Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request, 31283-31285 [E9-15089]
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Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 124 / Tuesday, June 30, 2009 / Notices
information; (c) ways to enhance the
quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and, (d)
ways to minimize the burden of the
collection of information upon the
respondents, including the use of
automated collection techniques or
other forms of information technology.
Comments submitted in response to
this notice will be summarized and
included in the Agency’s subsequent
request for OMB approval of the
proposed information collection. All
comments will become a matter of
public record.
Dated: June 22, 2009.
Carolyn M. Clancy,
Director.
[FR Doc. E9–15086 Filed 6–29–09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160–90–P
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality
Agency Information Collection
Activities: Proposed Collection;
Comment Request
AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality, HHS.
ACTION:
Notice.
SUMMARY: This notice announces the
intention of the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality (AHRQ) to request
that the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) approve the proposed
information collection project: ‘‘Health
IT Community Tracking Study 2009.’’ In
accordance with the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C.
3506(c)(2)(A), AHRQ invites the public
to comment on this proposed
information collection.
DATES: Comments on this notice must be
received by August 31, 2009.
Written comments should
be submitted to: Doris Lefkowitz,
Reports Clearance Officer, AHRQ, by email at doris.lefkowitz@ahrq.hhs.gov.
Copies of the proposed collection
plans, data collection instruments, and
specific details on the estimated burden
can be obtained from the AHRQ Reports
Clearance Officer.
sroberts on PROD1PC70 with NOTICES6
ADDRESSES:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Doris Lefkowitz, AHRQ Reports
Clearance Officer, (301) 427–1477, or by
e-mail at doris.lefkowitz@ahrq.hhs.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
VerDate Nov<24>2008
19:55 Jun 29, 2009
Jkt 217001
Proposed Project
Health IT Community Tracking Study
2009
Electronic prescribing (e-prescribing)
is a central focus of efforts to promote
health information technology (IT) and
is of particular interest to AHRQ
because of its potential to improve
patient safety by reducing medication
errors. Despite many public- and
private-sector initiatives to support eprescribing, to date, physician adoption
and use has been limited (Friedman,
Schueth and Bell 2009). Recently,
section 132 of the Medicare
Improvements for Patients and
Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA), Public
Law 110–275, authorized a new
incentive program for eligible
individual providers who are successful
e-prescribers. In addition, section 4101
of the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA),
Public Law 111–5, provides incentives
for meaningful use of electronic health
record technology, which includes the
use of e-prescribing.
The potential gains from e-prescribing
assume that prescribers and pharmacists
have access to the required features and
use them. Limited research on the topic
suggests, however, that not all eprescribing systems currently have the
full range of e-prescribing features
required under MIPPA; that even when
the features are available, physician
practices face barriers to implementing
them effectively; and even when they
are implemented at the practice level,
physicians may not use them. For
example, in a small, exploratory
qualitative study by Grossman, et al.
(2005), physicians did not routinely
have access to patient medication
histories or formulary data for a
significant portion of their patients and
when they did, physicians often did not
use the information, instead continuing
to rely on patients for medication
history and pharmacists to identify
formulary issues. Several studies have
identified that IT system limitations,
workflow and training issues, and real
or perceived regulatory barriers present
obstacles in both the physician and
pharmacy settings to electronic
transmission of prescriptions (Grossman
et al. 2007; NORC 2007; Rupp and
Warholak 2008; Warholak and Rupp
2009).
AHRQ proposes to conduct a
qualitative research study designed to
help build knowledge on how the eprescribing features required under
MIPPA are actually being implemented
and used by physicians and pharmacies
in 12 nationally representative
communities. These communities have
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Sfmt 4703
31283
been studied longitudinally since the
mid-1990s as part of the Center for
Studying Health System Change (HSC)
Community Tracking Study (CTS)
(Center for Studying Health System
Change 2007). This qualitative study
will collect data from physician
practices and pharmacies that are using
electronic transmission of prescriptions
to allow a focus on both the facilitators
of and barriers to this critical aspect of
e-prescribing. The study will be the first
to ask questions of physician practices
and pharmacies in the same
communities on the same topics,
providing a much more complete
picture of e-prescribing implementation.
For example, in addition to gaining
physician and pharmacy perspectives
on electronic transmission, the study
will explore how physician practices
use patient formulary data and how
pharmacies perceive changes in the
communication with physician
practices around formulary issues with
e-prescribing.
