Indian Health Service October 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Request for Public Comment: 30-Day Proposed Information Collection: Behavioral Health Preventive Care Assessment Focus Group Guide
Document Number: E8-25795
Type: Notice
Date: 2008-10-31
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services, Indian Health Service
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).
Request for Public Comment: 30-Day Proposed Information Collection: Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program
Document Number: E8-24587
Type: Notice
Date: 2008-10-17
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services, Indian Health Service
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).
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