[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 180 (Monday, September 19, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57197-57198]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-20170]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services


Single Source Notice of Funding Opportunity: Comprehensive 
Patient Reported Survey for Mental and Behavioral Health

AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Department of 
Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION: Notice of funding opportunity.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces the issuance of the August 26, 2022 
single source funding opportunity titled ``Comprehensive Patient 
Reported Survey for Mental and Behavioral Health'' available solely to 
Virginia Commonwealth University (as host institution to The Larry A. 
Green Center) to support research and development of a patient-
provider-payer survey tool that will assist in facilitating the 
integration of patient care delivery and enable CMS in improving the 
patient experience, decrease patient and provider burden and improve 
healthcare operational and administrative efficiencies.

DATES: The budget and project period of the award will be 36 months 
from the date of award. The tentative award date is September 26, 2022.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rena McClain, (410) 786-3975.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    CMS, through the Office of Burden Reduction and Health Informatics 
(OBRHI), seeks to partner with VCU in the development of a 
collaborative survey tool that will bring together the perspectives of 
patients, providers, and payors to understand their experiences

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across the range of health services they receive over time, also known 
as the healthcare continuum- specifically in mental and behavioral 
health services. In alignment with HHS' commitment to addressing the 
nation's behavioral health crises and strengthening mental health of 
all Americans, CMS anticipates the development and implementation of 
this survey will represent an opportunity to use new research methods 
to advance healthcare beyond its current separation of mind, body, and 
specialty. The right tool can enable all health outcomes--physical, 
behavioral, emotional, psychological, cultural, and social--by 
directing attention to those things patients and clinicians find most 
important about their care.
    Summarized below are the high-level key goals/aims of this project.
     Environmental mapping to discover those questions that 
will yield feedback essential to understanding the patient experience 
across the healthcare continuum.
     Identification of elements of care most meaningful to 
stakeholders through crowd-sourcing.
     Facilitated collaborative workgroup(s) and listening 
sessions.
     Rigorous and multimodal testing of the designed survey.
     National survey distribution in the manner(s) in which CMS 
designates.
     Post-survey evaluation and reporting of incoming response 
data.
     Peer-reviewed publication(s) and conference presentations 
based on survey findings.
     Application for endorsement from the National Quality 
Forum (NQF) and the Measures Application Partnership (MAP).

II. Provisions of the Notice

    CMS is anticipating approximately a total of $3,280,362 will be 
available to VCU for this cooperative agreement, pending availability 
of funds. VCU may use grant funds for a variety of planning, 
development, testing, and implementation objectives related to a 
collaborative patient-provider-payer survey tool that will assist in 
facilitating the integration of the patient care behavioral and mental 
health survey delivery. This includes but is not limited to hiring or 
contracting with professionals or firms to complete the work.
    Pending an acceptable application and budget, CMS recommends 
awarding a single source cooperative agreement to VCU (as host 
institution to The Larry A. Green Center). As the developer of the 
Person-Centered Primary Care Measure (PCPCM), The Larry A. Green Center 
is uniquely positioned to provide this support to CMS. The PCPCM is a 
survey-based measure that asks patients to assess their personal 
experience of care using the pillars of primary care--
comprehensiveness, first contact access, coordination, and continuity--
as guideposts. While the PCPCM measure will not be utilized for this 
survey tool, the methodology and partnerships used in the PCPCMs 
creation are the foundation for the survey tool as evidenced by the 
following:
     Robust stakeholder engagement that incorporated the 
expertise of over 1,000 individuals and 40 organizations.
     Combined digital and social theory methods to crowd-source 
information among stakeholder groups.
     Demonstrated experience in improving accountability while 
reducing burden and cost for users- using a design process that 
listened to end users and enabled learning to ask the right questions. 
The process allowed The Larry A. Green Center to then develop the best 
solutions to those questions and apply systemic constraints so the best 
solution can be operational and pragmatic.
    To date, there are no other surveys that take into consideration 
patients, providers, and payors as a whole. As a result of their 
endorsed PCPCM tool, expertise, capability to facilitate relationships 
with groups not often known to work together, and proven track record 
for success, The Larry A. Green Center (through VCU as the host 
institution and legal applicant) is the only organization suitable to 
complete the task at hand.

III. Collection of Information Requirements

    This document does not impose information collection requirements, 
that is, reporting, recordkeeping or third-party disclosure 
requirements. Consequently, there is no need for review by the Office 
of Management and Budget under the authority of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).
    The Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 
(CMS), Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, having reviewed and approved this 
document, authorizes Lynette Wilson, who is the Federal Register 
Liaison, to electronically sign this document for purposes of 
publication in the Federal Register.

Lynette Wilson,
Federal Register Liaison, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
[FR Doc. 2022-20170 Filed 9-16-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4120-01-P