Announcement of Requirements and Registration for the 2019 Million Hearts® Hypertension Control Challenge, 3447-3449 [2019-01914]
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[FR Doc. 2019–02033 Filed 2–11–19; 8:45 am]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention
Announcement of Requirements and
Registration for the 2019 Million
Hearts® Hypertension Control
Challenge
Authority: 15 U.S.C. 3719.
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS)
Award Approving Official: Robert R.
Redfield, MD, Director, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, and
Administrator, Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) located
within the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS) announces the
launch of the 2019 Million Hearts®
Hypertension Control Challenge.
Million Hearts® is a national initiative
to prevent one million heart attacks and
strokes by 2022. In order to prevent one
million events, we need to decrease
smoking, sodium consumption and
physical inactivity by 20%; improve
performance on appropriate aspirin use,
blood pressure control, cholesterol
management, and smoking cessation to
80%; and improve outcomes for priority
populations. Over the last five years, we
have seen tremendous progress by
providers and health care systems that
focus on improving their performance in
controlling patients’ blood pressure.
Getting to 80% control would mean that
10 million more Americans with
hypertension would have their blood
pressure under control, and be at
substantially lower risk for strokes,
heart attacks and other events. For more
information about the initiative, visit
https://millionhearts.hhs.gov/ .
The challenge is an important way to
call attention to the need for improved
control, provides a powerful motivation
and target for clinicians, and will
improve understanding of successful
implementation strategies at the health
system level. It will identify clinicians,
clinical practices, and health systems
SUMMARY:
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3447
that have exceptional rates of
hypertension control and recognize
them as 2019 Million Hearts®
Hypertension Control Champions. To
support improved quality of care
delivered to patients with hypertension,
Million Hearts® will document the
systems, strategies, processes, and
staffing that contribute to the
exceptional blood pressure control rates
achieved by Champions.
DATES: The Challenge will accept
applications from February 14, 2019
through April 1, 2019.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mary George, Division for Heart Disease
and Stroke Prevention, National Center
for Chronic Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford
Hwy. NE, Mailstop F–73, Chamblee, GA
30341, Telephone: 770–488–2424,
Email: millionhearts@cdc.gov; subject
line of email: Million Hearts
Hypertension Control Challenge;
Attention: Mary George.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Subject of Challenge Competition
The challenge is authorized by Public
Law 111–358, the America Creating
Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote
Excellence in Technology, Education
and Science Reauthorization Act of
2010 (COMPETES Act).
Applicants for the 2019 Million
Hearts® Hypertension Control Challenge
will be asked to provide two
hypertension control rates for the
practice’s or health system’s
hypertensive population: a current rate
for the most recent 12-month reporting
period (e.g., 1/1/2018–12/31/2018) and
a previous rate for a 12-month period 1
year before the most recent reporting
period (e.g., 1/1/2017–12/31/2017).
Applicants will also be asked to provide
the prevalence of hypertension in their
population (more details provided
below), describe some population
characteristics (such as urban/rural
location, percent minority, percent
enrolled in Medicaid, percent with no
health insurance, and percent whose
primary language is not English) and
strategies used by the practice or health
system that support continued
improvements in blood pressure
control. A copy of the application form
will be available on the Challenge
website for the duration of the
Challenge.
