[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 5, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1749-1751]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-01107]


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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; Information Collection 
Request Title: Telehealth Resource Center Performance Measurement Tool, 
OMB No. 0915-0361--Revision

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

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with 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. 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 March 7, 
2019.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, including the Information Collection 
Request 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

[[Page 1750]]

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.
    Information Collection Request Title: Telehealth Resource Center 
Performance Measurement Tool, OMB No. 0915-0361, Revision
    Abstract: To ensure the best use of public funds and to meet the 
Government Performance Review Act requirements, the Office for the 
Advancement of Telehealth (OAT) in collaboration with the Telehealth 
Resource Centers (TRCs) created a set of performance measures that 
grantees can use to evaluate the technical assistance services provided 
by the TRCs. Grantee goals are to provide customized telehealth 
technical assistance across the country. The TRCs provide technical 
assistance to health care organizations, health care networks, and 
health care providers in the implementation of cost-effective 
telehealth programs to serve rural and medically underserved areas and 
populations.
    Need and Proposed Use of the Information: In order to evaluate 
existing programs, data are submitted to OAT through HRSA's Performance 
Improvement Management System (PIMS). The data are used to measure the 
effectiveness of the technical assistance. There are two data reporting 
periods each year; during these biannual reporting periods data are 
reported for the previous six months of activity. Programs have 
approximately six weeks to enter their data into the PIMS system during 
each biannual reporting period.
    The instrument was developed with the following four goals in mind:
    1. Improving access to needed services;
    2. Reducing rural practitioner isolation;
    3. Improving health system productivity and efficiency; and
    4. Improving patient outcomes.
    The TRCs currently report on existing performance data elements 
using PIMS. The performance measures are designed to assess how the TRC 
program is meeting its goals to:
    1. Expand the availability of telehealth services in underserved 
communities;
    2. Improve the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of telehealth 
services;
    3. Promote knowledge exchange and dissemination about efficient and 
effective telehealth practices and technology; and
    4. Establish sustainable technical assistance (TA) centers 
providing quality, unbiased TA for the development and expansion of 
effective and efficient telehealth services in underserved communities.
    Additionally, the PIMS tool allows OAT to:
    1. Determine the value added from the TRC Cooperative Agreement;
    2. Justify budget requests;
    3. Collect uniform, consistent data which enables OAT to monitor 
programs;
    4. Provide guidance to grantees on important indicators to track 
over time for their own internal program management;
    5. Measure performance relative to the mission of OAT/HRSA as well 
as individual goals and objectives of the program;
    6. Identify topics of interest for future special studies; and
    7. Identify changes in healthcare needs within rural communities, 
allowing programs to shift focus in order to meet those needs.
    This renewal request proposes changes to existing measures. After 
compiling data from the previous tool over the last three years, OAT 
conducted an analysis of the data and compared the findings with the 
program needs. Based on the findings, the measures are being revised to 
better capture information necessary to measure the effectiveness of 
the program. The measure changes include: additional demographic 
details from organizations requesting technical assistance, streamlined 
methods of inquiry; additional topics of technical assistance inquiries 
aligning with the current telehealth landscape; streamlined types of 
services provided by the grantees; deletion of client satisfaction 
survey results; and deletion of telehealth sites developed as a result 
of grantee technical assistance. A 60-day Federal Register Notice was 
published in the Federal Register on April 9, 2018, vol. 83, No. 68; 
pp. 15164-65. There were no public comments.
    Likely Respondents: The likely respondents will be telehealth 
associations, telehealth providers, rural health providers, clinicians 
that deliver services via telehealth, technical assistance providers, 
research organizations, and academic medical centers.
    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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Telehealth Resource Center                    14              42             588            0.07              41
 Performance Data Collection....
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    Total.......................              14  ..............             588  ..............              41
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[[Page 1751]]

Amy P. McNulty,
Acting Director, Division of the Executive Secretariat.
[FR Doc. 2019-01107 Filed 2-4-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4165-15-P