[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 25 (Tuesday, February 6, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4444-4446]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-2374]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Office of the Secretary
Advisory Committees; Notice
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: This notice announces a new charter for the National Committee
on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) and solicits nominations for
membership on the Committee. The NCVHS is the statutory public advisory
body to the Department of Health and Human services in the area of
health data and statistics. The Charter has been revised to address
emerging issues in health data, including a focus on health data
standards and privacy issues.
A number of vacancies will occur on the Committee beginning on
March 1, 1996. New members of the Committee will be appointed to four
year terms by the Secretary from among persons who have distinguished
themselves in the following fields: Health statistics, electronic
interchange of health care information, privacy and security of
electronic information, population-based public health, purchasing or
financing health care services, integrated computerized health
information systems, health services research, consumer interests in
health information, health data standards, epidemiology, and the
provision of health services.
The Department will give close attention to equitable geographic
distribution and to minority and female representation. Appointments
will be made without discrimination on the basis of age, race, gender,
sexual orientation, HIV status, cultural, religious or socioeconomic
status.
DATES: Nominations for new members should include a letter describing
the qualifications of the nominee and the nominee's current resume or
vitae. The closing date for nominations is March 22, 1996. Nominations
previously submitted for vacancies occurring in 1995 automatically will
be considered in this solicitation and need not be resubmitted.
Nominations should be sent to the person named below: James
Scanlon, Executive Secretary, HHS Data Council, U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, Room 440-D, 200 Independence Avenue SW.,
Washington, DC 20201, (202) 690-7100.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
James Scanlon, (202) 690-7100.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Introduction
The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics serves as the
statutory public advisory body to the Department of Health and Human
Services in the area of health data and statistics. In that capacity,
the Committee provides advice and assistance to the Department on a
variety of key health data issues. Over its forty-five year history,
the Committee has stimulated a host of improvements in national and
international health data and statistics. The Committee has been
associated with groundbreaking contributions in such areas as disease
classification, health surveys, health data sets and standards as well
as privacy protection for health information.
Over its existence, the Committee has reshaped and redirected its
work in response to changing needs and priorities. The 1990's have
witnessed striking changes in health and health care and in health data
and information systems. Both the national environment for health
information systems and the nature of the information systems issues
which the Department is confronting have changed dramatically. For
example, ten years ago, efforts to improve data compatibility focused
on encouraging the use of standard paper forms. Today, public/private
compatibility requires coordination of electronic data transmission and
coding standards, and compatibility with the evolving national
information infrastructure. The new electronic information environment
is raising new privacy issues and magnifying the importance of insuring
that the Department's current policies are appropriate for new
technologies.
The revisions to the NCVHS charter and solicitation for new members
announced in this Notice are designed to refocus the NCVHS to reflect
these changes. Of particular concern is the lack of shared standards
for health data. Consensus on such standards could dramatically reduce
paperwork burdens and increase the analytic potential of health data.
Today, there is little ability to share, make multiple uses of, or link
data. Many electronic data systems cannot communicate with one another,
either within the private sector or between public and private data
holders. There is a developing consensus that everyone--consumers,
industry, policy makers--would be better served by more uniform,
voluntary shared standards for collection and transmission of health
information.
The NCVHS is in a unique position to serve as a national forum for
the collaboration of interested parties, with the long-term goal of
improving the compatibility of private sector, state, and federal
health information systems. In particular, the new charter will enable
the NCVHS to foster collaboration on voluntary means to facilitate and
accelerate the development of consensus across the public and private
sectors around key data standards and privacy issues.
[[Page 4445]]
The Committee will inform HHS data policy decision-making as well
as private sector and State data policy decision-making. Participants
will bring their expertise, perspectives, and concerns to the
Committee, and will bring back to their respective industries and
organizations the collective recommendations and rationale of the
Committee.