Eligibility Rules for Participating in the
Competition
To be eligible to be recognized as a
Million Hearts® Hypertension Control
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Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 29 / Tuesday, February 12, 2019 / Notices
Champion under this challenge, an
individual or entity—
(1) Shall have completed the
application form in its entirety to
participate in the competition under the
rules developed by HHS/CDC;
(2) Shall have complied with all the
requirements in this section and satisfy
the requirements in one of the following
subparts:
a. Be a U.S. licensed clinician,
practicing in any U.S. setting, who
provides continuing care for adult
patients with hypertension. The
individual must be a citizen or
permanent resident of the U.S.;
b. Be a U.S. incorporated clinical
practice, defined as any practice with
two or more U.S. licensed clinicians
who by formal arrangement share
responsibility for a common panel of
patients, practice at the same physical
location or street address, and provide
continuing medical care for adult
patients with hypertension;
c. Be a health system, incorporated in
and maintaining a primary place of
business in the U.S., that provides
continuing medical care for adult
patients with hypertension. We
encourage large health systems (those
that are comprised of a large number of
geographically dispersed clinics and/or
have multiple hospital locations) to
consider having one or a few of the
highest performing clinics or regional
affiliates apply individually instead of
the health system applying as a whole;
(3) Must treat all adult patients with
hypertension in the practice seeking
care, not a selected subgroup of patients;
(4) Must have a data management
system (electronic or paper) that allows
HHS/CDC or their contractor to verify
data submitted;
(5) Must treat a minimum of 500 adult
patients annually and have a
hypertension control rate of at least
80%;
(6) May not be a Federal entity or
Federal employee acting within the
scope of their employment;
(7) An HHS employee must not work
on their application(s) during assigned
duty hours;
(8) Shall not be an employee of or
contractor at CDC;
(9) Must agree to participate in a data
validation process to be conducted by a
reputable independent contractor. Data
will be kept confidential by the
contractor to the extent applicable law
allows and will be shared with the CDC,
in aggregate form only (e.g., the
hypertension control rate for the
practice not individual patients’
hypertension values);
(10) Must agree to sign, without
revisions, a Business Associate
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Agreement with the contractor
conducting the data validation.
(11) Must have a written policy in
place about conducting periodic
background checks on all providers and
taking appropriate action based on the
results of the check. CDC’s contractor
may also request to review the policy
and any supporting information deemed
necessary. In addition, a health system
background check will be conducted by
CDC or a CDC contractor that includes
a search for The Joint Commission
sanctions and current investigations for
serious institutional misconduct (e.g.,
attorney general investigation).
Eligibility status, based upon the abovereferenced written policy, appropriate
action, and background check, will be
determined at the discretion of the CDC
consistent with CDC’s public health
mission.
(12) Must agree to be recognized if
selected and agree to participate in an
interview to develop a success story that
describes the systems and processes that
support hypertension control among
patients. Champions will be recognized
on the Million Hearts® website.
Strategies used by Champions that
support hypertension control may be
written into a success story, placed on
the Million Hearts® website, and
attributed to Champions.
In addition to meeting the
requirements listed in parts 1–12 above,
to be eligible to be recognized in the
challenge, an individual or entity also
must comply with the conditions or
requirements set forth in each of the
following paragraphs in this section.
Federal funds may not be used to
develop COMPETES Act challenge
applications or to fund efforts in
support of a COMPETES Act challenge.
Individual applicants and individuals
in a group practice must be free from
convictions for or pending
investigations of criminal and health
care fraud offenses such as felony health
care fraud, patient abuse or neglect;
felony convictions for other health carerelated fraud, theft, or other financial
misconduct; and felony convictions
relating to unlawful manufacture,
distribution, prescribing, or dispensing
of controlled substances as verified
through the Office of the Inspector
General List of Excluded Individuals
and Organizations. https://oig.hhs.gov/
exclusions/background.asp.
Individual applicants must be free
from serious sanctions, such as those for
misuse or mis-prescribing of
prescription medications. Eligibility
status of individual applicants with
serious sanctions will be determined at
the discretion of CDC. CDC or CDC’s
contractor may perform background
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checks on individual clinicians and
medical practices.
Champions previously recognized
through the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, and
2018 Million Hearts® Hypertension
Control Challenges retain their
designation as a ‘‘Champion’’ and are
not eligible to be named a Champion in
the 2019 challenge.
An individual or organization shall
not be disqualified from the 2019
Million Hearts Hypertension Control
Challenge for utilizing Federal facilities
or consulting with Federal employees
during a competition so long as the
facilities and Federal employees are
made available to all individuals and
organizations participating in the
competition on an equal basis.
By participating in this challenge, an
individual or organization agrees to
assume any and all risks related to
participating in the challenge.
Individuals or organizations also agree
to waive claims against the Federal
Government and its related entities,
except in the case of willful misconduct,
when participating in the challenge,
including claims for injury; death;
damage; or loss of property, money, or
profits, and including those risks caused
by negligence or other causes.
By participating in this challenge,
individuals and organizations agree to
protect the Federal Government against
third party claims for damages arising
from or related to challenge activities.
Individuals or organizations are not
required to hold liability insurance
related to participation in this
challenge.
No cash prize will be awarded.
Champions will receive national
recognition.
Registration Process for Participants
To participate and submit an
application, interested parties should go
to https://millionhearts.hhs.gov or
https://www.challenge.gov. On this site,
applicants will find the application
form and the rules and guidelines for
participating. Information required of
the applicants on the application form
includes:
• The size of the applicant’s adult
primary care patient population, a
summary of known patient
demographics (e.g., age distribution),
and any noteworthy patient population
characteristics (such as urban/rural
location, percent minority, percent
enrolled in Medicaid, percent with no
health insurance, and percent whose
primary language is not English).
• The number of the applicant’s adult
primary care patients, ages 18–85, who
were seen during the measurement year
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Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 29 / Tuesday, February 12, 2019 / Notices
and had a hypertension diagnosis (i.e.
hypertension prevalence).
• The applicant’s current
hypertension control rate for their
hypertensive population ages 18–85
during the measurement year is
required. In determining the
hypertension control rate, CDC defines
‘‘hypertension control’’ as a blood
pressure reading <140 mmHg systolic
and <90 mmHg diastolic among patients
ages 18–85 with a diagnosis of
hypertension.
• The hypertension control rate
should be for the provider’s or health
system’s entire adult hypertensive
patient population ages 18–85, and not
limited to a sample. The provider’s or
health system’s hypertensive population
ages 18–85 should include only patients
in primary care or in cardiology care in
the case of a cardiology clinic. Patients
seen only in dental care or behavioral
health care should not be included.
Examples of ineligible data submissions
include hypertension control rates that
are limited to treatment cohorts from
research studies or pilot studies,
patients limited to a specific age range
(such as 18–35 only), or patients
enrolled in limited scale quality
improvement projects.
• Completion of a checklist of
sustainable clinic systems or processes
that support hypertension control.
These may include provider or patient
incentives, dashboards, staffing
characteristics, electronic record
keeping systems, reminder or alert
systems, clinician reporting, service
modifications, etc. The estimated
burden for completing the application
form is 30 minutes.
Amount of the Prize
Up to 35 of the highest scoring
clinical practices or health systems will
be recognized as Million Hearts®
Hypertension Control Champions. No
cash prize will be awarded. Champions
will receive national recognition.
Basis Upon Which Winner Will Be
Selected
The application will be scored based
on two hypertension control rates: one
for your most recent 12-month reporting
period ending not earlier than December
31, 2017, and consistency with a
previous rate for a 12-month period 1
year before the current rate.
Phase 1 includes verification of the
hypertension prevalence and blood
pressure control rate data submitted and
a background check. For applicants
whose Phase 1 data is verified as
accurate and who pass the background
check without concerns, phase 2
consists of a medical chart review. The
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medical chart review will verify the
diagnosis of hypertension during the
reporting year as well as blood pressure
being controlled to <140 mmHg systolic
and <90 mmHg diastolic.
A CDC-sponsored panel of three to
five experts consisting of HHS/CDC staff
will review the applications that pass
phase 2 to select Champions. Final
selection of Champions will take into
account all the information from the
application form, the background check,
and data verification and validation. In
the event of tied scores based on the
hypertension control rate at any point in
the selection process, geographic
location may be taken into account to
ensure a broad distribution of
champions.
Some Champions will participate in a
post-challenge telephone interview. The
interview will include questions about
the strategies employed by the
individual practice or organization to
achieve high rates of hypertension
control, including barriers and
facilitators for those strategies. The
interview will focus on systems and
processes and should not require
preparation time by the Champion. The
estimated time for the interview is two
hours, which includes time to review
the interview protocol with the
interviewer, respond to the interview
questions, and review a summary about
the Champion’s practices. The summary
may be written as a success story and
will be posted on the Million Hearts®
website.
Additional Information
Information received from applicants
will be stored in a password protected
file on a secure server. The challenge
website will not include confidential or
proprietary information about
individual applicants, as described
further below. The database of
information submitted by applicants
will not be posted on the website.
Information collected from applicants
will include general details, such as the
business name, address, and contact
information of the applicant. This type
of information is generally publicly
available. The application will collect
and store only aggregate clinical data
through the application process; no
individually identifiable patient data
will be collected or stored. Confidential
or propriety data, clearly marked as
such, will be secured to the full extent
allowable by law.
Information for selected Champions,
such as the provider, practice, or health
system’s name, location, hypertension
control rate, and clinic practices that
support hypertension control will be
shared through press releases, the
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3449
challenge website, and Million Hearts®
and HHS/CDC resources.
Summary data on the types of systems
and processes that all applicants use to
control hypertension may be shared in
documents or other communication
products that describe generally used
practices for successful hypertension
control. HHS/CDC will use the summary
data only as described.
Compliance With Rules and Contacting
Contest Winners
Finalists and the Champions must
comply with all terms and conditions of
these Official Rules, and winning is
contingent upon fulfilling all
requirements herein. The initial finalists
will be notified by email, telephone, or
mail after the date of the judging.
Privacy
If Contestants choose to provide HHS/
CDC with personal information by
registering or filling out the submission
form through the Challenge.gov website,
that information is used to respond to
Contestants in matters regarding their
submission, announcements of
applicants, finalists, and winners of the
Contest.
General Conditions
HHS/CDC reserves the right to cancel,
suspend, and/or modify the Contest, or
any part of it, for any reason, at HHS/
CDC’s sole discretion.
Participation in this Contest
constitutes a contestants’ full and
unconditional agreement to abide by the
Contest’s Official Rules found at https://
www.Challenge.gov and https://
millionhearts.hhs.gov/.
Authority: 15 U.S.C. 3719.
Dated: February 6, 2019.
Sandra Cashman,
Executive Secretary, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2019–01914 Filed 2–11–19; 8:45 am]
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 29 (Tuesday, February 12, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3447-3449]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-01914]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Announcement of Requirements and Registration for the 2019
Million Hearts[supreg] Hypertension Control Challenge
Authority: 15 U.S.C. 3719.
AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS)
Award Approving Official: Robert R. Redfield, MD, Director, Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, and Administrator, Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) located
within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announces the
launch of the 2019 Million Hearts[supreg] Hypertension Control
Challenge.
Million Hearts[supreg] is a national initiative to prevent one
million heart attacks and strokes by 2022. In order to prevent one
million events, we need to decrease smoking, sodium consumption and
physical inactivity by 20%; improve performance on appropriate aspirin
use, blood pressure control, cholesterol management, and smoking
cessation to 80%; and improve outcomes for priority populations. Over
the last five years, we have seen tremendous progress by providers and
health care systems that focus on improving their performance in
controlling patients' blood pressure. Getting to 80% control would mean
that 10 million more Americans with hypertension would have their blood
pressure under control, and be at substantially lower risk for strokes,
heart attacks and other events. For more information about the
initiative, visit https://millionhearts.hhs.gov/ .
The challenge is an important way to call attention to the need for
improved control, provides a powerful motivation and target for
clinicians, and will improve understanding of successful implementation
strategies at the health system level. It will identify clinicians,
clinical practices, and health systems that have exceptional rates of
hypertension control and recognize them as 2019 Million Hearts[supreg]
Hypertension Control Champions. To support improved quality of care
delivered to patients with hypertension, Million Hearts[supreg] will
document the systems, strategies, processes, and staffing that
contribute to the exceptional blood pressure control rates achieved by
Champions.
