2019-26440. Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for Review and Approval; Public Comment Request; Data Collection Tool for State Offices of Rural Health Grant Program, OMB No. 0915-0322-Revision

AGENCY:

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

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, HRSA has submitted an Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. 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. OMB may act on HRSA's ICR only after the 30-day comment period for this Notice has closed.

DATES:

Comments on this ICR should be received no later than January 8, 2020.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments, including the ICR Title, to the desk officer for HRSA, either by email to [e-mail] or by fax to [phone].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

To request a copy of the clearance requests submitted to OMB for review, email Lisa Wright-Solomon, the HRSA Information Collection Clearance Officer at [e-mail] or call [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Information Collection Request Title: Data Collection Tool for State Offices of Rural Health Grant Program, OMB No. 0915-0322—Revision.

Abstract: The mission of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) is to sustain and improve access to quality care services for rural communities. In its authorizing language (Section 711 of the Social Security Act [42 U.S.C. 912]), Congress charged FORHP with administering grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts to provide technical assistance and other activities as necessary to support activities related to improving health care in rural areas. In accordance with the Public Health Service Act, Section 338J (42 U.S.C. 254r), HRSA proposes to continue the State Offices of Rural Health (SORH) Grant Program data collection process.

A 60-day notice published in the Federal Register on June 28, 2019, vol. 84, No. 125; pp. 31073-74. There were no public comments.

Need and Proposed Use of the Information: FORHP seeks to continue gathering information from grantees on their efforts to provide technical assistance to clients within their State. SORH grantees submit a Technical Assistance Report that includes: (1) The total number of technical assistance encounters provided directly by the grantee, and (2) the total number of unduplicated clients that received direct technical assistance from the grantee. These measures will continue with additional measures being added in the following three categories: (1) Information disseminated; (2) information created; and (3) collaborative efforts by topic area and type of audience. These proposed new measures are being added to obtain a more accurate depiction of the breadth of SORH work and are based on recommendations from the grantees. Submission of the Technical Assistance Report is submitted via the HRSA Electronic Handbook no later than 30 days after the end of each 12 month budget period.

Likely Respondents: Fifty State Offices of Rural Health.

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.

Total Estimated Annualized Burden—Hours

Form name	Number of respondents	Number of responses per respondent	Total responses	Average burden per response (in hours)	Total burden hours
Technical Assistance Report	50	1	50	13.5	675
Total	50		50		675

Maria G. Button,

Director, Executive Secretariat.