[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 120 (Friday, June 21, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52066-52067]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-13620]



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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; Small Health Care Provider 
Quality Improvement Program

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 
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. OMB may act on HRSA's ICR only after the 30-day 
comment period for this notice has closed.

DATES: Comments on this ICR should be received no later than July 22, 
2024.

ADDRESSES: 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 Review--Open for 
Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request a copy of the clearance 
requests submitted to OMB for review, email Joella Roland, the HRSA 
Information Collection Clearance Officer, at [email protected] or call 
(301) 443-3983.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Information Collection Request Title: Small Health Care Provider 
Quality Improvement Program, OMB No. 0915-0387--Revision.
    Abstract: This program is authorized by the Public Health Service 
Act, section 330A(g) (42 U.S.C. 254c(g)). This authority permits the 
Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) to award Small Health 
Care Provider Quality Improvement (SHCPQI) grants that expand access 
to, coordinate, and improve the quality of basic health care services, 
and enhance the delivery of health care, in rural areas. Specifically, 
FORHP may award grants to provide for the planning and implementation 
of SHCPQI activities, including activities related to increasing care 
coordination, enhancing chronic disease management, and improving 
patient health outcomes.
    The purpose of the SHCPQI Grant Program is to provide support to 
rural primary care providers for implementation of quality improvement 
activities. The goal of the program is to promote the development of an 
evidence-based culture and delivery of coordinated care in the primary 
care setting. Additional objectives of the program include improved 
health outcomes for patients, enhanced chronic disease management, and 
better engagement of patients and their caregivers. Organizations 
participating in the program are required to use an evidence-based 
quality improvement model, perform tests of change focused on 
improvement, and use health information technology (HIT) to collect and 
report data. HIT may include an electronic patient registry or an 
electronic health record and is a critical component for improving 
quality and patient outcomes. With HIT it is possible to generate 
timely and meaningful data, which helps providers track and plan care. 
HRSA collects information from grant recipients that participate in 
this program using an OMB-approved set of performance measures and 
seeks to extend its approved information collection.
    A 60-day notice was published in the Federal Register on February 
5, 2024, 89 FR 7724-25. There were no public comments.
    Need and Proposed Use of the Information: For this program, 
performance measures were drafted to provide data to the program and to 
enable HRSA to provide aggregate program data required by Congress 
under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993. These 
measures cover the principal topic areas of interest to FORHP, 
including: (1) access to care, (2) population demographics, (3) 
staffing, (4) consortium/network, (5) sustainability, and (6) project 
specific domains. All measures will speak to FORHP's progress toward 
meeting the goals set. FORHP collects this information to quantify the 
impact of grant funding on access to health care, quality of services, 
and improvement of health outcomes. FORHP uses the data for program 
improvement and grantees use the data for performance tracking. No 
changes are proposed from the current data collection effort, but FORHP 
estimates fewer respondents to align with the current cohort of 
grantees and an increase in the average burden per response to account 
for new personnel.
    FORHP received feedback from awardees that personnel changes result 
in additional training needs for new hires, leading to a longer average 
time to complete the SHCPQI Performance Improvement and Measurement 
Systems form. As a result of this feedback, the estimated average 
burden increased from 8 hours to 13.5 hours per response.
    Likely Respondents: The respondents will be the grant recipients 
(program grantees, not patients who receive health care services) of 
the SHCPQI Program.
    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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SHCPQI Performance Improvement                21               1              21            13.5           283.5
 and Measurement Systems........
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    Total.......................              21  ..............              21  ..............           283.5
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Maria G. Button,
Director, Executive Secretariat.
[FR Doc. 2024-13620 Filed 6-20-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4165-15-P