Health Resources and Services Administration April 1, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In compliance with section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will submit an Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Comments submitted during the first public review of this ICR will be provided to OMB. OMB will accept further comments from the public during the review and approval period. To request a copy of the clearance requests submitted to OMB for review, email paperwork@hrsa.gov or call the HRSA Reports Clearance Office at (301) 443-1984. Information Collection Request Title: Bureau of Health Professions Performance Data Collection (OMB No. 0915-0061)[Revision]. Abstract: Over 40 BHPr programs award grants to health professions schools and training programs across the United States to develop, expand, and enhance training; and to strengthen the distribution of the health workforce. Many of these programs are governed by the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 201 et seq.), specifically Titles III, VII, and VIII. Performance information is collected in the HRSA Performance Report for Grants and Cooperative Agreements (PRGCA). Data collection activities at application, progress, and annual performance satisfy statutory and programmatic requirements for performance measurement and evaluation (including specific Title III, VII and VIII requirements), as well as Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) requirements. The Affordable Care Act (Pub. L. 111- 148) impacted a broad range of health workforce programs administered by BHPr. It reauthorized most of these programs and, in some cases, expanded eligibility, modified program activities, and/or established new requirements. The Affordable Care Act also created new health professions programs. Therefore, it was necessary to reexamine BHPr's existing performance measures to ensure that they address these changes, meet evolving program management needs, and respond to emerging workforce concerns. The proposed revised data collection will enhance analysis and reporting of grantee training and education activities, outcomes, and intended practice locations. Data collected from these grant programs will also provide a description of the program activities of more than 1,600 reporting grantees to better inform policymakers on the barriers, opportunities, and outcomes involved in health care workforce development. The proposed measures focus on five key outcomes: (1) Increasing the workforce supply of diverse well-educated practitioners; (2) influencing the distribution of practitioners to practice in underserved and rural areas; (3) enhancing the quality of education; (4) diversifying the pipeline for new health professionals; and (5) supporting educational infrastructure to increase the capacity to train more health professionals. Revisions to the current reporting will require the collection of baseline data at the grant application and award stages and will include performance reporting semi-annually by the type of programs: direct financial support programs, infrastructure programs, and multipurpose or hybrid programs (could be direct financial support, infrastructure or both within the same grant program). Measures will be reported at the individual, program-specific and/or program cluster-levels. Burden Statement: Burden in this context means the time expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose or provide the information requested. This includes the time needed to review instructions, to develop, acquire, install and utilize technology and systems for the purpose of collecting, validating and verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information, to train personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of information, to search data sources, to complete and review the collection of information, and to transmit or otherwise disclose the information. The total annual burden hours estimated for this ICR are summarized in the table below. The annual estimate of burden is as follows: