2019-19083. Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and Recommendations

AGENCY:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION:

Notice with comment period.

SUMMARY:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part of its continuing effort to reduce public burden and maximize the utility of government information, invites the general public and other Federal agencies the opportunity to comment on a proposed and/or continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on Performance Monitoring of Working with Publicly Funded Health Centers to Reduce Teen Pregnancy among Youth from Vulnerable Populations (OMB Control No. 0920-1156, Exp. 01/30/2020). A Revision is requested to continue collecting data through the end of the funding period and to develop systematic approaches to referring youth at risk for a teen pregnancy to reproductive health care.

DATES:

CDC must receive written comments on or before November 4, 2019.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2019-0078 by any of the following methods:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
• Mail: Jeffrey M. Zirger, Information Collection Review Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE, MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329.

Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name and Docket Number. CDC will post, without change, all relevant comments to Regulations.gov.

Please note: Submit all comments through the Federal eRulemaking portal (regulations.gov) or by U.S. mail to the address listed above.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

To request more information on the proposed project or to obtain a copy of the information collection plan and instruments, contact Jeffrey M. Zirger, Information Collection Review Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE, MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329; phone: [phone]; Email: [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of information they conduct or sponsor. In addition, the PRA also requires Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including each new proposed collection, each proposed extension of existing collection of information, and each reinstatement of previously approved information collection before submitting the collection to the OMB for approval. To comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a proposed data collection as described below.

The OMB is particularly interested in comments that will help:

1. Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility;

2. Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used;

3. Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and

4. Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submissions of responses.

5. Assess information collection costs.

Proposed Project

Performance Monitoring of Working with Publicly Funded Health Centers to Reduce Teen Pregnancy among Youth from Vulnerable Populations—Revision—Division of Reproductive Health (DRH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

Although the 2017 US rate of 18.8 births per 1,000 female teens aged 15-19 years represents a continued decline, the United States has one of the highest teen birth rates of all Western industrialized countries. Access to reproductive health services and the most effective types of contraception has been shown to reduce the likelihood that teens become pregnant. Nevertheless, recent research and lessons learned through a previous teen pregnancy prevention project implemented through CDC in partnership with the Office of Adolescent Health (2010-2015; OMB No. 0920-0952, Exp. 12/31/2015), demonstrate that many health centers serving teens do not engage in youth-friendly best practices that may enhance access to care and to the most effective types of contraception. Furthermore, youth at highest risk of experiencing a teen pregnancy are often not connected to the reproductive health care that they need, even when they are part of a population that is known to be at high risk for a teen pregnancy. Significant racial, ethnic and geographic disparities in teen birth rates persist and continue to be a focus of public health efforts.

To address these challenges, CDC has provided funding to three organizations to strengthen partnerships and processes that improve reproductive health services for teens. These awardees are working with 25 publicly funded health centers to support implementation of evidence-based recommendations for health centers and providers to improve adolescent access to reproductive health services. In addition, awardees have worked with approximately 30 youth-serving organizations (YSO) to provide staff training and develop systematic approaches to identifying youth who are at risk for a teen pregnancy and referring those youth to reproductive health care services. Finally, awardees have developed communication campaigns that increase awareness of the partner health centers' services for teens. Activities are expected to result in changes to health center and YSO partners' policies, to staff practices, and to youth health care seeking and teen pregnancy prevention behaviors.

The best practices to improve adolescent access to reproductive health services included in this program are supported by evidence in the literature and recommended by major medical associations. Each of the components of the current project has been implemented as part of past teen pregnancy prevention efforts. Consistent with CDC's mission of using evidence to improve public health programs, conducting an evaluation of combined best practices, in concert with community-clinical linkage of youth to services to increase their access to reproductive health care, can provide further information to inform future teen pregnancy prevention efforts.

CDC has been collecting the information needed to assess these efforts under Performance Monitoring of Working with Publicly Funded Health Centers to Reduce Teen Pregnancy among Youth from Vulnerable Populations (OMB Control No. 0920-1156, Exp. 1/31/2020). CDC is using the information to determine the types of training and technical assistance that may be needed to monitor whether awardees meet objectives related to health center and YSO partners' policies and staff practices, to support a data-driven quality improvement process for adolescent sexual and reproductive health care services and referrals, and to assess whether the project model was effective in increasing the utilization of services by youth.

A Revision of the currently approved information collection is being requested through 9/30/2020 in order to continue data collection until the end of the project. Remaining information collection activities will include awardees, health center partner organizations, and providers at the health center partners; information collection during the extension period will not include YSOs or youths being served by health centers, as significant changes are not expected to be found for YSOs in the final year and that the youth survey will not need to be conducted beyond late 2019. Participation in the organizational assessment activities is required for awardees and partner organizations. Participation in a survey of health center providers is voluntary. The total estimated burden hours for the extension period are 485 hours.

Estimated Annualized Burden Hours

Type of respondents	Form name	Number of respondents	Number of responses per respondent	Average burden per response (in hours)	Total burden (in hours)
Private Sector	Health Center Organizational Assessment	21	1	2	42
	Quarterly Health Center Performance Reporting Tool	21	2	4	168
	Annual Health Center Performance Measure Reporting Tool	21	1	6	126
	Health Center Provider Survey	84	1	20/60	28
	Awardee Training and Technical Assistance Tool	3	8	2	48
	Awardee Performance Measure Reporting Tool	3	1	1	3
State and Local Government	Health Center Organizational Assessment	4	1	2	8
	Quarterly Health Center Performance Measure Reporting Tool	4	2	4	32
	Annual Health Center Performance Measure Reporting Tool	4	1	6	24
	Health Center Provider Survey	16	1	20/60	6
Total					485

Jeffrey M. Zirger,

Lead, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific Integrity, Office of Science, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.