Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 120 / Thursday, June 21, 2012 / Notices 37409 

1The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality 

(AHRQ) defines domains for the purposes of the 

Continued 

This notice announces a forthcoming 

meeting of a public advisory committee 

of the Office of the National Coordinator 

for Health Information Technology 

(ONC). The meeting will be open to the 

public. 

Name of Committee: HIT Standards 

Committee. 

General Function of the Committee: 

To provide recommendations to the 

National Coordinator on standards, 

implementation specifications, and 

certification criteria for the electronic 

exchange and use of health information 

for purposes of adoption, consistent 

with the implementation of the Federal 

Health IT Strategic Plan, and in 

accordance with policies developed by 

the HIT Policy Committee. 

Date and Time: The meeting will be 

held on July 19, 2012, from 9:00 a.m. to 

3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. 

Location: Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 

Calvert Street, NW., Washington DC 

20008. For up-to-date information, go to 

the ONC Web site, http:// 

healthit.hhs.gov. 

Contact Person: MacKenzie 

Robertson, Office of the National 

Coordinator, HHS, 355 E Street SW., 

Washington, DC 20201, 202–205–8089, 

Fax: 202–260–1276, email: 

mackenzie.robertson@hhs.gov. Please 

call the contact person for up-to-date 

information on this meeting. A notice in 

the Federal Register about last minute 

modifications that impact a previously 

announced advisory committee meeting 

cannot always be published quickly 

enough to provide timely notice. 

Agenda: The committee will hear 

reports from its workgroups and updates 

from ONC and other Federal agencies. 

ONC intends to make background 

material available to the public no later 

than two (2) business days prior to the 

meeting. If ONC is unable to post the 

background material on its Web site 

prior to the meeting, it will be made 

publicly available at the location of the 

advisory committee meeting, and the 

background material will be posted on 

ONC’s Web site after the meeting, at 

http://healthit.hhs.gov. 

Procedure: ONC is committed to the 

orderly conduct of its advisory 

committee meetings. Interested persons 

may present data, information, or views, 

orally or in writing, on issues pending 

before the Committee. Written 

submissions may be made to the contact 

person on or before two days prior to 

the Committee’s meeting date. Oral 

comments from the public will be 

scheduled in the agenda. Time allotted 

for each presentation will be limited to 

three minutes. If the number of speakers 

requesting to comment is greater than 

can be reasonably accommodated 

during the scheduled public comment 

period, ONC will take written comments 

after the meeting until close of business 

on that day. 

Persons attending ONC’s advisory 

committee meetings are advised that the 

agency is not responsible for providing 

access to electrical outlets. 

ONC welcomes the attendance of the 

public at its advisory committee 

meetings. Seating is limited at the 

location, and ONC will make every 

effort to accommodate persons with 

physical disabilities or special needs. If 

you require special accommodations 

due to a disability, please contact 

MacKenzie Robertson at least seven (7) 

days in advance of the meeting. 

Notice of this meeting is given under 

the Federal Advisory Committee Act 

(Pub. L. 92–463, 5 U.S.C., App. 2). 

Dated: June 13, 2012. 

MacKenzie Robertson, 

FACA Program Lead, Office of Policy and 

Planning, Office of the National Coordinator 

for Health Information Technology. 

[FR Doc. 2012–15098 Filed 6–20–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4150–45–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

[CMS–9963–NC] 

Request for Domains, Instruments, and 

Measures for Development of a 

Standardized Instrument for Use in 

Public Reporting of Enrollee 

Satisfaction With Their Qualified 

Health Plan and Exchange 

AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Patient Protection and 

Affordable Care Act (the Affordable Care 

Act) requires the Department of Health 

and Human Services (HHS) to establish 

an enrollee satisfaction survey system to 

be administered to members of each 

qualified health plan offered through an 

Exchange. This notice solicits input on 

publicly-available domains (for 

example, broad functional areas such as 

access, communication, coordination of 

care, customer service), instruments, 

and measures for measuring the level of 

enrollee satisfaction with qualified 

health plans plus the experience of the 

consumer interacting with the health 

care system and the experience of the 

consumer interacting with the Exchange 

(for example, enrollment and customer 

service) from consumers, researchers, 

vendors, health plans, Exchanges, 

stakeholders, and other interested 

parties. 