Information collected by this study
will inform strategies to promote the
adoption and effective use of eprescribing being developed by AHRQ
and other Department of Health and
Human Services agencies, including the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS) and the Office of the
National Coordinator for Health IT, as
well as State and local governments and
private health care organizations. In
particular, while physician adoption has
been the focus of most policy efforts,
findings from the study can help
identify and shape strategies to promote
more effective implementation of eprescribing in retail and mail-order
pharmacies. This work will be
conducted by AHRQ’s contractor, the
Center for Studying Health System
Change (HSC), under contract number
290–05–0007–03. This study is being
conducted pursuant to AHRQ’s
statutory authority to conduct and
support research on health care and
systems for the delivery of such care,
including activities with respect to
health care technologies, facilities and
equipment, 42 U.S.C. 299a(a)(5).
Method of Collection
The study will use qualitative
methods, including telephone
interviews with physician practices and
pharmacies, as well as State pharmacy
associations, IT vendors and other eprescribing experts. Using semistructured interview protocols, the
following specific research questions
will be addressed to provide an in-depth
look at unexplored barriers to effective
e-prescribing use in physician practices
and pharmacies, including:
E:\FR\FM\30JNN1.SGM
30JNN1
31284
Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 124 / Tuesday, June 30, 2009 / Notices
• How are physicians using thirdparty information in making prescribing
decisions, including patient medication
history, generic drug information, and
patient-specific formulary data?
• How are physician practices and
retail and mail-order pharmacies using
e-prescribing systems to communicate
electronically with each other?
• What are the most common reasons
that physician practices and pharmacies
communicate about prescriptions
generated by physician e-prescribing
systems (regardless of how they were
sent)?
• What are the facilitators of and
challenges to implementing eprescribing features that support
physician access to third-party
information in making prescribing
decisions and features that support
electronic communication between
physician practices and pharmacies?
• What are the perceived effects of
having access to e-prescribing features
that support physician access to thirdparty information in making prescribing
decisions and features that support
electronic communication between
physician practices and pharmacies on
physician practice and pharmacy
operations, physician prescribing
behavior and patient outcomes?
• What are the implications for policy
efforts to promote e-prescribing?
Estimated Annual Respondent Burden
Interviews will be conducted at a total
of 110 organizations over the two years
of this project. Within each of the 24
participating physician practices (12
annually), two interviews will be
conducted: one with the medical
director or physician-user best able to
describe practice processes for eprescribing, who will provide a clinical
perspective (Interview Protocol 2), and
a second with an IT administrator or
office manager, who can provide a
technical and operational perspective
(Interview Protocol 1). The other 86
organizations will each have only one
interview, for a total of 43 additional
interviews annually. Eight different
organization-specific interview
protocols have been developed, with
response times ranging from 30 minutes
to 1 hour.
Exhibit 1 shows the estimated annual
burden hours for each organization’s
time to participate in this research. The
total annual burden is estimated to be
57 hours.
Exhibit 2 shows the estimated annual
cost burden associated with the
organizations’ time to participate in this
research. The total annual burden is
estimated to be $3,004.
EXHIBIT 1—ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED BURDEN HOURS
Number of
responses per
organization
Number of
organizations*
Form name
Interview Protocol 1—Physician Practice IT Administrator or Office Manager ................................................................................
Interview Protocol 2—Physician Practice Medical Director or Physician User ...................................................................................
Interview Protocol 3—Pharmacy Pharmacist-In-Charge .................
Interview Protocol 4—State Pharmacy Association Representative
Interview Protocol 5—Pharmacy IT Vendor Representative ...........
Interview Protocol 6—E-prescribing System Vendor Representative ................................................................................................
Interview Protocol 7—E-prescribing Connectivity and Content
Vendor Representatives ...............................................................
Interview Protocol 8—Other E-prescribing Experts .........................
Hours per
response
Total burden
hours
12
30/60
6
12
28
6
1
1
1
1
1
45/60
1
1
1
9
28
6
1
3
1
1
3
3
2
1
1
1
30/60
3
1
67
Total ..........................................................................................
1
NA
NA
57
The estimated total number of unique organizations participating in each year of the study is 55 since Interview Protocols 1 and 2 will both be
administered to respondents in physician practices.
EXHIBIT 2—ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED COST BURDEN
Number of
organizations*
Form name
sroberts on PROD1PC70 with NOTICES6
Interview Protocol 1—Physician Practice IT Administrator or Office Manager ..............................................................................
Interview Protocol 2—Physician Practice Medical Director or
Physician User ...........................................................................
Interview Protocol 3—Pharmacy Pharmacist-In-Charge ...............
Interview Protocol 4—State Pharmacy Association Representative ..............................................................................................
Interview Protocol 5—Pharmacy IT Vendor Representative .........
Interview Protocol 6—E-prescribing System Vendor Representative ..............................................................................................
Interview Protocol 7—E-prescribing Connectivity and Content
Vendor Representatives .............................................................
Interview Protocol 8—Other E-prescribing Experts .......................
Total ........................................................................................
Total burden
hours
Average hourly
wage rate**
Total cost burden
12
6
32.62
$196
12
28
9
28
80.42
48.09
724
1,347
6
1
6
1
49.89
54.75
299
55
3
3
54.75
164
3
2
3
1
54.75
54.75
164
55
67
57
NA
3,004
* The estimated total number of unique organizations participating in each year of the study is 55 since Interview Protocols 1 and 2 will both be
administered to respondents in physician practices.
** Wage rates were calculated using the mean hourly wage from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2007 National
Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates for the United States, Occupational Employment Statistics (OES), Washington, DC (Feb. 2009),
https://www.bls.gov/oes/2007/may/oes_nat.htm (accessed April 2009). Wage rate for Interview Protocol 3—Pharmacy Pharmacist-In-Charge reflects the weighted average for retail and mail order pharmacists ($47.58 per hour) and pharmacy chain representatives ($54.75 per hour).
VerDate Nov<24>2008
19:55 Jun 29, 2009
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31285
Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 124 / Tuesday, June 30, 2009 / Notices
Estimated Annual Costs to the Federal
Government
The estimated total cost to the Federal
Government for this project is $374,635
over a two-year period from February 2,
2009 to February 1, 2010. The estimated
average annual cost is $187,318. Exhibit
3 provides a breakdown of the estimated
total and average annual costs by
category.
EXHIBIT 3—ESTIMATED TOTAL AND ANNUAL COST* TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Cost component
Total cost
Annualized cost
Project Development and Project Management ..............................................................................................
Data Collection Activities .................................................................................................................................
Data Analysis ...................................................................................................................................................
Publication and Dissemination of Results .......................................................................................................
$87,783
141,048
55,884
89,920
$43,892
70,524
27,942
44,960
Total ..........................................................................................................................................................
374,635
187,318
* Costs are fully loaded including overhead and G&A.
Request for Comments
In accordance with the above-cited
Paperwork Reduction Act legislation,
comments on AHRQ’s information
collection are requested with regard to
any of the following: (a) Whether the
proposed collection of information is
necessary for the proper performance of
AHRQ health care research, quality
improvement and information
dissemination functions, including
whether the information will have
practical utility; (b) the accuracy of
AHRQ’s estimate of burden (including
hours and costs) of the proposed
collection(s) of information; (c) ways to
enhance the quality, utility, and clarity
of the information to be collected; and
(d) ways to minimize the burden of the
collection of information upon the
respondents, including the use of
automated collection techniques or
other forms of information technology.
Comments submitted in response to
this notice will be summarized and
included in the Agency’s subsequent
request for OMB approval of the
proposed information collection. All
comments will become a matter of
public record.
Dated: June 22, 2009.
Carolyn M. Clancy,
Director.
[FR Doc. E9–15089 Filed 6–29–09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160–90–P
sroberts on PROD1PC70 with NOTICES6
Breast Cancer and Environmental
Research Act of 2008; Delegation of
Authority
Notice is hereby given that I have
delegated to the Director, National
Institutes of Health (NIH), the
authorities under Section 2 of the Breast
Cancer and Environmental Research Act
Jkt 217001
BILLING CODE 4140–01–M
SUMMARY: In accordance with section
10(a) of the Federal Advisory Committee
Act, 5 U.S.C. App. 2, this notice
announces a meeting of the National
Advisory Council for Healthcare
Research and Quality Subcommittee on
Quality Measures for Children’s
Healthcare in Medicaid and Children’s
Health Insurance Programs (CHIP).
DATES: The meeting will be held on
Wednesday, July 22, 2009, from 10 a.m.
to 5 p.m. and Thursday, July 23, 2009
from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
ADDRESSES: Holiday Inn Capitol, 550 C
Street, SW., Washington, DC 20024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Padmini Jagadish, Public Health Analyst
at the Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality, 540 Gaither Road,
Rockville, Maryland 20850, (301) 427–
1927. For press-related information,
please contact Karen Migdail at (301)
427–1855.
If sign language interpretation or other
reasonable accommodation for a
disability is needed, please contact Mr.
Michael Chew, Director, Office of Equal
Employment Opportunity Program,
Program Support Center, on (301) 443–
1144, no later than July 3, 2009.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Purpose
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Meeting of the National Advisory
Council for Healthcare Research and
Quality Subcommittee on Quality
Measures for Children’s Healthcare in
Medicaid and Children’s Health
Insurance Programs (CHIP)
National Institutes of Health
19:55 Jun 29, 2009
Dated: June 23, 2009.
Kathleen Sebelius,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. E9–15439 Filed 6–29–09; 8:45 am]
Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
VerDate Nov<24>2008
of 2008, Public Law 110–354, as
amended, which amends Subpart 1 of
Part C of Title IV of the Public Health
Service Act by adding Section 417F,
authorizing the establishment of the
Interagency Breast Cancer and
Environmental Research Coordinating
Committee. I am also delegating the
authority under Section 417F of the
Public Health Service Act, as amended,
to select both voting and nonvoting
members of the Committee and to
review the necessity of the Committee
in the year 2011 and, thereafter, at least
once every two years.
This delegation shall be exercised in
accordance with the Department’s
applicable policies, procedures,
guidelines, and regulations.
In addition, I ratified and affirmed
any actions taken by the NIH Director or
his subordinates which involved the
exercise of the authorities delegated
herein prior to the effective date of this
delegation.
This delegation is effective upon date
of signature.
AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality (AHRQ), Department of
Health and Human Services.
ACTION: Notice of public meeting.
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The National Advisory Council for
Healthcare Research and Quality was
established in accordance with section
921 (now section 931) of the Public
Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 299c. In
accordance with its statutory mandate,
the Council is to advise the Secretary of
the Department of Health and Human
Services and the Director, Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality
(AHRQ), on matters related to actions of
AHRQ to enhance the quality, and
improve the outcomes of health care
services; improve access to such
services through scientific research; and
promote improvements in clinical
practice and in the organization,
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 124 (Tuesday, June 30, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31283-31285]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-15089]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection;
Comment Request
AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, HHS.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: This notice announces the intention of the Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to request that the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) approve the proposed information collection
project: ``Health IT Community Tracking Study 2009.'' In accordance
with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A), AHRQ
invites the public to comment on this proposed information collection.
DATES: Comments on this notice must be received by August 31, 2009.
ADDRESSES: Written comments should be submitted to: Doris Lefkowitz,
Reports Clearance Officer, AHRQ, by e-mail at
doris.lefkowitz@ahrq.hhs.gov.
Copies of the proposed collection plans, data collection
instruments, and specific details on the estimated burden can be
obtained from the AHRQ Reports Clearance Officer.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Doris Lefkowitz, AHRQ Reports
Clearance Officer, (301) 427-1477, or by e-mail at
doris.lefkowitz@ahrq.hhs.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Proposed Project
Health IT Community Tracking Study 2009
Electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) is a central focus of
efforts to promote health information technology (IT) and is of
particular interest to AHRQ because of its potential to improve patient
safety by reducing medication errors. Despite many public- and private-
sector initiatives to support e-prescribing, to date, physician
adoption and use has been limited (Friedman, Schueth and Bell 2009).
Recently, section 132 of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and
Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA), Public Law 110-275, authorized a new
incentive program for eligible individual providers who are successful
e-prescribers. In addition, section 4101 of the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), Public Law 111-5, provides incentives
for meaningful use of electronic health record technology, which
includes the use of e-prescribing.
The potential gains from e-prescribing assume that prescribers and
pharmacists have access to the required features and use them. Limited
research on the topic suggests, however, that not all e-prescribing
systems currently have the full range of e-prescribing features
required under MIPPA; that even when the features are available,
physician practices face barriers to implementing them effectively; and
even when they are implemented at the practice level, physicians may
not use them. For example, in a small, exploratory qualitative study by
Grossman, et al. (2005), physicians did not routinely have access to
patient medication histories or formulary data for a significant
portion of their patients and when they did, physicians often did not
use the information, instead continuing to rely on patients for
medication history and pharmacists to identify formulary issues.
Several studies have identified that IT system limitations, workflow
and training issues, and real or perceived regulatory barriers present
obstacles in both the physician and pharmacy settings to electronic
transmission of prescriptions (Grossman et al. 2007; NORC 2007; Rupp
and Warholak 2008; Warholak and Rupp 2009).
AHRQ proposes to conduct a qualitative research study designed to
help build knowledge on how the e-prescribing features required under
MIPPA are actually being implemented and used by physicians and
pharmacies in 12 nationally representative communities. These
communities have been studied longitudinally since the mid-1990s as
part of the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) Community
Tracking Study (CTS) (Center for Studying Health System Change 2007).
This qualitative study will collect data from physician practices and
pharmacies that are using electronic transmission of prescriptions to
allow a focus on both the facilitators of and barriers to this critical
aspect of e-prescribing. The study will be the first to ask questions
of physician practices and pharmacies in the same communities on the
same topics, providing a much more complete picture of e-prescribing
implementation. For example, in addition to gaining physician and
pharmacy perspectives on electronic transmission, the study will
explore how physician practices use patient formulary data and how
pharmacies perceive changes in the communication with physician
practices around formulary issues with e-prescribing.
Information collected by this study will inform strategies to
promote the adoption and effective use of e-prescribing being developed
by AHRQ and other Department of Health and Human Services agencies,
including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the
Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, as well as State and
local governments and private health care organizations. In particular,
while physician adoption has been the focus of most policy efforts,
findings from the study can help identify and shape strategies to
promote more effective implementation of e-prescribing in retail and
mail-order pharmacies. This work will be conducted by AHRQ's
contractor, the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC), under
contract number 290-05-0007-03. This study is being conducted pursuant
to AHRQ's statutory authority to conduct and support research on health
care and systems for the delivery of such care, including activities
with respect to health care technologies, facilities and equipment, 42
U.S.C. 299a(a)(5).
Method of Collection
The study will use qualitative methods, including telephone
interviews with physician practices and pharmacies, as well as State
pharmacy associations, IT vendors and other e-prescribing experts.
Using semi-structured interview protocols, the following specific
research questions will be addressed to provide an in-depth look at
unexplored barriers to effective e-prescribing use in physician
practices and pharmacies, including:
[[Page 31284]]
How are physicians using third-party information in making
prescribing decisions, including patient medication history, generic
drug information, and patient-specific formulary data?
How are physician practices and retail and mail-order
pharmacies using e-prescribing systems to communicate electronically
with each other?
What are the most common reasons that physician practices
and pharmacies communicate about prescriptions generated by physician
e-prescribing systems (regardless of how they were sent)?
What are the facilitators of and challenges to
implementing e-prescribing features that support physician access to
third-party information in making prescribing decisions and features
that support electronic communication between physician practices and
pharmacies?
What are the perceived effects of having access to e-
prescribing features that support physician access to third-party
information in making prescribing decisions and features that support
electronic communication between physician practices and pharmacies on
physician practice and pharmacy operations, physician prescribing
behavior and patient outcomes?
What are the implications for policy efforts to promote e-
prescribing?
Estimated Annual Respondent Burden
Interviews will be conducted at a total of 110 organizations over
the two years of this project. Within each of the 24 participating
physician practices (12 annually), two interviews will be conducted:
one with the medical director or physician-user best able to describe
practice processes for e-prescribing, who will provide a clinical
perspective (Interview Protocol 2), and a second with an IT
administrator or office manager, who can provide a technical and
operational perspective (Interview Protocol 1). The other 86
organizations will each have only one interview, for a total of 43
additional interviews annually. Eight different organization-specific
interview protocols have been developed, with response times ranging
from 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Exhibit 1 shows the estimated annual burden hours for each
organization's time to participate in this research. The total annual
burden is estimated to be 57 hours.
Exhibit 2 shows the estimated annual cost burden associated with
the organizations' time to participate in this research. The total
annual burden is estimated to be $3,004.
Exhibit 1--Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of
Form name Number of responses per Hours per Total burden
organizations* organization response hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interview Protocol 1--Physician Practice 12 1 30/60 6
IT Administrator or Office Manager.....
Interview Protocol 2--Physician Practice 12 1 45/60 9
Medical Director or Physician User.....
Interview Protocol 3--Pharmacy 28 1 1 28
Pharmacist-In-Charge...................
Interview Protocol 4--State Pharmacy 6 1 1 6
Association Representative.............
Interview Protocol 5--Pharmacy IT Vendor 1 1 1 1
Representative.........................
Interview Protocol 6--E-prescribing 3 1 1 3
System Vendor Representative...........
Interview Protocol 7--E-prescribing 3 1 1 3
Connectivity and Content Vendor
Representatives........................
Interview Protocol 8--Other E- 2 1 30/60 1
prescribing Experts....................
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total............................... 67 NA NA 57
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The estimated total number of unique organizations participating in each year of the study is 55 since Interview
Protocols 1 and 2 will both be administered to respondents in physician practices.
Exhibit 2--Estimated Annualized Cost Burden
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of Total burden Average hourly Total cost
Form name organizations* hours wage rate** burden
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interview Protocol 1--Physician 12 6 32.62 $196
Practice IT Administrator or Office
Manager...............................
Interview Protocol 2--Physician 12 9 80.42 724
Practice Medical Director or Physician
User..................................
Interview Protocol 3--Pharmacy 28 28 48.09 1,347
Pharmacist-In-Charge..................
Interview Protocol 4--State Pharmacy 6 6 49.89 299
Association Representative............
Interview Protocol 5--Pharmacy IT 1 1 54.75 55
Vendor Representative.................
Interview Protocol 6--E-prescribing 3 3 54.75 164
System Vendor Representative..........
Interview Protocol 7--E-prescribing 3 3 54.75 164
Connectivity and Content Vendor
Representatives.......................
Interview Protocol 8--Other E- 2 1 54.75 55
prescribing Experts...................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total.............................. 67 57 NA 3,004
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* The estimated total number of unique organizations participating in each year of the study is 55 since
Interview Protocols 1 and 2 will both be administered to respondents in physician practices.
** Wage rates were calculated using the mean hourly wage from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor
Statistics, May 2007 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates for the United States, Occupational
Employment Statistics (OES), Washington, DC (Feb. 2009), https://www.bls.gov/oes/2007/may/oes_nat.htm
(accessed April 2009). Wage rate for Interview Protocol 3--Pharmacy Pharmacist-In-Charge reflects the weighted
average for retail and mail order pharmacists ($47.58 per hour) and pharmacy chain representatives ($54.75 per
hour).
[[Page 31285]]
Estimated Annual Costs to the Federal Government
The estimated total cost to the Federal Government for this project
is $374,635 over a two-year period from February 2, 2009 to February 1,
2010. The estimated average annual cost is $187,318. Exhibit 3 provides
a breakdown of the estimated total and average annual costs by
category.
Exhibit 3--Estimated Total and Annual Cost* to the Federal Government
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cost component Total cost Annualized cost
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project Development and Project $87,783 $43,892
Management.........................
Data Collection Activities.......... 141,048 70,524
Data Analysis....................... 55,884 27,942
Publication and Dissemination of 89,920 44,960
Results............................
-----------------------------------
Total........................... 374,635 187,318
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Costs are fully loaded including overhead and G&A.
Request for Comments
In accordance with the above-cited Paperwork Reduction Act
legislation, comments on AHRQ's information collection are requested
with regard to any of the following: (a) Whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of
AHRQ health care research, quality improvement and information
dissemination functions, including whether the information will have
practical utility; (b) the accuracy of AHRQ's estimate of burden
(including hours and costs) of the proposed collection(s) of
information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of
the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of
the collection of information upon the respondents, including the use
of automated collection techniques or other forms of information
technology.
Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized
and included in the Agency's subsequent request for OMB approval of the
proposed information collection. All comments will become a matter of
public record.
Dated: June 22, 2009.
Carolyn M. Clancy,
Director.
[FR Doc. E9-15089 Filed 6-29-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160-90-P
