[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 16 (Friday, January 24, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4327-4329]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-01119]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Health Resources and Services Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection: 
Public Comment Request; Information Collection Request Title: Bureau of 
Health Workforce (BHW) Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Evaluation, OMB No. 
0906-xxxx--New

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

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the requirement for opportunity for public 
comment on proposed data collection projects of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995, HRSA announces plans to submit an Information Collection 
Request (ICR), described below, to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB). Prior to submitting the ICR to OMB, HRSA seeks comments from the 
public regarding the burden estimate, below, or any other aspect of the 
ICR.

DATES: Comments on this ICR should be received no later than March 24, 
2020.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments to [email protected] or mail the HRSA 
Information Collection Clearance Officer, Room 14N136B, 5600 Fishers 
Lane, Rockville, MD 20857.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on the 
proposed project or to obtain a copy of the data collection plans and 
draft instruments, email [email protected] or call Lisa Wright-
Solomon, the HRSA Information Collection Clearance Officer at (301) 
443-1984.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: When submitting comments or requesting 
information, please include the ICR title for reference.
    Information Collection Request Title: Bureau of Health Workforce 
(BHW) Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Evaluation.
    OMB No.: 0906-xxxx--New.
    Abstract: In September 2017, HRSA launched a multi-part effort to 
increase the workforce capacity of the U.S. health care system to 
prevent and treat the opioid crisis. As a part of this effort, HRSA 
developed or expanded activities under five programs to help combat the 
crisis: (1) The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Loan Repayment 
Program offers loan repayment to providers focused on Substance Use 
Disorder treatment (NHSC SUD Workforce LRP), (2) the National Health 
Service Corps Rural Communities Loan Repayment

