and objectives of ``Healthy People 2020'' for 
asthma, and is based on the public health principles of surveillance, 
partnerships, interventions, and evaluation. The CDC requests a 12-
month approval to revise the ``Asthma Information Reporting System 
(AIRS)'' (OMB Control No. 0920-0853; expiration date 6/30/2019). 
Specifically, CDC seeks to make the following changes:
     Increase the number of awardees from 23 to 25.
     Increase the requested burden hours from 82 to 89.
     Increase the number of optional performance measures (PMs) 
and decrease the number of required PMs, while still maintaining a 
total of 18 PMs.
     Update the instructions for the data collection 
instruments to reflect the optional status of 5 of the 18 PMs and to 
clarify instructions that were commonly misinterpreted.
     Update the Emergency Department Data and Hospital 
Discharge Data reporting forms to include example data submission 
templates for each awardee. Add a tab labeled ``Technical Notes'' 
within the Excel reporting form to collect clarifying information about 
the data from each awardee.
     Add examples of Emergency Department Data and Hospital 
Discharge Data reporting forms to provide clarity on how data should be 
reported within the forms.
     Update respondent costs to reflect current wage data from 
2017.
    The 12-month approval will allow CDC to continue to monitor states' 
program planning and delivery of public health activities and the 
programs' collaboration with health care systems for the remainder of 
the fifth and final year of cooperative agreement EH14-1404 (program 
period: September 2014-August 2019), and the third and final year of 
cooperative agreement EH16-1606 (program period: September 2016-August 
2019).
    The goal of this data collection is to provide NCEH with routine 
information about the activities and performance of the state and 
territorial awardees funded under the NACP through an annual reporting 
system. NACP requires awardees to report activities related to 
partnerships, infrastructure, evaluation and interventions to monitor 
the state programs' performance in reducing the burden of asthma. AIRS 
also includes two forms to collect aggregate ED and HD data from 
awardees.
    AIRS was first approved by OMB in 2010 to collect data in a web-
based

[[Page 62867]]

system to monitor and guide participating state health departments. 
Since implementation in 2010, AIRS and the technical assistance 
provided by CDC staff have provided states with uniform data reporting 
methods and linkages to other states' asthma program information and 
resources. Thus, AIRS has saved state resources and staff time when 
asthma programs embark on asthma activities similar to those done 
elsewhere.
    In the past three years, AIRS data were used to:
     Serve as a resource to NCEH when addressing congressional, 
departmental and institutional inquiries.
     Help the branch align its current interventions with CDC 
goals and allowed the monitoring of progress toward these goals.
     Allow the NACP and the state asthma programs to make more 
informed decisions about activities to achieve objectives.
     Facilitate communication about interventions across 
states, and enable inquiries regarding interventions by populations 
with a disproportionate burden, age groups, geographic areas and other 
variables of interest.
     Provide feedback to the grantees about their performance 
relative to others through the distribution of two written reports and 
several presentations (webinar and in-person) summarizing the results.
     Customize and provide technical assistance and support 
materials to address implementation challenges.
    There will be no cost to respondents other than their time to 
complete the three AIRS spreadsheets annually. The estimated annualized 
burden hours are 89.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                     Number of    Average burden
      Type of respondents           Form name        Number of     responses per   per response    Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent      (in hours)      (in hours)
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State Asthma Program Awardees.  AIRS Performance              25               1          150/60              63
                                 Measures
                                 Reporting
                                 Spreadsheets.
                                AIRS Emergency                25               1           30/60              13
                                 Department
                                 Visits
                                 Reporting Form.
                                AIRS Hospital                 25               1           30/60              13
                                 Discharge
                                 Reporting Forms.
 
    Total.....................  ................  ..............  ..............  ..............              89
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Jeffrey M. Zirger,
Acting Lead, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 
Integrity, Office of Science, Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2018-26352 Filed 12-4-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4163-18-P