[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 218 (Tuesday, November 12, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61060-61061]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-24521]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Community Living


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request; The National Adult Maltreatment Reporting System; OMB 
#0985-0054

AGENCY: Administration for Community Living, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Administration for Community Living (ACL) is announcing an 
opportunity for the public to comment on the proposed collection of 
information listed above. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(the PRA), Federal agencies are required to publish a notice in the 
Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information, 
including each proposed extension of an existing collection of 
information, and to allow 60 days for public comment in response to the 
notice. This notice solicits comments on the Proposed Extension without 
Change and solicits comments on the information collection requirements 
related to the National Maltreatment Reporting System (NAMRS).

DATES: Comments on the collection of information must be submitted

[[Page 61061]]

electronically by 11:59 p.m. (EST) or postmarked by January 13, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Submit electronic comments on the collection of information 
to Stephanie Whittier Eliason, Administration for Community Living, 
Washington, DC 20201, at [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephanie Whittier Eliason, 
Administration for Community Living, Washington, DC 20201, at 
202.795.7467 and [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the 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. 
``Collection of information'' includes agency requests or requirements 
that members of the public submit reports, keep records, or provide 
information to a third party the PRA requires Federal agencies to 
provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register concerning each 
proposed collection of information, including each proposed extension 
of an existing collection of information, before submitting the 
collection to OMB for approval. To comply with this requirement, ACL is 
publishing a notice of the proposed collection of information set forth 
in this document.
    With respect to the following collection of information, ACL 
invites comments on our burden estimates or any other aspect of this 
collection of information, including:
    (1) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for 
the proper performance of ACL's functions, including whether the 
information will have practical utility;
    (2) the accuracy of ACL's estimate of the burden of the proposed 
collection of information, including the validity of the methodology 
and assumptions used to determine burden estimates;
    (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
    (4) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
respondents, including through the use of automated collection 
techniques when appropriate, and other forms of information technology.
    This data collection effort is in response to the Elder Justice Act 
of 2009, which amended title XX of the Social Security Act [42.U.S.C. 
13976 et seq.]. These provisions require that the Secretary of HHS 
``collects and disseminates data annually relating to the abuse, 
exploitation, and neglect of elders in coordination with the Department 
of Justice'' [Sec. 2041(a)(1)(B)], and ``conducts research related to 
the provision of adult protective services'' [Sec. 2041(a)(1)(D)]. 
Furthermore, the Elder Justice Coordinating Council (EJCC) included as 
its third recommendation for increasing federal involvement in 
addressing elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation: Develop a national 
adult protective services (APS) system based upon standardized data 
collection and a core set of service provision standards and best 
practices. NAMRS is a voluntary system that since FFY2016 has been 
collecting on an annual basis both summary and de-identified case-level 
data on APS investigations submitted by states. NAMRS consists of three 
components:
    (1) ACL proposes to collect descriptive data on state agency and 
practices from all states through the ``Agency Component,'' and
    (2) Case-level, non-identifiable data on persons who receive an 
investigation by APS in response to an allegation of abuse, neglect, or 
exploitation through ``Case Component''
    (3) For states that are unable to submit a case-level file through 
the ``Case Component,'' a ``Key Indicators Component'' will be 
available for them to submit data on a smaller set of core items.
    ACL provides technical assistance to states to assist in the 
preparation of their data submissions. Respondents are state APS 
agencies and APS agencies in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, 
Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Virgin Islands, and American Samoa 
(states, hereafter). No personally identifiable information is 
collected.
    The proposed data collection tools may be found on the ACL website 
for review at https://www.acl.gov/about-acl/public-input.

Estimated Program Burden

    ACL estimates the burden associated with this collection of 
information as follows: 56 states will respond every year. It will take 
approximately 7 hours to respond to the Agency Component, 32 hours to 
respond to the Key Indicator Component, and 125 hours to respond and 
jointly complete the Case Component and the development of NAMRS for a 
total of approximately 5,436 hours. The estimates are based on the 
amount of time States have previously reported in completing the data 
collection instruments; continued increase in the number of states 
reporting on Case Component and Key Indicator Component data; and 
assumption of modest incremental efficiencies by States in reporting 
data to NAMRS every year, including, most significantly, minimal need 
to recode to extract data after the initial year.

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                                                     Number of     Responses per     Hours per     Annual burden
       Respondent/data collection activity          respondents     respondent       response          hours
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Agency Component................................              56               1               4             224
Key Indicators Component........................              17               1              20             340
Case Component..................................              36               1             100           3,600
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    Total.......................................  ..............  ..............  ..............           4,164
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    Dated: November 1, 2019.
Mary Lazare,
Principal Deputy Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2019-24521 Filed 11-8-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4154-01-P