DATES: Input is sought by June 29, 2012. 

ADDRESSES: Electronic submissions are 

encouraged, preferably as an email with 

an electronic file in a standard word 

processing format as an email 

attachment. Submissions may also be in 

the form of a letter to: Kathleen Jack, 

Center for Consumer Information and 

Insurance Oversight, Centers for 

Medicare & Medicaid Services, 7500 

Security Blvd., Mailstop: C5–17–16, 

Windsor Mill, MD 21244, Phone: (410) 

786–7214, Email: 

Kathleen.Jack@cms.hhs.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Kathleen Jack, 410–786–7214. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

On March 23, 2010, the President 

signed into law the Patient Protection 

and Affordable Care Act (Pub. L. 111– 

148). On March 30, 2010, the Health 

Care and Education Reconciliation Act 

of 2010 (Pub. L. 111–152) was signed 

into law. The two laws are collectively 

referred to as the Affordable Care Act. 

The Affordable Care Act creates new 

competitive private health insurance 

marketplaces, Affordable Insurance 

Exchanges (Exchanges), that will give 

millions of Americans and small 

businesses access to quality, affordable 

coverage. 

Section 1311(c)(4) of the Affordable 

Care Act directs HHS to establish an 

enrollee satisfaction survey system to be 

administered to members of each 

qualified health plan (QHP) offered 

through an Exchange. In addition, 45 

CFR 156.200(b)(5) (77 FR 18310, at 

18469 (Mar. 27, 2012)) requires 

implementation of the enrollee 

satisfaction survey as part of QHP 

certification requirements. Consistent 

with our intent that QHP-specific 

quality ratings would be available in 

2016 open enrollment for the 2017 

coverage year, HHS intends to propose 

that the enrollee satisfaction survey be 

implemented in 2016 and available for 

display on the Internet portal for every 

Exchange in 2016 open enrollment for 

the 2017 coverage year. This call for 

domains, instruments, and measures is 

occurring now because of the multiphased survey development and testing 

process necessary before full 

implementation. 

II. Consumer Survey 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 

Services (CMS) is soliciting the 

submission of publicly-available 

domains,1 instruments and measures for 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES

37410 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 120 / Thursday, June 21, 2012 / Notices 

Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and 

Systems (CAHPS) survey as ‘‘broad functional 

areas.’’ See https://www.cahps.ahrq.gov/AboutCAHPS/Glossary.aspx (last accessed May 18, 2012). 

capturing the experience of the 

consumer with a QHP offered through 

an Exchange. HHS is considering how 

the scope of the enrollee satisfaction 

survey may also include the experience 

of the consumer interacting with the 

health care system as well as the 

experience of the consumer interacting 

with the Exchange (for example, 

enrollment and customer service). CMS 

is soliciting the submission of publiclyavailable domains, instruments and 

measures for assessing this experience 

as well. On both issues, CMS is 

interested in instruments and items 

which can measure quality of care from 

the consumer’s perspective and track 

changes over time. 

The target population for the enrollee 

satisfaction survey is the Exchange 

enrollees (i.e., individuals enrolled in 

QHPs). Exchange enrollees may differ 

from the populations who are currently 

commercially-insured in their 

experience with health coverage and the 

health care system, health literacy, and 

knowledge of quality care. CMS is 

looking for items for which (1) the 

people who received care are the best or 

only judge and (2) consumers and 

patients identified the information as 

important to them; for example, 

enrollees can best acknowledge if the 

QHP/Exchange met their information 

needs or explained things in ways they 

can understand. Existing instruments 

that have been tested should have a high 

degree of reliability and validity; 

evidence of wide use will be helpful. 

Section 1311(c)(4) of the of the 

Affordable Care Act directs that the 

enrollee satisfaction survey will 

‘‘evaluate the level of enrollee 

satisfaction with qualified health plans 

offered through an Exchange, for each 

qualified health plan that had more than 

500 enrollees in the previous year.’’ 

