Indian Health Service 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In compliance with Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 which requires 30 days for public comment on proposed information collection projects, the Indian Health Service (IHS) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve the information collection listed below. This proposed information collection project was previously published in the Federal Register (73 FR 23254) on August 25, 2008 and allowed 60 days for public comment. No public comment was received in response to the notice. The purpose of this notice is to allow 30 days for public comment to be submitted directly to OMB. Proposed Collection: Title: 0917-NEW, ``Indian Health Service HIV Knowledge/Attitudes/Practice Customer Survey.'' Type of Information Collection Request: This is a one time survey to deliver the mission of the IRS and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) national guidelines collection, 0917-NEW, ``Indian Health Service HIV Knowledge/Attitudes/ Practice Customer Survey.'' Form Number(s): None. Need and Use of Information Collection: The IHS goal is to raise the health status of the American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people to the highest possible level by providing comprehensive health care and preventive health services. To support the IHS mission, the Division of Epidemiology and Disease Prevention (DEDP) and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Program collaborate to provide programmatic, technical, and financial assistance to IRS Areas and Service Units for improving prevention, detection, and treatment of infectious and chronic disease, specifically in this case, HIV and Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD). The ``HIV Knowledge/Attitudes/Practice Customer Survey'' (hereafter referred to as Customer Survey), will provide the information needed to understand the most effective and appropriate methods to complete these goals. With the information collected from patients, the DEDP and HIV programs will be able to offer recommendations to Service Units on how to best scale up screening for sensitive topics such as HIV and STDs in AllAN communities. Also, the information will give lETS the tools to assist the IHS Service Units with implementation of current national recommendations by CDC. At the moment, the DEDP and HIV programs are encouraging uptake of current CDC national recommendations; however, without this information, the DEDP and HIV programs are unable to maximize effectiveness, dispel myths, and identify misinformation. Voluntary customer surveys will be conducted through self- administered questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, and potentially electronic media. The information gathered will be used by DEDP and the HIV Program to identify how patients would prefer to be offered expanded testing in a way that is respectful, confidential, and effective. Affected Public: Individuals. Type of Respondents: IHS customers. The table below provides: Types of data collection instruments, estimated number of respondents, responses per respondent, average burden hour per response, and total annual burden hour(s).

In compliance with Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 which requires 30 days for public comment on proposed information collection projects, the Indian Health Service (IHS) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve the information collection listed below. This proposed information collection project was previously published in the Federal Register (73 FR 23254) on August 25, 2008 and allowed 60 days for public comment. No public comment was received in response to the notice. The purpose of this notice is to allow 30 days for public comment to be submitted directly to OMB. Proposed Collection: Title: 0917-NEW, ``Indian Health Service Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Grantee Survey.'' Type of Information Collection Request: This is a one-time survey to fulfill an OMB request for an independent external evaluation collection, 0917-NEW, ``Indian Health Service Health Promotional Disease Prevention (HP/DP) Grantee Survey.'' Form Number(s): None. Need and Use of Information Collection: The IHS goal is to raise the health status of the American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people to the highest possible level by providing comprehensive health care and preventive health services. HP/DP is one of the three IHS Director's initiatives to reduce health disparities among AI/AN populations through a coordinated and systematic approach to enhance health promotion and chronic disease prevention approaches at the local, regional, and national levels. The HP/DP competitive grant was established in 2005 to encourage Tribal and urban Indian programs to fully engage their local schools, communities, health care providers, health centers, faith-based/ spiritual communities, senior centers, youth programs, local governments, academia, non-profit organizations, and many other community sectors to work together to enhance and promote health and prevent chronic disease in their communities. Thirty-three Tribal/urban Indian organizations and programs were awarded competitive grants to expand and enhance health promotion and disease prevention to address health disparities among AI/AN populations. To conduct a thorough evaluation of the grant program, 29 telephone and four face-to-face interviews will be conducted to collect information to complete a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the HP/DP grant program. The teleconference interviews may include one staff member per site. Each of the Tribal/urban organization/programs will determine the number of their staff members that will participate in the interview. The evaluation will include an assessment of whether HP/DP grantees achieve measurable health outcomes, synthesize the evaluation findings, and include a written report with recommendations to enhance program effectiveness. The information gathered will be used to prepare a final report for OMB. Affected Public: Individuals. Type of Respondents: Tribal/urban organizations program staff. The table below provides: Types of data collection instruments, estimated number of respondents, number of responses per respondent, average burden hour per response, and total annual burden hour(s).

In compliance with Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 which requires 30 days for public comment on proposed information collection projects, the Indian Health Service (IHS) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve the information collection listed below. This proposed information collection project was previously published in the Federal Register (73 FR 23254) on April 29, 2008 and allowed 60 days for public comment. No public comment was received in response to the notice. The purpose of this notice is to allow 30 days for public comment to be submitted directly to OMB. Proposed Collection: Title: 0917-NEW, ``Behavioral Health Preventative Care Assessment Focus Group.'' Type of Information Collection Request: Three year approval for this new information collection, 091 7-NEW, ``Behavioral Health Preventive Care Assessment Focus Group Guide.'' Form Number(s): None. Need and Use of Information Collection: The IHS goal is to raise the health status of the American Indian and Alaska Native people to the highest possible level by providing comprehensive health care and preventive health services. To support the IHS mission, IHS uses the Government Performance Act (GPRA) to assess quality of care among its Federal, urban, and Tribal health programs. The IHS has been largely successful in meeting GPRA targets for selected clinical performance measures at the national level. However, there is significant variability in performance among IHS and Tribal service units. Until this time, IHS has not undertaken any comprehensive studies to evaluate the reasons for that variability or the factors that contribute to high quality care at the local level. The IHS has three GPRA measures relating to behavioral health, a high priority for the Agency and one of the IHS Director's Initiatives. This study will focus on these three GPRA behavioral health measures: Depression Screening in adults age 18 and over, Domestic/Intimate Partner Violence screening in women ages 15-40 and Alcohol Screening (to prevent Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) in women ages 15-44. Tribal programs voluntarily report their GPRA results quarterly and annually for national reporting. GPRA data collected for these three behavioral health measures includes: The number of patients eligible for a screening (denominator), number of eligible patients who receive a screening (numerator), and the resulting screening rate (percentage). IHS has developed a methodology to identify superior and poor performers on these measures in both Tribal and Federal sites using fiscal year 2005, 2006, and 2007 GPRA performance results. IHS will convene focus groups with employees at 17 of these programs (7 IHS and 10 Tribal) in order to identify the factors contributing to (and when appropriate, the barriers preventing) the provision of high quality behavioral health care at the local level. These focus groups will allow employees to provide detailed data regarding program practices, screening and documentation procedures, initiatives, resources, and other factors relating to the provision of behavioral health preventive care at their health program. A total of two to three focus groups, organized by occupational specialty, will be convened at each program. Using the Chronic Care Model and Institute of Medicine recommendations, IHS will analyze the information collected during these site visits, along with background information that is publicly available (e.g., information found on clinic Web pages) on other qualitative and quantitative features of individual programs, such as staffing and funding levels, community demographics, and organizational structure, to develop a behavioral health preventive care model relevant to the unique system of IHS delivery. Affected Public: Individuals. Type of Respondents: Tribal employees at Tribal health programs. The table below provides: Types of data collection instruments, Estimated number of respondents, Number of responses per respondent, Number of total annual responses, Average burden hour per response, and Total annual burden hour(s).

In compliance with Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 which requires 60 days for public comment on proposed information collection projects, the Indian Health Service (IHS) is publishing for comment a summary of a proposed information collection to be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. Proposed Collection: Title: 0917-NEW, ``Indian Health Service Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Grantee Survey.'' Type of Information Collection Request: This is a one time survey to fulfill an OMB request for an independent external evaluation collection, 0917- NEW, ``Indian Health Service Health Promotion/Disease Prevention (HP/ DP) Grantee Survey.'' Form(s): The Indian Health Service HP/DP Interview Survey. Need and Use of Information Collection: The IHS goal is to raise the health status of the American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people to the highest possible level by providing comprehensive health care and preventive health services. HP/DP is one of the three IHS Director's Initiatives to reduce health disparities among AI/AN populations through a coordinated and systematic approach to enhance health promotion and chronic disease prevention approaches at the local, regional, and national levels. The HP/DP competitive grant was established in 2005 to encourage Tribal and urban Indian programs to fully engage their local schools, communities, health care providers, health centers, faith-based/ spiritual communities, senior centers, youth programs, local governments, academia, non-profit organizations, and many other community sectors to work together to enhance and promote health and prevent chronic disease in their communities. Thirty-three Tribal/urban Indian organizations and programs were awarded competitive grants to expand and enhance health promotion and disease prevention to address health disparities among AI/AN populations. To conduct a thorough evaluation of the grant program, 29 telephone and four face-to-face interviews will be conducted to collect information to complete a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the HP/DP grant program. The teleconference interviews may include one staff member per site. Each of the Tribal/urban organization/ programs will determine the number of their staff members that will participate in the interview. The evaluation will include an assessment of whether HP/DP grantees achieve measurable health outcomes, synthesize the evaluation findings, and include a written report with recommendations to enhance program effectiveness. The information gathered will be used to prepare a final report for OMB. Affected Public: Individuals. Type of Respondents: Tribal/Urban organizations program staff. The table below provides: Types of data collection instruments, Estimated number of respondents, Number of responses per respondent, Average burden hour per response, and Total annual burden hour(s).

In compliance with Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 which requires 30 days for public comment on proposed information collection projects, the Indian Health Service (IHS) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve the information collection listed below. This proposed information collection project was previously published in the Federal Register (73 FR 29520) on May 21, 2008 and allowed 60 days for public comment. No public comment was received in response to the notice. The purpose of this notice is to allow 30 days for public comment to be submitted directly to OMB. Proposed Collection: Title: 0917-0014, ``Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program.'' Type of Information Collection Request: Extension, without revision, of currently approved information collection, 0917- 0014, ``Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program.'' Form Number(s): The IHS Loan Repayment Program Information Booklet contains the instructions and the application formats. Need and Use of Information Collection: The IHS Loan Repayment Program (LRP) identifies health professionals with pre-existing financial obligations for education expenses that meet program criteria and who are qualified and willing to serve at, often remote, IHS health care facilities. Under the program, eligible health professionals sign a contract under which the IHS agrees to repay part or all of their indebtedness for professional training education. In exchange, the health professionals agree to serve for a specified period of time in IHS health care facilities. This program is necessary to augment the critically low health professional staff at IHS health care facilities. Any health professional wishing to have their health education loans repaid, may apply to the IHS Loan Repayment Program. A two-year contract obligation is signed by both parties, and the individual agrees to work at an IHS location and provide health services to Native American and Alaska Native individuals. The information collected from individuals is analyzed and a score is given to each applicant. This score will determine which applicants will be awarded each fiscal year. The administrative scoring system assigns a score to the geographic location according to vacancy rates for that fiscal year and also considers whether the location is in an isolated area. When an applicant takes employment at a location, they in turn ``pick-up'' the score of that location. Affected Public: Individuals and households. Type of Respondents: Individuals. The table below provides: Types of data collection instruments, Estimated number of respondents, Number of responses per respondent, Annual number of responses, Average burden hour per response, and Total annual burden hour(s).

The Indian Health Service published a document in the Federal Register (FR) on April 29, 2008. The document contained one error.

The Indian Health Service published a document in the Federal Register (FR) on March 31, 2008. The document contained three errors.

Notice is given that the Director of Indian Health Service (IHS), under the authority of sections 321(a) and 322(b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 248 and 249(b)), Public Law 83-568 (42 U.S.C. 2001 (a)), and the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), has approved the following rates for inpatient and outpatient medical care provided by IHS facilities for Calendar Year 2008 for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and beneficiaries of other Federal programs. The Medicare Part A inpatient rates are excluded from the table below as they are paid based on the prospective payment system. Since the inpatient rates set forth below do not include all physician services and practitioner services, additional payment may be available to the extent that those services meet applicable requirements. Public Law 106-554, section 432, dated December 21, 2000, authorized IHS facilities to file Medicare Part B claims with the carrier for payment for physician and certain other practitioner services provided on or after July 1, 2001.

In compliance with section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 which requires 30 days for public comment on proposed information collection projects, the Indian Health Service (IHS) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve the information collection listed below. This proposed information collection project was previously published in the Federal Register (72 FR 69696) on December 10, 2007 and allowed 60 days for public comment. No public comment was received in response to the notice. The purpose of this notice is to allow 30 days for public comment to be submitted directly to OMB. Proposed Collection: Title: 0917-NEW, ``Indian Health Service Customer Satisfaction Survey.'' Type of Information Collection Request: Three year approval of this new information collection, 0917-NEW, ``Indian Health Service Customer Satisfaction Survey.'' Form(s): Tribal Homeowner Survey, Tribal Partner Survey, Annual Operator Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Survey, and Post Construction O&M Survey. Need and Use of Information Collection: The IHS goal is to raise the health status of the American Indian and Alaska Native people to the highest possible level by providing comprehensive health care and preventive health services. To support the IHS mission, the Sanitation Facilities Construction Program (SFCP) provides technical and financial assistance to American Indian Tribes and Alaska Native villages for cooperative development and continues operation of safe water, wastewater, and solid waste systems and related support facilities. The Indian Health Service Office of Environmental Health and Engineering (OEHE), SFCP, ``Customer Satisfaction Surveys,'' will provide the information needed to complete these goals. With the information collected from Tribal homeowners, Tribal leaders, and Tribal operation and maintenance operators the Sanitation facilities programs will make improvements that will result in improved quality of services. Voluntary customer satisfaction surveys will be conducted through phone calls, mail, and the Internet. The information gathered will be used by agency management and staff to identify strengths and weaknesses in current service provision, to plan and redirect resources, to make improvements that are practical and feasible, and to provide vital feedback to partner agencies, Tribal leaders, system operators, health boards, and community members regarding customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the SFCP. Affected Public: Individuals. Type of Respondents: Homeowners who are customers of the OEHE, SFCP. The table below provides: Types of data collection instruments, Estimated number of respondents, Number of responses per respondent, Annual number of responses, Average burden hour per response, and Total annual burden hour(s).