DATES: The Challenge will accept applications from February 14, 2019
through April 1, 2019.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mary George, Division for Heart
Disease and Stroke Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease
Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, 4770 Buford Hwy. NE, Mailstop F-73, Chamblee, GA 30341,
Telephone: 770-488-2424, Email: millionhearts@cdc.gov; subject line of
email: Million Hearts Hypertension Control Challenge; Attention: Mary
George.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Subject of Challenge Competition
The challenge is authorized by Public Law 111-358, the America
Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in
Technology, Education and Science Reauthorization Act of 2010 (COMPETES
Act).
Applicants for the 2019 Million Hearts[supreg] Hypertension Control
Challenge will be asked to provide two hypertension control rates for
the practice's or health system's hypertensive population: a current
rate for the most recent 12-month reporting period (e.g., 1/1/2018-12/
31/2018) and a previous rate for a 12-month period 1 year before the
most recent reporting period (e.g., 1/1/2017-12/31/2017). Applicants
will also be asked to provide the prevalence of hypertension in their
population (more details provided below), describe some population
characteristics (such as urban/rural location, percent minority,
percent enrolled in Medicaid, percent with no health insurance, and
percent whose primary language is not English) and strategies used by
the practice or health system that support continued improvements in
blood pressure control. A copy of the application form will be
available on the Challenge website for the duration of the Challenge.
Eligibility Rules for Participating in the Competition
To be eligible to be recognized as a Million Hearts[supreg]
Hypertension Control
[[Page 3448]]
Champion under this challenge, an individual or entity--
(1) Shall have completed the application form in its entirety to
participate in the competition under the rules developed by HHS/CDC;
(2) Shall have complied with all the requirements in this section
and satisfy the requirements in one of the following subparts:
a. Be a U.S. licensed clinician, practicing in any U.S. setting,
who provides continuing care for adult patients with hypertension. The
individual must be a citizen or permanent resident of the U.S.;
b. Be a U.S. incorporated clinical practice, defined as any
practice with two or more U.S. licensed clinicians who by formal
arrangement share responsibility for a common panel of patients,
practice at the same physical location or street address, and provide
continuing medical care for adult patients with hypertension;
c. Be a health system, incorporated in and maintaining a primary
place of business in the U.S., that provides continuing medical care
for adult patients with hypertension. We encourage large health systems
(those that are comprised of a large number of geographically dispersed
clinics and/or have multiple hospital locations) to consider having one
or a few of the highest performing clinics or regional affiliates apply
individually instead of the health system applying as a whole;
(3) Must treat all adult patients with hypertension in the practice
seeking care, not a selected subgroup of patients;
(4) Must have a data management system (electronic or paper) that
allows HHS/CDC or their contractor to verify data submitted;
(5) Must treat a minimum of 500 adult patients annually and have a
hypertension control rate of at least 80%;
(6) May not be a Federal entity or Federal employee acting within
the scope of their employment;
(7) An HHS employee must not work on their application(s) during
assigned duty hours;
(8) Shall not be an employee of or contractor at CDC;
(9) Must agree to participate in a data validation process to be
conducted by a reputable independent contractor. Data will be kept
confidential by the contractor to the extent applicable law allows and
will be shared with the CDC, in aggregate form only (e.g., the
hypertension control rate for the practice not individual patients'
hypertension values);
(10) Must agree to sign, without revisions, a Business Associate
Agreement with the contractor conducting the data validation.
(11) Must have a written policy in place about conducting periodic
background checks on all providers and taking appropriate action based
on the results of the check. CDC's contractor may also request to
review the policy and any supporting information deemed necessary. In
addition, a health system background check will be conducted by CDC or
a CDC contractor that includes a search for The Joint Commission
sanctions and current investigations for serious institutional
misconduct (e.g., attorney general investigation). Eligibility status,
based upon the above-referenced written policy, appropriate action, and
background check, will be determined at the discretion of the CDC
consistent with CDC's public health mission.
(12) Must agree to be recognized if selected and agree to
participate in an interview to develop a success story that describes
the systems and processes that support hypertension control among
patients. Champions will be recognized on the Million Hearts[supreg]
website. Strategies used by Champions that support hypertension control
may be written into a success story, placed on the Million
Hearts[supreg] website, and attributed to Champions.
In addition to meeting the requirements listed in parts 1-12 above,
to be eligible to be recognized in the challenge, an individual or
entity also must comply with the conditions or requirements set forth
in each of the following paragraphs in this section.
Federal funds may not be used to develop COMPETES Act challenge
applications or to fund efforts in support of a COMPETES Act challenge.
Individual applicants and individuals in a group practice must be
free from convictions for or pending investigations of criminal and
health care fraud offenses such as felony health care fraud, patient
abuse or neglect; felony convictions for other health care-related
fraud, theft, or other financial misconduct; and felony convictions
relating to unlawful manufacture, distribution, prescribing, or
dispensing of controlled substances as verified through the Office of
the Inspector General List of Excluded Individuals and Organizations.
https://oig.hhs.gov/exclusions/background.asp.
Individual applicants must be free from serious sanctions, such as
those for misuse or mis-prescribing of prescription medications.
Eligibility status of individual applicants with serious sanctions will
be determined at the discretion of CDC. CDC or CDC's contractor may
perform background checks on individual clinicians and medical
practices.
Champions previously recognized through the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017,
and 2018 Million Hearts[supreg] Hypertension Control Challenges retain
their designation as a ``Champion'' and are not eligible to be named a
Champion in the 2019 challenge.
An individual or organization shall not be disqualified from the
2019 Million Hearts Hypertension Control Challenge for utilizing
Federal facilities or consulting with Federal employees during a
competition so long as the facilities and Federal employees are made
available to all individuals and organizations participating in the
competition on an equal basis.
By participating in this challenge, an individual or organization
agrees to assume any and all risks related to participating in the
challenge. Individuals or organizations also agree to waive claims
against the Federal Government and its related entities, except in the
case of willful misconduct, when participating in the challenge,
including claims for injury; death; damage; or loss of property, money,
or profits, and including those risks caused by negligence or other
causes.
By participating in this challenge, individuals and organizations
agree to protect the Federal Government against third party claims for
damages arising from or related to challenge activities.
Individuals or organizations are not required to hold liability
insurance related to participation in this challenge.
No cash prize will be awarded. Champions will receive national
recognition.
Registration Process for Participants
To participate and submit an application, interested parties should
go to https://millionhearts.hhs.gov or https://www.challenge.gov. On
this site, applicants will find the application form and the rules and
guidelines for participating. Information required of the applicants on
the application form includes:
The size of the applicant's adult primary care patient
population, a summary of known patient demographics (e.g., age
distribution), and any noteworthy patient population characteristics
(such as urban/rural location, percent minority, percent enrolled in
Medicaid, percent with no health insurance, and percent whose primary
language is not English).
The number of the applicant's adult primary care patients,
ages 18-85, who were seen during the measurement year
[[Page 3449]]
and had a hypertension diagnosis (i.e. hypertension prevalence).
The applicant's current hypertension control rate for
their hypertensive population ages 18-85 during the measurement year is
required. In determining the hypertension control rate, CDC defines
``hypertension control'' as a blood pressure reading <140 mmHg systolic
and <90 mmHg diastolic among patients ages 18-85 with a diagnosis of
hypertension.
The hypertension control rate should be for the provider's
or health system's entire adult hypertensive patient population ages
18-85, and not limited to a sample. The provider's or health system's
hypertensive population ages 18-85 should include only patients in
primary care or in cardiology care in the case of a cardiology clinic.
Patients seen only in dental care or behavioral health care should not
be included. Examples of ineligible data submissions include
hypertension control rates that are limited to treatment cohorts from
research studies or pilot studies, patients limited to a specific age
range (such as 18-35 only), or patients enrolled in limited scale
quality improvement projects.