New Charter
Charter National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics
Purpose
Collection, analysis and dissemination of health and health-related
information is a crucial aspect of the responsibilities of the
Department of Health and Human Services. The Department is charged with
monitoring and improving the state of the nation's health and with
epidemiological tracking and intervention, and must collect, analyze,
and disseminate information on vital events, determinants of health,
the extent and nature of illness and disability of the population, and
the population's well-being. The Department funds and/or operates
health care delivery programs, and must collect and analyze information
for billing and payment, quality assessment, utilization tracking, and
program evaluation. The Department is one of the most important sources
of information about the health resources and the supply of health
services in the United States (in underserved areas and more generally)
and about health care costs and financing nation-wide. The Department
is responsible for biomedical and behavioral research, and is also
responsible for turning the results of that research into a public
resource, by making the information available to clinicians, consumers,
industry, and the research community. The Department also engages in
cooperative efforts with other countries and the international
community to foster health data standards and comparability and cross-
national research.
Pursuant to these and other activities, the Department collects
data from and disseminates data to our private sector and state
partners, the research community, health care providers and insurers,
and consumers. The ability to share, make multiple uses of, or link
data is limited and must be continuously improved. The lack of shared
standards for health data increases paperwork burdens and reduces the
analytic potential of health data.
This Committee shall serve as a national forum on health data and
information systems. It is intended to be a forum for collaboration of
interested parties to accelerate the evolution of public and private
health information systems toward more uniform, shared data standards,
operating within a framework protecting privacy and security. A long-
term purpose of the Committee is to promote increased interoperability
of diverse health information systems. The Committee shall encourage
the evolution of a shared, public/private national health information
infrastructure that will promote the availability of valid, credible,
timely and comparable health data. With sensitivity to policy
considerations and priorities, the Committee will provide scientific-
technical advice and guidance regarding the design and operation of
health statistics and information systems and services and on
coordination of health data requirements.
The Committee will inform decision making about data policy by HHS,
states, local governments and the private sector. Committee members are
expected to bring their expertise, perspectives and concerns to the
forum, and to bring back to their respective fields the collective
concerns, recommendations, and rationale of the Committee.
Authority
Section 306(k) of the Public Health Service Act, as amended, 42
U.S.C. 242k(k). The Committee is governed by provisions of Public Law
92-463, as amended, (5 U.S.C. App. 2), which sets forth standards for
the formation and use of advisory committees.
Function
It shall be the function of the Committee to assist and advise the
Secretary through the Department of Health and Human Services Data
Council, the Department's internal advisory body for data policy, in
the following matters:
(A) Monitor the nation's health data needs and current approaches
to meeting those needs; identify emerging health data issues, including
methodologies and technologies of information systems, databases, and
networking that could improve the ability to meet those needs.
(B) Identify strategies and opportunities to achieve long-term
consensus on common health data standards that will promote (i) the
availability of valid, credible, and timely health information, and
(ii) multiple uses of data collected once; recommend actions the
federal government can take to promote such a consensus.
(C) Make recommendations regarding health terminology, definitions,
classifications, and guidelines.
(D) Study and identify privacy, security, and access measures to
protect individually identifiable health information in an environment
of electronic networking and multiple uses of data.
(E) Identify strategies and opportunities for evolution from
single-purpose, narrowly focussed, categorical health data collection
strategies to more multi-purpose, integrated, shared data collection
strategies.
(F) Identify statistical, information system and network design
issues bearing on health and health services data which are of national
or international interest; identify strategies and opportunities to
facilitate interoperability and networking.
(G) Advise the Department on health data collection needs and
strategies; review and monitor the Department's data and information
systems to identify needs, opportunities, and problems; consider the
likely effects of emerging health information technologies on the
Department's data and systems, and impact of the Department's
information policies and systems on the development of emerging
technologies.
(H) Stimulate the study of health data and information systems
issues by other organizations and agencies, whenever possible.
(I) Review and comment on findings and proposals developed by other
organizations and agencies with respect to health data and information
systems and make recommendations for their adoption or implementation.
(J) Assist and advise the Secretary in the development of such
reports as the Secretary or Congress may require.
In these matters, the Committee shall consult with all components
of the Department, other federal entities, and non-federal
organizations, as appropriate.
Structure
The Committee shall consist of 16 members, including the Chair. The
members of the Committee shall be appointed by the Secretary from among
persons who have distinguished themselves in the fields of health
statistics, electronic interchange of health care information, privacy
and security of electronic information, population-based public health,
purchasing or financing health care services, integrated computerized
health information systems, health services
[[Page 4446]]
research, consumer interests in health information, health data
standards, epidemiology, and the provision of health services. The
Secretary shall appoint one of the members to serve a two year,
renewable term as the Chair.
Members shall be invited to serve for overlapping four-year terms.
Terms of more than two years are contingent upon the renewal of the
Committee by appropriate action prior to its termination. Any member
appointed to fill a vacancy occurring prior to the expiration of the
term for which his or her predecessor was appointed shall be appointed
only for the remainder of such term. Members may serve after the
expiration of their terms until successors have been appointed.
Standing and ad hoc subcommittees, composed solely of members of
the parent Committee, may be established to address specific issues and
to provide the Committee with background study and proposals for
consideration and action. The Chair shall appoint members from the
parent Committee to the subcommittees and designate a Chair for each
subcommittee. The subcommittees shall make their recommendations to the
parent Committee. Timely notification of the subcommittees, including
charges and membership, shall be made in writing to the Department
Committee Management Officer by the Executive Secretary of the
Committee. Logistical management and support services shall be provided
by the Program Support Center, Department of Health and Human Services.
Professional, scientific, and technical staff support shall be
provided by all agencies of the Department. The Data Council may
establish inter-agency and inter-Departmental, issue-specific working
groups to provide staff support to the Committee.
Meetings
Meetings shall be held not less than annually at the call of the
Chair, with the advance approval of a Government official, who shall
also approve the agenda. A Government official shall be present at all
meetings.
Meetings of the subcommittees shall be held at the call of the
Chair, with the advance approval of a Government official, who shall
also approve the agenda. A Government official shall be present at all
subcommittee meetings. All subcommittees shall report their findings to
the Committee.
Meetings shall be open to the public except as determined otherwise
by the Secretary; notice of all meetings shall be given to the public.
Meetings shall be conducted, and records of the proceedings kept,
as required by the applicable laws and departmental regulations.
Compensation
Members who are not full-time Federal employees shall be paid at a
rate not to exceed the daily equivalent of the rate in effect for an
Executive Level IV of the General Schedule for each day they are
engaged in the performance of their duties as members of the Committee.
All members, while so serving away from their homes of regular places
of business, may be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu
of subsistence, in the same manner as such expenses are authorized by
Section 5703, Title 5, U.S. Code, for employees serving intermittently.
Annual Cost Estimate
Estimated annual cost for operating the Committee, including
compensation and travel expenses for members but excluding staff
support, is $350,732. Estimated annual person-years of staff support
required is 3.1, at an estimated annual cost of $199,600.
Reports
In the event a portion of a meeting is closed to the public, a
report shall be prepared which shall contain, as a minimum, a list of
members and their business addresses, the Committee's functions, dates
and places of meetings, and a summary of Committee activities and
recommendations made during the fiscal year. A copy of the report shall
be provided to the Department Committee Management Officer.
Termination Date
The duration of the National Committee on Vital and Health
Statisticss is continuing, and a new charter shall be filed two years
from the date this charter is approved.
Dated: January 31, 1996.
Jack Ebeler,
Dated: January 31, 1996.
Bruce Vladeck,
Cochairpersons, HHS Data Council.
[FR Doc. 96-2374 Filed 2-5-96; 8:45 am]
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