2010-23260. Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Periodically, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) publishes abstracts of information collection requests under review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). To request a copy of the clearance requests submitted to OMB for review, e-mail [e-mail] or call the HRSA Reports Clearance Office on [phone].

The following request has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for review under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995:

Proposed Project: Black Lung Clinics Program Database (OMB No. 0915-0292)—Revision

The Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP), Health Resources and Services Administration, conducts an annual data collection of user information for the Black Lung Program. This has been ongoing with OMB approval since 2004. The purpose of the Black Lung Clinic Program is to improve the health status of coal workers by providing services to minimize the effects of respiratory and pulmonary impairments of coal miners, treatment procedures required in the management of problems associated with black lung disease which improves the quality of life or the miner and reduces economic costs associated with morbidity and mortality arising from pulmonary diseases. The purpose of collecting this data is to provide HRSA with information on how well each grantee is meeting the needs of active and retired miners in the funded communities.

Data from the annual report will provide quantitative information about the programs, specifically: (a) The characteristics of the patients they serve (gender, age, disability level, occupation type); (b) the characteristics of services provided (medical encounters, non-medical encounters, benefits counseling, or outreach); and (c) the number of patients served. The annual report will be updated to include a qualitative measure on the percent of patients that show improvement in pulmonary function. This assessment will provide data useful to the program and will enable HRSA to provide data required by Congress under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993. It will also ensure that funds are being effectively used to provide services to meet the needs of the target population.

There has been a modification to a long term Black Lung performance measures. The new measure will be the evaluation of the quality of spirometry performed by the clinic. The evaluation of coal miners for the presence of disabling pneumoconiosis depends on well performed, valid and accurate lung function testing. There is no additional burden on the grantee to collect this information since the grantees are currently collecting this data.

The annual estimate of burden is as follows:

Instrument	Number of respondents	Responses per respondent	Total responses	Hours per response	Total burden hours
Database	15	1	1	10	150

Written comments and recommendations concerning the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days of this notice to the desk officer for HRSA, either by e-mail to [e-mail] or by fax to 202-395-6974. Please direct all correspondence to the “attention of the desk officer for HRSA.”

Dated: September 13, 2010.

Sahira Rafiullah,

Director, Division of Policy and Information Coordination.