Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for Review and Approval; Public Comment Request; Bureau of Health Workforce Performance Data Collection, OMB No. 0915-0061-Revision

AGENCY:

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

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, HRSA has 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.

DATES:

Comments on this ICR should be received no later than March 4, 2019.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments, including the ICR Title, to the desk officer for HRSA, either by email to OIRA_submission@omb.eop.gov or by fax to 202-395-5806.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

To request a copy of the clearance requests submitted to OMB for review, email Lisa Wright-Solomon, the HRSA Information Collection Clearance Officer at paperwork@hrsa.gov or call (301) 443-1984.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Information Collection Request Title: Bureau of Health Workforce Performance Data Collection, OMB No. 0915-0061—Revision.

Abstract: Over 40 Bureau of Health Workforce (BHW) programs award grants to health professions schools and training programs across the United States to develop, expand, and enhance training, and to strengthen the distribution of the health workforce. These programs are governed by the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 201 et seq.), specifically Titles III, VII, and VIII. Performance information about these health professions programs is collected in the HRSA Performance Report for Grants and Cooperative Agreements. Specific performance measurement requirements for each program may be found on the HRSA website at https://bhw.hrsa.gov/grants/reportonyourgrant. Data collection activities consist of two reports—an annual progress report and annual performance report—that are submitted by awardees to comply with statutory and programmatic requirements for performance measurement and evaluation (including specific Title III, VII and VIII requirements), as well as the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) and the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 requirements. The performance measures were last revised in 2016 to ensure they addressed programmatic changes, met evolving program management needs, and responded to emerging workforce concerns. As these changes successfully enabled BHW to demonstrate accurate outputs and outcomes associated with the health professions programs, BHW will continue with its current performance management strategy and make only minor changes that reflect new HHS and HRSA priorities with the addition of a question asking awardees how many trainees received training in telehealth, substance use treatment, and/or medication-assisted treatment.

Need and Proposed Use of the Information: The purpose of the proposed data collection is to continue analysis and reporting of awardee training activities and educational programs, identify intended practice locations and report outcomes of funded initiatives. Data collected from these grant programs will also provide a description of the program activities of approximately 1,500 reporting grantees to inform policymakers on the barriers, opportunities, and outcomes involved in health care workforce development. The proposed measures focus on five key outcomes: (1) Increasing the workforce supply of well-educated practitioners in needed professions; (2) increasing the number of practitioners that practice in underserved and rural areas; (3) enhancing the quality of education; (4) increasing the recruitment, training, and placement of under-represented groups in the health workforce; and (5) supporting educational infrastructure to increase the capacity to train more health professionals in high demand areas.

Likely Respondents: Respondents are awardees of BHW health professions grant programs.

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 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.