2023-10929. Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for Review and Approval; Public Comment Request; Nurse Faculty Loan Program-Program Specific Data Form, Annual Performance Report Financial Data Form and NFLP Due Diligence Form;...

AGENCY:

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

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, HRSA 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 June 22, 2023.

ADDRESSES:

Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice to www.reginfo.gov/​public/​do/​PRAMain. Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

To request a copy of the clearance requests submitted to OMB for review, email Samantha Miller, the HRSA Information Collection Clearance Officer, at [e-mail] or call (301) 443–1984.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Information Collection Request Title: Nurse Faculty Loan Program—Program Specific Data Form, Annual Performance Report Financial Data Form and NFLP Due Diligence Form OMB No. 0915–0314–Revision

Abstract: This clearance request is for approval of the Nurse Faculty Loan Program (NFLP)—Program Specific Data Form, NFLP—Annual Performance Report (APR) Financial Data Form, and the NFLP Due Diligence Form. The Program Specific Data Form and the NFLP—APR Financial Data Form are currently approved under OMB Approval No. 0915–0314, with the expiration date of August 31, 2023. The NFLP Due Diligence Form is a new form. HRSA seeks to use the NFLP Due Diligence Form for recipients to formally notify HRSA of any write-off amounts due to uncollectible debt and loan cancellation due to death and permanent/total disability. For program efficiency, HRSA is adding the new NFLP Due Diligence Form to the current NFLP ICR under OMB No. 0915–0314.

A 60-day notice published in the Federal Register on March 8, 2023, vol. 88, No. 45; pp. 14378–79. There were no public comments.

Need and Proposed Use of the Information: Section 846A of the Public Health Service Act provides the Secretary of HHS with the authority to enter into agreements with accredited schools of nursing for the establishment and operation of student loan funds to increase the number of qualified nurse faculty. Under the agreements, HRSA makes awards to accredited schools of nursing and the schools provide loans to students enrolled in advanced education nursing degree programs who are committed to becoming nurse faculty. Following graduation from the NFLP grant recipient school, NFLP borrowers may receive up to 85 percent of loan cancellation over a 4-year period in exchange for service as full-time faculty at a school of nursing. The NFLP grant recipient school collects any portion of the loan that is not cancelled and any loans that go into repayment and deposits these monies into the NFLP loan fund to make additional NFLP loans.

The NFLP—Program Specific Data Form is a required electronic attachment within the NFLP application materials. The data provided in the form is essential for the formula-based criteria used to determine the award amount to the applicant schools. The form collects application related data from applicants such as the amount requested, number of students to be funded, tuition information, and projected unused loan fund balance. This data collection assists HRSA in streamlining the application submission process, enabling an efficient award determination process, and facilitating reporting on the use of funds and analysis of program outcomes. There have been no changes to this form.

The NFLP—APR Financial Data Form is an online form that exists in the HRSA Electronic Handbooks Performance Report module. The NFLP—APR Financial Data Form collects outcome and financial data to capture the NFLP loan fund account activity related to financial receivables, disbursements, and borrower account data related to employment status, loan cancellation, loan repayment and collections. NFLP grant recipient schools will provide HHS with current and cumulative information on (1) NFLP loan funds received, (2) number and amount of NFLP loans made, (3) number and amount of loans cancelled, (4) number and amount of loans in repayment, (5) loan default rate percent, (6) number of NFLP graduates employed as nurse faculty, and (7) other related loan fund costs and activities. NFLP grant recipient schools must keep records of all NFLP loan fund transactions. The NFLP—APR Financial Data Form is used to monitor grantee performance by collecting information related to the NFLP loan fund operations and financial activities for a specified reporting period (July 1 through June 30 of the academic year). NFLP grant recipient schools are required to complete and submit the NFLP—APR Financial Data Form annually. The data provided in the form is essential for HRSA to effectively monitor the school's use of NFLP funds in accordance with the statute and program guidelines. There have been no changes to this form.

The NFLP Due Diligence Form will be a required form to be completed and submitted electronically by NFLP grant recipient schools. This form indicates that due diligence has been exercised in the cancellation of any remaining loan funds for NFLP borrowers due to permanent/total disability, death, and uncollectible/bad debt write-offs. The data collected on the due diligence form will include the student borrower's unique ID number, reason for cancellation, the amount of principal loaned, the total amount of principal loan funds and corresponding interest canceled, and the outstanding amount of principal/interest being canceled or written-off. The NFLP Due Diligence Form is essential for monitoring performance measure outcomes and to verify and validate accuracy of information submitted on the NFLP Annual Performance Reports.

Likely Respondents: NFLP grant recipient schools and applicants to the NFLP program.

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
Nurse Faculty Loan Program—Program Specific Data Form	90	1	90	8	720
Nurse Faculty Loan Program—Annual Performance Report Financial Data Form	207	1	207	6	1242
Nurse Faculty Loan Program—Due—Diligence Form	20	1	20	1	20
Total Burden	317	3	317	15	1982

Maria G. Button,

Director, Executive Secretariat.