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Program (NHSC Rural Communities LRP), (3) the Opioid Workforce 
Expansion Program (OWEP), (4) the Behavioral Health Workforce Education 
and Training Program (BHWET), and (5) the Graduate Psychology Education 
(GPE) Program. These programs provide either loan repayment to 
providers (NHSC SUD Workforce LRP, NHSC Rural Communities LRP) or 
funding for training programs for behavioral health professionals and 
paraprofessionals to increase integrated behavioral health into primary 
care treatment and interprofessional team-based care to high-need areas 
(OWEP, BHWET, GPE).
    The purpose of the planned evaluation is to assess these five 
programs with respect to their stated goals of increasing access to the 
number of clinicians delivering evidence-based SUD treatment, enhancing 
education and training in substance use prevention and treatment for 
current and future health care professionals and paraprofessionals in 
rural and underserved communities, and integrating behavioral health 
into primary care to improve the capacity of the health care delivery 
system to provide SUD prevention and treatment services.
    The evaluation will include data collection through web-based 
surveys to trainees, recipients of loan repayments, grantee 
organizations, and training sites participating in BHW's SUD prevention 
and treatment programs. At the trainee/participant level, questions 
will focus on educational and professional background, motivation and 
incentives to join or leave the program, training experiences, 
perceived readiness to deliver SUD treatment services (where 
applicable), capacity to engage in prevention strategies, and post-
graduation employment (where applicable). At the recipient grantee 
organization level (note: This level is not relevant to the NHSC 
programs), questions will focus on recruitment and retention of 
students, how their SUD prevention and treatment training program 
curriculum was developed, as applicable, collaboration with SUD 
prevention and treatment training sites, plans for sustainability of 
SUD prevention and treatment activities, as well as any other benefits 
that resulted from the program. At the site level, questions will focus 
on SUD prevention and treatment training such as addressing motivation 
for the site to participate, whether and what type of integrated care 
delivery is available, and other organizational factors of the site. At 
all three levels, and for all programs, we will collect survey SUD 
prevention and treatment training data on satisfaction with the program 
and recommendations for improving it.
    In total, six survey instruments will be used in this evaluation: 
(1) NHSC SUD Workforce Loan Repayment Program/NHSC Rural Communities 
Loan Repayment Program/NHSC Loan Repayment Program--Participant Survey, 
(2) NHSC Loan Repayment Program--Site Survey, (3) Grantee Training and 
Educational Programs--Trainee Survey, (4) Grantee Training and 
Educational Programs--Alumni Survey, (5) Grantee Training and 
Educational Programs--Site Survey, and (6) Grantee Training and 
Educational Programs--Grantee Organization Survey. As part of a 
comprehensive questionnaire design process, questions will be limited 
and refined to collect information not available through secondary 
sources. Any data collected will not be duplicative of that collected 
under progress reports or other BHW grant monitoring. NHSC site and 
participant survey questions will be drawn from prior NHSC Satisfaction 
Surveys, which were fielded in 2017 and 2018 but were discontinued. 
Skip patterns will allow respondents to answer only relevant questions 
for each of their programs. Participation in all surveys is voluntary, 
and all surveys will be fielded annually for three years beginning in 
2020 and concluding in 2022 to include each annual cohort of trainees 
and participants. Each trainee, participant, or site will complete 
their respective surveys one time.
    Need and Proposed Use of the Information: The purpose of this 
effort is to evaluate BHW's SUD prevention and treatment expansion 
program investments with respect to the following objectives:
     Objective 1: What is the impact of the NHSC SUD Workforce 
LRP and the NHSC Rural Communities LRP on the provision of SUD, 
services in underserved areas compared to those who participate in the 
non-SUD NHSC LRP?
     Objective 2: How are the activities in the BHWET, GPE, and 
OWEP programs contributing to the expansion of service delivery for SUD 
prevention and treatment, at the individual, educational, and service-
delivery system level?
     Objective 3: To what extent are the BHW's programs 
successful at increasing access to treatment for SUD, including opioid 
treatment services? The survey data will be critical to understanding 
the factors related to the success of current BHW programs, and assist 
in the development of future programs and ongoing SUD prevention and 
treatment workforce policy development.
    Likely Respondents: Data will be collected from trainees, grantee 
organizations, and sites participating in BHW's SUD prevention and 
treatment expansion programs as described below.
    NHSC SUD Workforce Loan Repayment Program/NHSC Rural Communities 
LRP/NHSC LRP--Participants Survey: All NHSC SUD Workforce LRP 
participants, NHSC Rural Communities LRP participants, and NHSC 
traditional LRP participants who have served at an NHSC site for at 
least nine months will be invited to respond. Respondents will also 
include those whom have exited a program early to understand reasons 
for termination.
    NHSC Loan Repayment Program--Site Survey: All sites that were 
approved to receive NHSC resources, regardless if they currently have a 
participant on staff will be invited to respond.
    Grantee Training and Educational Programs--Trainee Survey: All 
individuals identified by a grantee as currently receiving training as 
part of one of the grantee training and educational programs will be 
invited to respond. Respondents will also include those who have exited 
a program early, to understand reasons for termination.
    Grantee Training and Educational Programs--Alumni Survey: All 
individuals who completed the Grantee Training and Educational Program 
Trainee Survey but had not completed their training at the time of the 
participant survey, will be invited to respond to this short survey 
which will ask about employment since graduation.
    Grantee Training and Educational Programs--Site Survey: All sites 
that were approved to receive BHWET, OWEP, or GPE trainees, regardless 
of whether they currently have trainees, will be invited to respond.
    Grantee Training and Educational Programs--Grantee Organization 
Survey: All grantee organizations that received awards in fiscal year 
2018 for the BHWET program, and received fiscal year 2019 awards for 
the GPE and OWEP programs will be invited to respond.
    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

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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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NHSC Loan Repayment Programs--             8,000               1           8,000            0.33           2,640
 Participant Survey.............
NHSC Loan Repayment Programs--            18,000               1          18,000            0.33           5,940
 Site Survey....................
Grantee Programs--Trainee Survey           8,000               1           8,000            0.33           2,640
Grantee Programs--Alumni Survey.           2,000               1           2,000            0.16             320
Grantee Programs--Site Survey...           5,000               1           5,000            0.33           1,650
Grantee Programs--Grantee                    300               1             300            0.33              99
 Organization Survey............
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    Total.......................          41,300  ..............          41,300  ..............          13,289
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    HRSA specifically requests comments on (1) the necessity and 
utility of the proposed information collection for the proper 
performance of the agency's functions; (2) the accuracy of the 
estimated burden; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity 
of the information to be collected; and (4) the use of automated 
collection techniques or other forms of information technology to 
minimize the information collection burden.

Maria G. Button,
Director, Executive Secretariat.
[FR Doc. 2020-01119 Filed 1-23-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4165-15-P