2023-23130. Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection: Public Comment Request; Information Collection Request Title: Voluntary Partner Surveys To Implement Executive Order 14058 in the Health Resources and Services Administration,...

AGENCY:

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Health and Human Services.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with the requirement for opportunity for public comment on proposed data collection projects of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, HRSA announces plans to submit an Information Collection Request (ICR), described below, to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Prior to submitting the ICR to OMB, HRSA seeks comments from the public regarding the burden estimate, below, or any other aspect of the ICR.

DATES:

Comments on this ICR should be received no later than December 19, 2023.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments to [e-mail] or mail the HRSA Information Collection Clearance Officer, Room 14N39, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

To request more information on the proposed project or to obtain a copy of the data collection plans and draft instruments, email [e-mail] or call Joella Roland, the HRSA Information Collection Clearance Officer, at (301) 443–3983.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

When submitting comments or requesting information, please include the ICR title for reference.

Information Collection Request Title: Voluntary Partner Surveys to Implement Executive Order 14058 in the Health Resources and Services Administration, OMB No. 0915–0212—Revision.

Abstract: The purpose of information collections under this generic umbrella ICR package is to conduct a limited number of partner surveys. If this generic ICR is approved, information on each individual partner survey conducted under this generic ICR will not be published separately in the Federal Register . Approval of this specific umbrella ICR would allow HRSA to continue to conduct voluntary customer surveys of its partners to assess strengths and weaknesses in program services and processes. A previous version of this ICR was done in response to Executive Order 12862, which called on the federal government to gather feedback from customers, set customer service standards, and measure performance against those standards. In December 2021, the White House issued Executive Order 14058, calling on the federal government to improve its service delivery to its customers and put people at the center of federal government activity. In accordance with this directive, HRSA is requesting approval of this generic umbrella ICR from OMB to conduct the partner surveys with a slight increase in the allotted burden hours so that HRSA can assess its performance from a larger swath of its partner population to help ensure that HRSA's customer service delivery continues to improve, in accordance with the directive in Executive Order 14058.

HRSA customer service feedback will continue to be gathered in the form of focus groups, in-class evaluation forms, mail surveys, and telephone surveys. Although HRSA cannot anticipate all the collections that will fall under this generic umbrella ICR, HRSA anticipates receiving OMB approval to include the following collections:

• Surveys of HRSA grantees to determine satisfaction with grant processes or technical assistance provided by a HRSA contractor. Surveys may also be done to determine partner satisfaction with HRSA products or services. Surveys may be conducted by mail, telephone, or online. These surveys include the Division of Practitioner Data Bank Usability Survey generic fast track ICR, which helps identify strengths and weaknesses of the National Practitioner Data Bank customer service call center agents, and the HRSA Electronic Handbooks Customer Service Survey generic fast track ICR, which gathers public feedback about HRSA's electronic handbooks.
• Evaluation forms completed by providers who receive training from HRSA funding recipients, to measure satisfaction with the training experience. Evaluation forms may also be done after a conference or other training session with HRSA partners. Evaluation forms may be done hard-copy or online. One evaluation form generic fast track ICR that is expected to be included in this generic umbrella ICR is the National Ryan White Conference survey forms evaluating the National Ryan White Conference on HIV Care and Treatment and the Federal Cervical Cancer Collaborative Post-Roundtable Evaluation. This will help HRSA gain better understanding of participants' experiences attending the Federal Cervical Cancer Collaborative Roundtable meetings.

• Focus groups of HRSA grantees to learn more about their needs and concerns ( e.g., professional development, technical assistance, and current or expected issues with program operations). Focus groups may also be conducted to learn more about how the people served by HRSA programs react to messaging related to HRSA program activities. Focus groups may be conducted online or in person. The HRSA focus group generic fast track ICR that is expected to be included in this generic umbrella ICR includes the HRSA Division of Transplantation Formative Evaluation Minority Organ Donation Outreach consisting of a group of online focus groups designed to gather feedback on several campaign concepts.

Need and Proposed Use of the Information: Results of these surveys will be used to plan and redirect resources and efforts as needed to improve services and processes. Focus groups may also be used to gain partner input into the design of mail and telephone surveys.

Likely Respondents: HRSA partners are typically state or local governments, health care facilities, health care consortia, health care providers, and researchers. HRSA partners may also include individuals served by HRSA programs and/or funding recipients. Participation in any collections under this clearance will be entirely voluntary, and the privacy of respondents will be preserved to the extent requested by participants and as permitted by law.

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 number of respondents was revised based on information collections approved under the collection approved in 2021. HRSA anticipates that the total burden of collections under this generic package will be slightly greater than under the prior approval for two reasons. First, HRSA is incorporating the additional burden amount approved for this ICR via a 2023 non-substantive change memo. Second, HRSA is accounting for upcoming efforts to get public input from a larger swath of HRSA's partners in compliance with Executive Order 14058. HRSA has decreased its estimate of the average burden per response for surveys to account for the increasing use of telephone and online surveys, rather than mail-in surveys, which are more time-consuming. The total annual burden hours estimated for this ICR are summarized in the table below.

Total Estimated Annualized Burden Hours

Instrument	Number of respondents	Number of responses per respondent	Total responses	Average burden per response (in hours)	Total burden hours
Evaluation forms	41,000	1	41,000	0.05	84,050,000
Surveys (telephone, online)	55,000	1	55,000	0.10	8,250
Focus groups	2,000	1	2,000	1.50	3,000
Total	98,000		98,000		84,061,250

HRSA specifically requests comments on: (1) the necessity and utility of the proposed information collection for the proper performance of the agency's functions; (2) the accuracy of the estimated burden; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (4) the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology to minimize the information collection burden.

Maria G. Button,

Director, Executive Secretariat.