Completion of a checklist of sustainable clinic systems or
processes that support hypertension control. These may include provider
or patient incentives, dashboards, staffing characteristics, electronic
record keeping systems, reminder or alert systems, clinician reporting,
service modifications, etc. The estimated burden for completing the
application form is 30 minutes.
Amount of the Prize
Up to 35 of the highest scoring clinical practices or health
systems will be recognized as Million Hearts[supreg] Hypertension
Control Champions. No cash prize will be awarded. Champions will
receive national recognition.
Basis Upon Which Winner Will Be Selected
The application will be scored based on two hypertension control
rates: one for your most recent 12-month reporting period ending not
earlier than December 31, 2017, and consistency with a previous rate
for a 12-month period 1 year before the current rate.
Phase 1 includes verification of the hypertension prevalence and
blood pressure control rate data submitted and a background check. For
applicants whose Phase 1 data is verified as accurate and who pass the
background check without concerns, phase 2 consists of a medical chart
review. The medical chart review will verify the diagnosis of
hypertension during the reporting year as well as blood pressure being
controlled to <140 mmHg systolic and <90 mmHg diastolic.
A CDC-sponsored panel of three to five experts consisting of HHS/
CDC staff will review the applications that pass phase 2 to select
Champions. Final selection of Champions will take into account all the
information from the application form, the background check, and data
verification and validation. In the event of tied scores based on the
hypertension control rate at any point in the selection process,
geographic location may be taken into account to ensure a broad
distribution of champions.
Some Champions will participate in a post-challenge telephone
interview. The interview will include questions about the strategies
employed by the individual practice or organization to achieve high
rates of hypertension control, including barriers and facilitators for
those strategies. The interview will focus on systems and processes and
should not require preparation time by the Champion. The estimated time
for the interview is two hours, which includes time to review the
interview protocol with the interviewer, respond to the interview
questions, and review a summary about the Champion's practices. The
summary may be written as a success story and will be posted on the
Million Hearts[supreg] website.
Additional Information
Information received from applicants will be stored in a password
protected file on a secure server. The challenge website will not
include confidential or proprietary information about individual
applicants, as described further below. The database of information
submitted by applicants will not be posted on the website. Information
collected from applicants will include general details, such as the
business name, address, and contact information of the applicant. This
type of information is generally publicly available. The application
will collect and store only aggregate clinical data through the
application process; no individually identifiable patient data will be
collected or stored. Confidential or propriety data, clearly marked as
such, will be secured to the full extent allowable by law.
Information for selected Champions, such as the provider, practice,
or health system's name, location, hypertension control rate, and
clinic practices that support hypertension control will be shared
through press releases, the challenge website, and Million
Hearts[supreg] and HHS/CDC resources.
Summary data on the types of systems and processes that all
applicants use to control hypertension may be shared in documents or
other communication products that describe generally used practices for
successful hypertension control. HHS/CDC will use the summary data only
as described.
Compliance With Rules and Contacting Contest Winners
Finalists and the Champions must comply with all terms and
conditions of these Official Rules, and winning is contingent upon
fulfilling all requirements herein. The initial finalists will be
notified by email, telephone, or mail after the date of the judging.
Privacy
If Contestants choose to provide HHS/CDC with personal information
by registering or filling out the submission form through the
Challenge.gov website, that information is used to respond to
Contestants in matters regarding their submission, announcements of
applicants, finalists, and winners of the Contest.
General Conditions
HHS/CDC reserves the right to cancel, suspend, and/or modify the
Contest, or any part of it, for any reason, at HHS/CDC's sole
discretion.
Participation in this Contest constitutes a contestants' full and
unconditional agreement to abide by the Contest's Official Rules found
at https://www.Challenge.gov and https://millionhearts.hhs.gov/.
Authority: 15 U.S.C. 3719.
Dated: February 6, 2019.
Sandra Cashman,
Executive Secretary, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2019-01914 Filed 2-11-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P
