2019-11050. Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for Review and Approval; Public Comment Request; Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program Performance, OMB No. 0915-0363-Extension

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.

DATES:

Comments on this ICR should be received no later than June 27, 2019.

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: Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program Performance Measures, OMB No. 0915-0363—Extension

Abstract: This information collection comment request is for continued approval of the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program Performance Measures. HRSA is proposing to continue this data collection with no changes. The current performance measures are collected electronically in the Performance Improvement and Measurement System, which awardees access securely through the HRSA Electronic Handbooks.

The Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program (Flex Program) is authorized by Section 1820 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395i-4), as amended. The purpose of the Flex Program is to enable state designated entities to support critical access hospitals in quality improvement, quality reporting, performance improvement, and benchmarking; to assist facilities seeking designation as critical access hospitals; and to create a program to establish or expand the provision of rural emergency medical services.

A 60-day Federal Register Notice was published in the Federal Register on February 5, 2019, vol. 84, No. 24; pp. 1751-1752. There were no public comments.

Need and Proposed Use of the Information: For this program, performance measures were developed to provide data useful to the Flex program and to enable HRSA to provide aggregate program data required by Congress under the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRA). These measures cover principal topic areas of interest to the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy including: (a) Quality reporting, (b) quality improvement interventions, (c) financial and operational improvement initiatives, (d) population health management, and (e) innovative care models. Several measures will be used for this program and will inform the Office's progress toward meeting the goals set in GPRA. Furthermore, obtained information is important in identifying and understanding programmatic improvement across program areas, as well as guiding future iterations of the Flex Program and prioritizing areas of need and support.

Likely Respondents: Respondents are the Flex Program coordinator for the states participating in the Flex Program. There are currently 45 states participating in the Flex 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.

Form name	Number of respondents	Number of responses per respondent	Total responses	Average burden per response (in hours)	Total burden hours
Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program	45	1	45	70	3,150
Total Estimated Annualized Burden—Hours	45		45		3,150

Amy P. McNulty,

Acting Director, Division of the Executive Secretariat.