Proposed Eligibility Criteria for the Centers of Excellence Program in Health Professions Education for Under-Represented Minority Individuals, 68770-68772 [2011-28670]
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Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 215 / Monday, November 7, 2011 / Notices
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[FR Doc. 2011–28722 Filed 11–4–11; 8:45 am]
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Acting Assistant Commissioner for Policy.
[FR Doc. 2011–28723 Filed 11–4–11; 8:45 am]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Health Resources and Services
Administration
Proposed Eligibility Criteria for the
Centers of Excellence Program in
Health Professions Education for
Under-Represented Minority
Individuals
Health Resources and Services
Administration, HHS.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
This notice requests
comments on proposed eligibility
criteria for the Centers of Excellence
(COE) program in health professions
education for under-represented
minority (URM) individuals (See Title
VII, Section 736 of the Public Health
Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 293 (2011) as
amended by the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act, Public Law 111–
148, § 5401 (2010)). When finalized,
these eligibility criteria will be used to
determine the eligibility of designated
health professions schools to apply for
COE funding in fiscal year (FY) 2012
and subsequent fiscal years. Funding is
dependent on the availability of
appropriated funds for the COE
program. The designated health
professions schools are schools of
allopathic medicine, osteopathic
medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and
graduate programs in behavioral or
mental health. This does not apply to
Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs) eligible to
establish a COE, under PHS Act section
736(c)(2).
DATES: Interested persons are invited to
comment within 30 days of the
publication of this notice. All comments
received on or before those 30 days
complete will be considered.
ADDRESSES: All written comments
concerning this notice should be
submitted to Dr. Joan Weiss, Director,
Division of Public Health and
Interdisciplinary Education, at the
contact information below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Anyone requesting additional details
should contact Dr. Joan Weiss, Bureau
of Health Professions, Health Resources
and Services Administration. Dr. Weiss
may be reached in one of three
following methods: (1) Via written
request to: Dr. Joan Weiss, Designated
Federal Official, Bureau of Health
Professions, Health Resources and
Services Administration, Parklawn
Building, Room 9–36, 5600 Fishers
Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20852; (2) via
SUMMARY:
E:\FR\FM\07NON1.SGM
07NON1
mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 215 / Monday, November 7, 2011 / Notices
telephone at (301) 443–6950; or (3) via
email at jweiss@hrsa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Purpose: The COE program supports
programs of excellence in health
professions education for URM
individuals in designated health
professions schools. The categories of
designated health professions schools
subject to this notice are: (1) Hispanic,
(2) Native American, and (3) ‘‘Other’’
health professions schools that meet the
program requirements. Centers of
Excellence provide academic
enhancement programs to URM
individuals; develop a large and
competitive applicant pool to pursue
health professions careers; and improve
the capacity of schools to recruit, train,
and retain URM faculty. The COE
program facilitates faculty and student
research on health issues particularly
affecting URM groups. In addition, the
program carries out activities to improve
information resources, clinical
education, curricula and cultural
competence of schools’ graduates
relating to minority health issues.
Training students to provide health
services to a significant number of URM
individuals at community-based health
facilities and providing financial
assistance, as available and appropriate,
are also required.
Eligibility Criteria: To be eligible for
funding, the PHS Act requires
designated health professions schools to
meet each of four criteria. The schools
must: (1) Have a significant number of
URM students enrolled, including
individuals accepted for enrollment; (2)
have been effective in assisting URM
students to complete their educational
program and receive the degree
involved; (3) have been effective in
recruiting URM students to enroll in
and graduate from the school, including
providing scholarships and other
financial assistance and encouraging
URM students at all levels of the
educational pipeline to pursue health
professions careers; and (4) have made
significant recruitment efforts to
increase the number of URM
individuals serving in faculty or
administrative positions at the school.
The COE program aims to support
institutions with a commitment to
URMs, which includes demonstrated
effectiveness in recruiting, teaching,
training, and retaining current and
future URM health professionals, both
as practitioners and as faculty. This
announcement details the proposed
approach that the Secretary will use to
assess whether schools and other
eligible entities meet the eligible criteria
defined in statute. Beginning in FY
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2012, the following approach will be
used to assess whether applicants meet
eligibility criteria.
A. Criterion one: The school must
have a significant number of URM
students enrolled in the designated
health professions education program.
