[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 61 (Thursday, April 1, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17172-17173]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-06700]



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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request

    Periodically, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 
Administration (SAMHSA) will publish a summary of information 
collection requests under OMB review, in compliance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). To request a copy of these 
documents, call the SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer at (240) 276-0361.

Project: New Survey of Behavioral Health Workforce Employers, Part of 
the Mental and Substance Use Disorder Practitioner Data Grant Funded by 
SAMHSA, Grant Number H79FG000028

    SAMHSA is requesting from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
approval to administer two surveys being developed as part of the 
Mental and Substance Use Disorder Practitioner Data grant: (1) A one-
time survey to employers of behavioral health providers and, (2) a one-
time survey of licensed clinical behavioral health providers. The 
information gathered by these surveys will be used to gain critical new 
insights into, and to document, challenges in recruiting and retaining 
behavioral health staffing and to assess the strength of available data 
on the clinical behavioral health workforce actively providing care for 
mental health and substance use disorders.

Employer Survey

    The survey includes questions to assess the following measures: 
Facility type (e.g., outpatient facility, inpatient, residential); type 
of behavioral health staff employed (e.g., addiction medicine 
specialists, psychiatric Nurse Practitioners, marriage and family 
therapists); services offered (e.g., assertive community treatment, 
partial hospitalization); roles and training needs of peer support 
specialists, case managers, care managers, and pharmacists (e.g., 
certification, population served, paid status, reimbursement); 
professions with recruitment and retention challenges (e.g., select 
from list of professions); reasons behind the challenges (e.g., low 
wages, high case load) and work-arounds (e.g., use of locum tenens); 
average wait-time for appointments (e.g., new patient visits); staffing 
needed to address gaps in care (e.g., estimated FTEs needed by 
profession type); use of telehealth (e.g., percent of visits); patient 
mix (e.g., immigrants, LGBTQ communities, number of clients); and form 
of payment (e.g., percent commercial, Medicaid, self-pay). The survey 
will be administered online through Qualtrics. The target population 
will be the 2,800 member organizations of the National Council of 
Behavioral Health (NCBH). NCBH members are healthcare organizations and 
management entities that offer treatment and supports to more than ten 
million adults and children living with mental illnesses and 
addictions.
    The primary objectives of the survey are to:
     Better understand factors associated with challenges in 
both recruitment and retention at behavioral health provider 
organizations such as certified community behavioral health clinics, 
community health centers and other organizations that employ providers 
engaged in treating substance use disorder and mental illness.
     Estimate the workforce needed to better address gaps in 
care for mental health and substance use disorder.
     Obtain new insights on staffing models for treatment of 
serious mental illness, such as assertive community treatment.
     Collect new data on use of peer support specialists, care 
coordinators, and pharmacists in behavioral health care.

Provider Survey

    The survey will provide important data to inform understanding 
regarding how many licensed clinical behavioral health specialists 
(licensed psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, licensed 
marriage and family therapists, and licensed professional counselors) 
are seeing clients for behavioral health needs and the populations 
served. The survey includes questions to assess the following measures: 
demographics (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, sex); professional and 
practice setting (e.g., self-employed, outpatient mental health clinic, 
zip code, hours worked); level of education (e.g., Masters in Social 
Work, Doctorate in Social Work); types of services provided (e.g., 
assertive community treatment); number of and type clients served 
(e.g., Medicaid, Medicare, veteran, immigrants); telehealth use (e.g., 
current or prior to COVID-19 outbreak); and career satisfaction and 
burnout (e.g., very satisfied, ``I enjoy my work, I have no symptoms of 
burnout'').
    The target population will be a random sample of 5,000 licensed 
clinical behavioral health providers (licensed psychologists, licensed 
clinical social workers, licensed marriage and family therapists, and 
licensed professional counselors) in states where email addresses are 
available with state licensure data.
    The primary objectives of the survey are to:
     Assess whether state licensure data is a reliable data 
source for building a comprehensive database on clinical behavioral 
health practitioners who are actively providing client services that 
require licensure.
     These data will also help program planners and policy 
makers to better understand the available supply of clinical behavioral 
health providers, including those seeing Medicaid or uninsured clients, 
and variation in types of services provided by each profession.

                                               Exhibit 1--Total Estimated Annualized Burden by Instrument
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                                             Number of    Responses  per       Total         Hours per     Total burden                     Total hour
      Type of participant  activity        participants     participant      responses       response          hours        Wage  rate         cost
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Employer Survey.........................           2,800               1           2,800             .25             700          $21.79         $15,253
Provider Survey.........................           5,000               1           5,000             .25           1,250           21.79       27,237.50
                                         ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total...............................           7,800  ..............           7,800  ..............           1,950  ..............       42,490.50
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    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular information 
collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--Open

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for Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

Jennifer Wilson,
Budget Analyst.
[FR Doc. 2021-06700 Filed 3-31-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE P