Notice of Federal Review of the Missouri Protection and Advocacy System (P&A), 40849 [2021-16131]
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40849
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 143 / Thursday, July 29, 2021 / Notices
Response: ACL in coordination with
ACL’s grantee, the National
Ombudsman Resource Center (NORC)
created in-depth training and training
manuals on all aspects of NORS
reporting, including examples of
narratives for both complaint examples
and systems issues and does not believe
that additional guidance is necessary.
See https://ltcombudsman.org/omb_
support/nors.
The Maryland Ombudsman program
also recommended the addition of a
new complaint code in Facility Policies,
Procedures and Practices (Code J) for
emergency planning complaints. The
Maryland Ombudsman program noted
that there have been many instances of
facilities needing to temporarily or
permanently relocate residents for a
variety of reasons from disasters to lack
of appropriate staff in the building,
facility closure, or the facility did not
have an appropriate plan or did not
have a plan at all.
Response: ACL will not add a new
complaint code, but will modify
complaint code J01 ‘‘Administrative
Oversight’’ to be inclusive of emergency
planning.
One recommendation was to include
the addition of a county field (e.g.,
Federal Information Processing
Standard code). The commenter noted
that although looking at differences/
variation between states is important
and valuable, having the ability to look
at differences/variation within each
state would be immensely beneficial for
the conduct of ACL’s functions and
able to share systems advocacy data.
Additionally, while NORS is one part of
measuring program effectiveness it is
not the only way that ACL determines
compliance with the Older Americans
Act. ACL provides continuous technical
assistance on matters of compliance,
conducted in-depth review of states
compliance with the Ombudsman
program regulation, and worked with
states to develop compliance plans. ACL
also has an on-going project to evaluate
the effectiveness of the Ombudsman
program and has gathered in-depth data
on both state and local level
Ombudsman program’s ability to
conduct systemic advocacy. See https://
acl.gov/programs/program-evaluationsand-reports. In addition, the proposed
data collection would be very
burdensome on state and local programs
to collect and report because the two
recommended data elements include a
sub-set of 10 possible elements to select
and to keep track of the number of
instances of each sub-set ultimately
resulting in 20 new data elements. This
type of data would not add meaningful
information that would benefit ACL
considering the level of effort required
of states to train on this type of data
collection, adapt software and report.
Estimated Program Burden
ACL estimates the burden associated
with this collection of information as
follows: Approximately 11,154 hours,
with 52 state Ombudsman programs
responding annually.
Respondent/data collection activity
Number of
respondents
Responses
per
respondent
Hours per
response
Annual
burden hours
Total .................................................................................................................
52
1
214.5
11,154
Dated: July 23, 2021.
Alison Barkoff,
Acting Administrator and Assistant Secretary
for Aging.
[FR Doc. 2021–16132 Filed 7–28–21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4154–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Community Living
jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with NOTICES
would allow for analytics to be shared
with state ombudsmen and other
programs nationwide.
Response: ACL does not accept this
recommendation because of the level of
burden necessary to gather and report
this level of data.
NASOP made recommendations to
broaden the types of activities reported
on systems issues work performed by
the State Long-Term Ombudsman, the
Office and local Ombudsman entities.
NASOP asserts that this reporting
element would provide needed depth
and clarity about whether a State LongTerm Care Ombudsman has the
necessary independence and resources
to perform systems advocacy as required
by the Older Americans Act. NASOP
proposes that data collected as narrative
examples of Systems Issues is
insufficient and does not have practical
utility without additional data
collection to explain the scope of a
state’s work on systems advocacy. ‘‘By
only collecting two examples of a
systems issue from each state, ACL has
no objective means of determining a
state’s compliance with the Act nor the
independence of the Office. With our
proposed addition data collection in
Table 3, ACL will collect and provide
the public with a more accurate picture
of whether a state program is fulfilling
the requirements of the Act.’’
Response: ACL does not agree with
NASOP’s assessment of the current data
collection on systems advocacy for
several reasons. First, the FY 2020 data
is not yet final and ACL has not been
Notice of Federal Review of the
Missouri Protection and Advocacy
System (P&A)
Administration for Community
Living, HHS.
AGENCY:
ACTION:
Notice.
VerDate Sep<11>2014
19:19 Jul 28, 2021
Jkt 253001
Representatives of the
Administration on Disabilities (AoD),
Administration for Community Living
(ACL), will be conducting a federal
review of the Missouri Protection and
Advocacy System (P&A) on September
13–17, 2021. AoD is soliciting
comments from interested parties on
your experiences with the program, and
strategies employed by P&A in meeting
the needs of individuals with
developmental disabilities and their
families in Missouri. You are
encouraged to share your experiences by
way of email or telephone.
DATES: Comments must be submitted
electronically or via telephone by
September 22, 2021, 11:59 p.m. (EST) in
order to be included in the final report.
Email: Katherine.Cargill-Willis@
acl.hhs.gov.
SUMMARY:
PO 00000
Frm 00048
Fmt 4703
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Telephone: 202–795–7322.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Katherine Cargill-Willis, Administration
for Community Living, Administration
on Disabilities, 330 C Street SW, 1st
Floor, Washington, DC 20201, 202–795–
7322.
Dated: July 23, 2021.
Alison Barkoff,
Acting Administrator & Assistant Secretary
for Aging.
[FR Doc. 2021–16131 Filed 7–28–21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4154–01–P
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[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 143 (Thursday, July 29, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Page 40849]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-16131]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Community Living
Notice of Federal Review of the Missouri Protection and Advocacy
System (P&A)
AGENCY: Administration for Community Living, HHS.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: Representatives of the Administration on Disabilities (AoD),
Administration for Community Living (ACL), will be conducting a federal
review of the Missouri Protection and Advocacy System (P&A) on
September 13-17, 2021. AoD is soliciting comments from interested
parties on your experiences with the program, and strategies employed
by P&A in meeting the needs of individuals with developmental
disabilities and their families in Missouri. You are encouraged to
share your experiences by way of email or telephone.
DATES: Comments must be submitted electronically or via telephone by
September 22, 2021, 11:59 p.m. (EST) in order to be included in the
final report.
Email: [email protected].
Telephone: 202-795-7322.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Katherine Cargill-Willis,
Administration for Community Living, Administration on Disabilities,
330 C Street SW, 1st Floor, Washington, DC 20201, 202-795-7322.
Dated: July 23, 2021.
Alison Barkoff,
Acting Administrator & Assistant Secretary for Aging.
[FR Doc. 2021-16131 Filed 7-28-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4154-01-P