The Secretary will determine the
significant number for Hispanic and
Native American COEs based on a
percentage of the current number of
URM students enrolled in these schools.
This determination is unnecessary,
however, for HBCUs because they meet
the significant number condition by
virtue of their definition. With respect
to the eligible ‘‘Other’’ COE health
professions schools, the PHS Act
requires these schools to have a current
enrollment of URMs above the national
average.
B. Criterion two: The second criterion
requires designated health professions
schools to be effective in assisting its
URM students to successfully complete
the program of education and to receive
the appropriate professional degree.
Graduation rates are calculated,
determined, and provided by health
professions schools applying for COE
funding. To account for varying class
sizes across the health professions
schools, the graduation rate eligibility
thresholds for Hispanic, Native
American, and ‘‘Other’’ COEs in the
designated health professions will be
determined using the following
procedure:
1. Health professions schools and
programs will be ranked according to
the percentage of URMs (e.g., Hispanic,
Native American, or ‘‘Other’’)
successfully graduating from such
health professions schools or programs
with degrees each year, as calculated by
the total number of URM students
graduating from the health professions
school with degrees divided by the total
number of students graduating with
degrees in a given health professions
school.
2. The top quartile (75th percentile)
will serve as the eligibility threshold for
Hispanic, Native American, and
‘‘Other’’ COE applicants.
3. The Integrated Postsecondary
Education Data System (IPEDS)
Completions survey will provide the
raw data for threshold analysis. IPEDS
is a system of interrelated completed
surveys conducted annually by the U.S.
Department of Education’s National
Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
The IPEDS collects data on
postsecondary education in the United
States, including the number of students
who complete a postsecondary
education program by type of program
and level of award (certificate or
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68771
degree). The IPEDS is available at
https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/
DataFiles.aspx. Separate thresholds will
be calculated and established for each of
the following four categories: Allopathic
and osteopathic medicine; pharmacy;
dentistry; and, behavioral or mental
health.
Individual schools will be responsible
for calculating their percentage of URM
graduates with degrees. Schools’
graduation rate percentages will be
compared to the thresholds established
through the methodology described
above. If a school meets or exceeds the
threshold, it will meet the graduation
eligibility criterion for the COE program.
To calculate their URM graduation
percentage, health professions schools
would:
1. Sum the appropriate URM
(Hispanic, Native American, or ‘‘Other’’)
population that completed and
successfully graduated from the health
professions school with degrees across
the most recent three years (A).
2. Sum the total student population
that completed and successfully
graduated from the health professions
school with degrees across the most
recent three years (B).
3. Divide A by B to arrive at the
average designated URM percentage of
successful graduates from the health
professions schools with degrees across
the past three years.
To be eligible for the COE program,
Hispanic, Native American and ‘‘Other’’
applicants must meet or exceed the
proposed graduation thresholds. The
proposed graduation threshold in each
of the eligible fields of study is the 75th
percentile of URM graduation rates as
reported to the IPEDS. The 75th
percentile was determined based on an
analysis of the IPEDS Completions
survey of 2009 data within the
appropriate field of study, as defined by
the Classification of Instructional
Program (CIP) code system. The CIP is
the accepted federal government
statistical standard on instructional
program classifications. The ‘‘Total
Programs’’ per discipline represents the
number of programs reporting a
completions rate for the given CIP code
in the U.S. within the IPEDS system.
Proposed Graduation Rate Eligibilty
Thresholds
The analysis would be as follows:
Allopathic And Osteopathic Medicine
Programs (Doctors of Medicine, Doctors
of Osteopathy)
Total Programs Reported in IPEDS =
142.
Hispanic graduation rate eligibility
threshold = 6.3 percent.
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68772
Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 215 / Monday, November 7, 2011 / Notices
Native American graduation rate
eligibility threshold = 1.0 percent.
‘‘Other’’ COE graduation rate eligibility
threshold = 14.1 percent.
Dentistry (Doctors of Dental Surgery,
Doctors of Dental Medicine)
Total Programs Reported in IPEDS = 59.
Hispanic graduation rate eligibility
threshold = 7.1 percent.
Native American graduation rate
eligibility threshold = 1.4 percent.
‘‘Other’’ COE graduation rate eligibility
threshold = 13.5 percent.
Pharmacy (Doctor of Pharmacy)
Total Programs Reported in IPEDS = 94.
Hispanic graduation rate eligibility
threshold = 3.5 percent.
Native American graduation rate
eligibility threshold = 0.5 percent.*
Other COE graduation rate eligibility
threshold = 10.0 percent.
Behavioral or Mental Health
Total Programs Reported in IPEDS =
1928.
Hispanic graduation rate eligibility
threshold = 7.7 percent.
Native American graduation rate
eligibility threshold = 0.66 percent.*
Other COE graduation rate eligibility
threshold = 26.1 percent.
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* Due to the limited number of Native
Americans graduating with a Doctor of
Pharmacy or a graduate degree in Behavioral
or Mental Health from the school of
discipline, the proposed graduation rate
eligibility threshold for these two disciplines
is based on the mean percentage and not on
the 75 percentile of Native Americans
graduating with the required degree.
C. Criterion three: The third criterion
requires designated health professions
schools to have effectively recruited
URMs, including providing scholarships
and other financial assistance for
individuals enrolled in the school, and
encouraging URM students from all
levels of the education pipeline to
pursue health professions careers. Such
schools are responsible for establishing
criteria for financial assistance, selecting
recipients within the Centers of
Excellence program, and making
reasonable determinations of need for
the level of financial assistance for the
recipients. Each school will
independently develop the criteria to
receive financial assistance, submit this
information in their application, where
it collectively will be objectively
reviewed by the peer review panel. The
availability of financial assistance, as
formulated by the health professions
school, is designed to assist in
increasing the level of URM health
professionals who successfully
complete the program, as well as
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increase their intent to practice in
underserved areas.
D. Criterion four: The fourth criterion
requires designated health professions
schools to have made a significant
recruitment effort to increase the
number of URM individuals serving in
faculty or administrative positions at the
school. A major COE program focus is
to improve the capacity of the school to
train, recruit, and retain URM faculty
and administrative personnel. A health
professions school should demonstrate
over a 5-year period a ‘‘significant
effort’’ to recruit and retain URM faculty
and administrative positions based on
the number of URM faculty and new
URM hires.
The catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance Number for the COE program
is 93.157. This program is not subject to
the provisions of Executive Order
12372, Intergovernmental Review of
Federal Programs (as implemented
through 45 CFR part 100). Further, these
programs are not subject to the Public
Health Systems Reporting
Requirements. The Centers of
Excellence Program application is
approved under OMB No. 0915–0060.
Dated: November 1, 2011.
Mary K. Wakefield,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2011–28670 Filed 11–4–11; 8:45 am]
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Coast Guard
[USCG–2011–1014]
Information Collection Requests to
Office of Management and Budget
Coast Guard, DHS.
Sixty-day notice requesting
comments.
AGENCY:
ACTION:
In compliance with the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the
U.S. Coast Guard intends to submit
Information Collection Requests (ICRs)
to the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB), Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), requesting an
extension of its approval for the
following collections of information:
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collect from the public. Before
submitting these ICRs to OIRA, the
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described below.
DATES: Comments must reach the Coast
Guard on or before January 6, 2012.
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 215 (Monday, November 7, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 68770-68772]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-28670]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Health Resources and Services Administration
Proposed Eligibility Criteria for the Centers of Excellence
Program in Health Professions Education for Under-Represented Minority
Individuals
AGENCY: Health Resources and Services Administration, HHS.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: This notice requests comments on proposed eligibility criteria
for the Centers of Excellence (COE) program in health professions
education for under-represented minority (URM) individuals (See Title
VII, Section 736 of the Public Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 293 (2011)
as amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Public
Law 111-148, Sec. 5401 (2010)). When finalized, these eligibility
criteria will be used to determine the eligibility of designated health
professions schools to apply for COE funding in fiscal year (FY) 2012
and subsequent fiscal years. Funding is dependent on the availability
of appropriated funds for the COE program. The designated health
professions schools are schools of allopathic medicine, osteopathic
medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and graduate programs in behavioral or
mental health. This does not apply to Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs) eligible to establish a COE, under PHS Act section
736(c)(2).
DATES: Interested persons are invited to comment within 30 days of the
publication of this notice. All comments received on or before those 30
days complete will be considered.
ADDRESSES: All written comments concerning this notice should be
submitted to Dr. Joan Weiss, Director, Division of Public Health and
Interdisciplinary Education, at the contact information below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Anyone requesting additional details
should contact Dr. Joan Weiss, Bureau of Health Professions, Health
Resources and Services Administration. Dr. Weiss may be reached in one
of three following methods: (1) Via written request to: Dr. Joan Weiss,
Designated Federal Official, Bureau of Health Professions, Health
Resources and Services Administration, Parklawn Building, Room 9-36,
5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20852; (2) via
[[Page 68771]]
telephone at (301) 443-6950; or (3) via email at jweiss@hrsa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Purpose: The COE program supports programs of excellence in health
professions education for URM individuals in designated health
professions schools. The categories of designated health professions
schools subject to this notice are: (1) Hispanic, (2) Native American,
and (3) ``Other'' health professions schools that meet the program
requirements. Centers of Excellence provide academic enhancement
programs to URM individuals; develop a large and competitive applicant
pool to pursue health professions careers; and improve the capacity of
schools to recruit, train, and retain URM faculty. The COE program
facilitates faculty and student research on health issues particularly
affecting URM groups. In addition, the program carries out activities
to improve information resources, clinical education, curricula and
cultural competence of schools' graduates relating to minority health
issues. Training students to provide health services to a significant
number of URM individuals at community-based health facilities and
providing financial assistance, as available and appropriate, are also
required.
Eligibility Criteria: To be eligible for funding, the PHS Act
requires designated health professions schools to meet each of four
criteria. The schools must: (1) Have a significant number of URM
students enrolled, including individuals accepted for enrollment; (2)
have been effective in assisting URM students to complete their
educational program and receive the degree involved; (3) have been
effective in recruiting URM students to enroll in and graduate from the
school, including providing scholarships and other financial assistance
and encouraging URM students at all levels of the educational pipeline
to pursue health professions careers; and (4) have made significant
recruitment efforts to increase the number of URM individuals serving
in faculty or administrative positions at the school.
The COE program aims to support institutions with a commitment to
URMs, which includes demonstrated effectiveness in recruiting,
teaching, training, and retaining current and future URM health
professionals, both as practitioners and as faculty. This announcement
details the proposed approach that the Secretary will use to assess
whether schools and other eligible entities meet the eligible criteria
defined in statute. Beginning in FY 2012, the following approach will
be used to assess whether applicants meet eligibility criteria.
A. Criterion one: The school must have a significant number of URM
students enrolled in the designated health professions education
program. The Secretary will determine the significant number for
Hispanic and Native American COEs based on a percentage of the current
number of URM students enrolled in these schools. This determination is
unnecessary, however, for HBCUs because they meet the significant
number condition by virtue of their definition. With respect to the
eligible ``Other'' COE health professions schools, the PHS Act requires
these schools to have a current enrollment of URMs above the national
average.
B. Criterion two: The second criterion requires designated health
professions schools to be effective in assisting its URM students to
successfully complete the program of education and to receive the
appropriate professional degree. Graduation rates are calculated,
determined, and provided by health professions schools applying for COE
funding. To account for varying class sizes across the health
professions schools, the graduation rate eligibility thresholds for
Hispanic, Native American, and ``Other'' COEs in the designated health
professions will be determined using the following procedure:
1. Health professions schools and programs will be ranked according
to the percentage of URMs (e.g., Hispanic, Native American, or
``Other'') successfully graduating from such health professions schools
or programs with degrees each year, as calculated by the total number
of URM students graduating from the health professions school with
degrees divided by the total number of students graduating with degrees
in a given health professions school.
2. The top quartile (75th percentile) will serve as the eligibility
threshold for Hispanic, Native American, and ``Other'' COE applicants.
3. The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
Completions survey will provide the raw data for threshold analysis.
IPEDS is a system of interrelated completed surveys conducted annually
by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES). The IPEDS collects data on postsecondary education
in the United States, including the number of students who complete a
postsecondary education program by type of program and level of award
(certificate or degree). The IPEDS is available at https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/DataFiles.aspx. Separate thresholds will be calculated
and established for each of the following four categories: Allopathic
and osteopathic medicine; pharmacy; dentistry; and, behavioral or
mental health.
Individual schools will be responsible for calculating their
percentage of URM graduates with degrees. Schools' graduation rate
percentages will be compared to the thresholds established through the
methodology described above. If a school meets or exceeds the
threshold, it will meet the graduation eligibility criterion for the
COE program. To calculate their URM graduation percentage, health
professions schools would:
1. Sum the appropriate URM (Hispanic, Native American, or
``Other'') population that completed and successfully graduated from
the health professions school with degrees across the most recent three
years (A).
2. Sum the total student population that completed and successfully
graduated from the health professions school with degrees across the
most recent three years (B).
3. Divide A by B to arrive at the average designated URM percentage
of successful graduates from the health professions schools with
degrees across the past three years.
To be eligible for the COE program, Hispanic, Native American and
``Other'' applicants must meet or exceed the proposed graduation
thresholds. The proposed graduation threshold in each of the eligible
fields of study is the 75th percentile of URM graduation rates as
reported to the IPEDS. The 75th percentile was determined based on an
analysis of the IPEDS Completions survey of 2009 data within the
appropriate field of study, as defined by the Classification of
Instructional Program (CIP) code system. The CIP is the accepted
federal government statistical standard on instructional program
classifications. The ``Total Programs'' per discipline represents the
number of programs reporting a completions rate for the given CIP code
in the U.S. within the IPEDS system.
Proposed Graduation Rate Eligibilty Thresholds
The analysis would be as follows:
Allopathic And Osteopathic Medicine Programs (Doctors of Medicine,
Doctors of Osteopathy)
Total Programs Reported in IPEDS = 142.
Hispanic graduation rate eligibility threshold = 6.3 percent.
[[Page 68772]]
Native American graduation rate eligibility threshold = 1.0 percent.
``Other'' COE graduation rate eligibility threshold = 14.1 percent.
Dentistry (Doctors of Dental Surgery, Doctors of Dental Medicine)
Total Programs Reported in IPEDS = 59.
Hispanic graduation rate eligibility threshold = 7.1 percent.
Native American graduation rate eligibility threshold = 1.4 percent.
``Other'' COE graduation rate eligibility threshold = 13.5 percent.
Pharmacy (Doctor of Pharmacy)
Total Programs Reported in IPEDS = 94.
Hispanic graduation rate eligibility threshold = 3.5 percent.
Native American graduation rate eligibility threshold = 0.5 percent.*
Other COE graduation rate eligibility threshold = 10.0 percent.
Behavioral or Mental Health
Total Programs Reported in IPEDS = 1928.
Hispanic graduation rate eligibility threshold = 7.7 percent.
Native American graduation rate eligibility threshold = 0.66 percent.*
Other COE graduation rate eligibility threshold = 26.1 percent.
* Due to the limited number of Native Americans graduating with
a Doctor of Pharmacy or a graduate degree in Behavioral or Mental
Health from the school of discipline, the proposed graduation rate
eligibility threshold for these two disciplines is based on the mean
percentage and not on the 75 percentile of Native Americans
graduating with the required degree.
C. Criterion three: The third criterion requires designated health
professions schools to have effectively recruited URMs, including
providing scholarships and other financial assistance for individuals
enrolled in the school, and encouraging URM students from all levels of
the education pipeline to pursue health professions careers. Such
schools are responsible for establishing criteria for financial
assistance, selecting recipients within the Centers of Excellence
program, and making reasonable determinations of need for the level of
financial assistance for the recipients. Each school will independently
develop the criteria to receive financial assistance, submit this
information in their application, where it collectively will be
objectively reviewed by the peer review panel. The availability of
financial assistance, as formulated by the health professions school,
is designed to assist in increasing the level of URM health
professionals who successfully complete the program, as well as
increase their intent to practice in underserved areas.
D. Criterion four: The fourth criterion requires designated health
professions schools to have made a significant recruitment effort to
increase the number of URM individuals serving in faculty or
administrative positions at the school. A major COE program focus is to
improve the capacity of the school to train, recruit, and retain URM
faculty and administrative personnel. A health professions school
should demonstrate over a 5-year period a ``significant effort'' to
recruit and retain URM faculty and administrative positions based on
the number of URM faculty and new URM hires.
The catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number for the COE
program is 93.157. This program is not subject to the provisions of
Executive Order 12372, Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs (as
implemented through 45 CFR part 100). Further, these programs are not
subject to the Public Health Systems Reporting Requirements. The
Centers of Excellence Program application is approved under OMB No.
0915-0060.
Dated: November 1, 2011.
Mary K. Wakefield,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2011-28670 Filed 11-4-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4165-15-P