CMS is developing this survey system 

and intends to submit it to the Agency 

for Healthcare Research and Quality 

(AHRQ) for recognition as a Consumer 

Assessment of Healthcare Providers and 

Systems (CAHPS®) survey. CAHPS® is a 

registered trademark of AHRQ. The 

survey will be developed in accordance 

with CAHPS® Survey Design Principles 

and implementation instructions will be 

based on those for CAHPS® instruments 

(https://www.cahps.AHRQ.gov/AboutCAHPS/Principles.aspx). Using the 

CAHPS® mark is advantageous because 

it assures consumers and stakeholders 

that the survey data submitted meet the 

original validity and reliability 

standards reported by the CAHPS®

program and are comparable to data 

from other competing organizations. We 

intend for the enrollee satisfaction 

survey to be a trademarked CAHPS®

survey to ensure efficacy of the enrollee 

satisfaction survey and to ultimately 

reduce issuer burden by streamlining 

potential Exchange and State reporting 

requirements. All CAHPS® surveys are 

available to users free of charge and are 

published on the CMS or AHRQ Web 

sites. 

III. Submission Guidelines 

When submitting domains, include, to 

the extent available: 

• Detailed descriptions of question 

domain and specific purpose. 

• Sample questions, in all available 

languages. 

• Relevant peer-reviewed journal 

articles or full citations. 

When submitting instruments, 

submitter shall include, to the extent 

available: 

• Name of the instrument. 

• Copies of the full instrument in all 

available languages. 

• Domains included in the 

instrument. 

• Measures derived from the 

instrument. 

• Instrument reliability (internal 

consistency, test-retest, etc) and validity 

(content, construct, criterion-related). 

• Results of cognitive testing. 

• Results of field testing. 

• Current use of the instrument (who 

is using it, what it is being used for, 

what population it is being used with, 

how instrument findings are reported, 

and by whom the findings are used). 

• Relevant peer-reviewed journal 

articles or full citations. 

• CAHPS® trademark status. 

• Survey administration instructions. 

• Data analysis instructions. 

• Guidelines for reporting survey 

data. 

When submitting measures, submitter 

shall include, to the extent available: 

• Measure characteristics. 

• Importance of the measure. 

• Populations addressed by the 

measure. 

• Measure reliability (internal 

consistency, test-retest, etc.) and 

validity (content, construct, criterionrelated). 

• Results of cognitive testing. 

• Results of field testing. 

• Current use of the measure (who is 

using it, what it is being used for, how 

measure finding are reported, and by 

whom the findings are used). 

• Status of the National Quality 

Forum (NQF) endorsement and NQF 

number. 

All submissions include: 

• A brief cover letter summarizing the 

information requested above for 

submitted instruments and domains, 

respectively and how the submission 

will help fulfill the intent of the enrollee 

satisfaction survey; 

• (Optional) Complete information 

about the person submitting the material 

for the purposes of follow up questions 

about the submission, including: 

++ Name 

++ Title 

++ Organization 

++ Mailing address 

++ Telephone number 

++ Email address 

• Indication that the domain, 

instrument or measure is publiclyavailable. 

Dated: May 15, 2012. 

Marilyn Tavenner, 

Acting Administrator, Centers for Medicare 

& Medicaid Services. 

Approved: June 14, 2012. 

Kathleen Sebelius, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2012–15162 Filed 6–18–12; 11:15 am] 

BILLING CODE 4120–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention 

Board of Scientific Counselors, Office 

of Public Health Preparedness and 

Response; Meeting 

In accordance with section 10 (a) (2) 

of the Federal Advisory Committee Act 

(Pub. L. 92–463), the Centers for Disease 

Control and Prevention (CDC), 

announces the following meeting of the 

aforementioned committee: 

Time and Date: 3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m., July 

10, 2012. 

Place: This meeting is accessible by 

teleconference only. Please contact CDC (see 

Contact for More Information) to obtain 

further instructions on how to participate. 

Status: Participation by teleconference is 

limited by the number of open ports 

available. 

Purpose: The Board of Scientific 

Counselors (BSC) is charged with providing 

advice and guidance to the Secretary, 

Department of Health and Human Services 

(HHS), the Assistant Secretary for Health 

(ASH), the Director, Centers for Disease 

Control and Prevention (CDC), and the 

Director, Office of Public Health 

Preparedness and Response (OPHPR), 

concerning strategies and goals for the 

programs and research within OPHPR, 

monitoring the overall strategic direction and 

focus of the OPHPR Divisions and Offices, 

and administration and oversight of peer 

review of OPHPR scientific programs. For 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES