Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request, 28025-28026 [2010-11962]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 96 (Wednesday, May 19, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28025-28026]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-11962]


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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

    In compliance with section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 concerning opportunity for public comment on proposed 
collections of information, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health 
Services Administration (SAMHSA) will publish periodic summaries of 
proposed projects. To request more information on the proposed projects 
or to obtain a copy of the information collection plans, call the 
SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer on (240) 276-1243.

Project: Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block Grant 
Uniform Application Guidance and Instructions FY 2011-2013 and 
Regulations (OMB No. 0930-0080)--Revision

    Sections 1921 through 1935 of the Public Health Service Act (U.S.C. 
300x-21 to 300x-35) provide for annual allotments to assist States to 
plan, carry out and evaluate activities to prevent and treat substance 
abuse and for related activities. Under the provisions of the law, 
States may receive allotments only after an application is submitted 
and approved by the Secretary, DHHS. For the Federal fiscal years (FY) 
2011-FY 2013 Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block 
Grant application cycles, SAMHSA will provide States with revised 
application guidance and instructions to implement changes made in 
accordance with recommendations from the National Association of State 
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD) and their member States in 
the revisions and clarification of data reporting requirements and 
instructions.
    During negotiations with the States resulting in agreement on the 
National Outcome Measures (NOMs) for substance abuse treatment and 
prevention, SAMHSA pledged to the States to:
    1. Reduce respondent burden;
    2. Work with the States to improve performance management of the 
SAPT Block Grant;
    3. Improve the availability, timeliness, and quality of data 
available to Federal, State, and provider administrators of block grant 
funded programs.
    This revision of the Uniform Application and Regulation for the 
SAPT Block Grant takes additional steps toward implementing these 
commitments. SAMHSA, in consultation with NASADAD, has provided States 
the ability to reduce their application burden by consolidating the FY 
2011-FY 2013 State Plan into a 3-year plan. With the exception of the 
projected annual budget form, States only would be expected to submit 
any proposed revisions to its approved three year plan but would 
otherwise not have to resubmit a State Plan during FY 2012 and FY 2013. 
Individual States may reduce their respondent burden further by 
selecting the option of using SAMHSA pre-populated tables for Section 
IVa and IVb. The data for these tables would be drawn from SAMHSA data 
sets known as Drug and Alcohol Services Information System (DASIS) 
Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) and National Survey on Drug Use and 
Health (NSDUH) by SAMHSA and provided to the States. In addition, the 
web-based Block Grant Application System now facilitates completion of 
the provider entity table through added pre-populated data items. The 
data for this table would be drawn from SAMHSA data set known as DASIS 
National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS) SAMHSA 
will continue to work with NASADAD and the States to assess the 
feasibility and usefulness of pre-populating additional sections of the 
application with data extracted from SAMHSA data sets to further reduce 
respondent burden.
    SAMHSA continues to provide the States with the option of reporting 
on prevention expenditures utilizing the six primary prevention 
strategies or utilizing the Institute of Medicine classification of 
Universal, Selective or Indicated. SAMHSA has designed the State 
Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG) competitive 
program and funded contracts in States without a SPF SIG to support 
data driven prevention planning by the Single State Agencies for 
Substance Abuse. States are expected to use the State level data 
collected with support from these programs in the planning in section 
II of the Uniform Application.
    The Uniform Application has been modified to move needs assessment, 
planning narrative and future year budget forms into Section II, the FY 
2011-FY 2013 Plan section.
    In December 2004, SAMHSA and the States agreed on the goal of 
having all States reporting the NOMs measures as defined at the meeting 
by the end of a 3-year implementation period starting in FY 2005 and 
concluding at the end of FY 2007. By January 2006, supportive technical 
assistance on information technology design and payment for data 
submitted became available by the State Outcomes Measurement and 
Management System (SOMMS) program. States who have participated in the 
SOMMS/NOMs subcontracts may choose to have their data pre-populated 
which would significantly reduce their reporting burden for this 
application. During the subsequent three years, SAMHSA in partnership 
with the States and all other SAPT Block Grant stakeholders have 
continued to work towards improving standards for

[[Page 28026]]

analyzing and responding to the results of NOMs data appropriate to 
each level of block grant funded administration including Federal, 
State, and Provider roles and responsibilities.
    SAMHSA realigned resources to address the need for technical 
assistance in information technology (IT) and software purchasing to 
implement and maintain NOMs data standards. This technical assistance 
first became available in September 2006 and IT support continues.
    Revisions to the previously-approved Uniform Application resulting 
from such stakeholder input reflect the following changes: (1) Section 
I, Form 2, ``Table of Contents,'' was revised to appropriately 
enumerate the specific items within each section; (2) In Section II, 
the former single year ``Intended Use Plan'' is aggregated into a 
``Three Year State Plan'' to reduce the States' annual plan reporting 
burden. The first ``Three Year Plan'' will cover FYs 2011-2013. In the 
next two subsequent years, only revisions or updates to the 3-year plan 
will be required in the States' FY 2012 and FY 2013 Uniform 
Applications. Planned expenditures of each Federal Fiscal Year award 
will still be collected annually; (3) In Section II, the Form formerly 
specified as Form 12 has been removed; (4) In Section III, Narratives 
covering the Federal requirements, financial expenditure reports and 
services utilization reports are consolidated into the ``Annual Report 
Section''; (5) In Section IV subparts IVa and IVb, Treatment and 
Prevention Performance Reporting Forms are maintained and are to be 
completed annually.
    The total annual reporting burden estimate is shown below:

                                                     FY 2011
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                     Number of
                                                     Number of     Responses per    hours  per      Total hours
                                                    respondents     respondent       response
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sections I-III--States and Territories..........              60               1            *480          28,800
Section IV-A....................................              60               1              40           2,400
Section IV-B....................................              60               1           42.75           2,565
Recordkeeping...................................              60               1              16             960
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................              60  ..............  ..............          34,725
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* (Additional 10 hours per completion of Section II per State due to addition of FYs 2012 and 2013 in ``Three
  Year Plan.'')


                                               FY 2012 and FY 2013
                                      [Due to the reduction in section II]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                     Number of
                                                     Number of     Responses per    hours  per      Total hours
                                                    respondents     respondent       response
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sections I-III--States and Territories..........              60               1             440          26,400
Section IVa.....................................              60               1              40           2,400
Section IVb.....................................              60               1           42.75           2,565
Recordkeeping...................................              60               1              16             960
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................              60  ..............  ..............          32,325
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* (Reduction of approximately 40 hours per respondent due to reductions in response burden for Section II,
  ``Three Year Plan.'')

    SAMHSA received comments from ten separate State agencies 
representing ten States.
    In response to State comments, (1) SAMHSA clarified all form 
labeling to provide a clear reference to the form number in the new 
application as well as a reference to the former form number used in 
previous applications. In addition, form references in the instructions 
also provide reference to the former number of the form; (2) SAMHSA 
also provided similar references to narrative requirements that had 
been previously contained in separate attachments labeling these 
sections in order to facilitate respondent understanding where this 
data had been collected in previous applications; (3) In Section II, 
instructions for the new form (Form 7) intended to summarize State 
planning priorities, was modified to allow State to identify up to 
twelve priorities as opposed to requiring twelve to be identified; (4) 
Instructions were added to the section IVb; Prevention Forms P12a-P15, 
to facilitate understanding of the time periods for which data were 
being reported on these forms.
    At least half of the respondents, albeit a small minority of the 
overall set of grantees, objected to the timing of these changes 
indicating that economic conditions and staffing affect their ability 
to undertake such changes. SAMHSA contends that the transition to a 
three year plan will reduce burden by an estimated total across all 60 
applicants of about 800 hours and requires only an additional two pages 
of narrative in the first year of the three-year Plan. The addition of 
Form 7 requiring articulation of up to twelve State priorities is 
offset by deleting the previous requirement to project future period 
utilization data (Form 12) and its instructions entirely.
    Average Annual Total Burden is projected to be 33,125 or a decrease 
of about 800 hours.
    Written comments and recommendations concerning the proposed 
information collection should be sent by June 18, 2010 to: SAMHSA Desk 
Officer, Human Resources and Housing Branch, Office of Management and 
Budget, New Executive Office Building, Room 10235, Washington, DC 
20503; due to potential delays in OMB's receipt and processing of mail 
sent through the U.S. Postal Service, respondents are encouraged to 
submit comments by fax to: 202-395-5806.

    Dated: May 12, 2010.
Elaine Parry,
Director, Office of Program Services.
[FR Doc. 2010-11962 Filed 5-18-10; 8:45 am]
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