Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 199 / Monday, October 16, 2006 / Notices 60711 

f. To the National Archives and 

Records Administration (NARA) for 

records management purposes. 

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORING, 

RETRIEVING, ACCESSING, RETAINING, AND

DISPOSING OF SYSTEM RECORDS: 

STORAGE: 

All records and files in Pegasys are 

stored electronically in a passwordprotected database format. 

RETRIEVAL: 

Information on individuals contained 

in Pegasys records and files are 

retrievable by name or vendor number. 

SAFEGUARDS: 

Pegasys records and files are 

safeguarded in accordance with the 

requirements of the Privacy Act. Access 

is limited to authorized individuals 

with passwords, and the database is 

maintained behind a certified firewall. 

Information on individuals is released 

only to authorized persons on a need-toknow basis and in accordance with the 

provisions of routine use. This system 

undergoes frequent testing and is 

certified and accredited for operation. 

Periodic Privacy Act Impact 

Assessments are performed as well to 

ensure the adequacy of security controls 

to protect personally identifiable 

information. 

RETENTION AND DISPOSAL: 

Pegasys records and files are retained 

and disposed of according to GSA 

records maintenance and disposition 

schedules and the requirements of the 

National Archives and Records 

Administration (NARA). 

SYSTEM MANAGER AND ADDRESS: 

Director, Financial Systems 

Development Division (BDD), General 

Services Administration, 1800 F Street, 

NW., Washington, DC 20405. 

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE: 

Individuals wishing to inquire if the 

system contains information about them 

should contact the Pegasys system 

manager. 

RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURE: 

Requests for access may be directed to 

the Pegasys system manager. 

RECORD CONTESTING PROCEDURE: 

GSA rules for accessing records, for 

contesting the contents, and appealing 

initial decisions are in 41 CFR part 105–

64, published in the Federal Register. 

RECORD SOURCES: 

The sources for information in 

Pegasys are the individuals for whom 

the records are maintained, the 

supervisors of those individuals, and 

existing agency systems. 

[FR Doc. E6–17069 Filed 10–13–06; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6820–34–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Agency for Healthcare Research and 

Quality 

Request for Measures of Consumers’

Assessment of Cultural Competency 

AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research 

and Quality (AHRQ), DHHS. 

ACTION: Notice of request for measures. 

SUMMARY: The Agency for Healthcare 

Research and Quality (AHRQ) is 

soliciting the submission of instruments 

or items that measure patient 

perspectives on the cultural awareness 

of the healthcare professionals 

providing care to those patients. This 

initiative is in response to the need to 

develop a new CAHPS cultural 

competency survey. AHRQ is interested 

in incorporating this survey into an 

integrated set of carefully tested, 

standardized survey questionnaires and 

accompanying reports. The addition of 

the CAHPS cultural competency 

component to the set is intended to 

empower consumers with quality of 

care information while also encouraging 

healthcare professionals to provide 

culturally competent care. The survey 

will be designed to assess the quality of 

care and services provided by 

healthcare professional in the context of 

cultural competency. 

Based on prior work, there are several 

functional areas that the planned 

instrument could assess such as: (1) 

Patient-provider communication (e.g., 

providers give clear explanations, 

patients feel that they get all the 

information they need,), (2) respect for 

patient preferences/shared decisionmaking (e.g., providers discuss pros and 

cons of treatment options, providers 

understand and takes into account 

patient’s environment, family members 

are appropriately included in 

decisions), (3) experiences leading to 

trust or distrust (e.g., providers treat 

patients in a culturally sensitive or 

insensitive manner that led to trust or 

distrust), (4) experiences of 

discrimination (e.g., providers or staff 

treat patients with disrespect because of 

a patients’ racial/ethnic backgrounds, 

insurance type/status, lack of 

proficiency in English), (5) language 

access (e.g., availability of interpreter 

services and translated materials), and 

(6) alternative treatment (e.g., providers 

are open to discussion about traditional 

healers and remedies). 

DATES: Please submit instruments or 

individual items and supporting 

information on or before November 15, 

2006. AHRQ will not respond 

individually to submitters, but will 

consider all submitted instruments and 

publicly report the results of the review 

of the submissions in aggregate. 

ADDRESSES: Submissions should include 

a brief cover letter, copy of the 

instrument or items for consideration 

and supporting information as specified 

under the Submission Criteria below. 

Submissions may be in the form of a 

letter or e-mail, preferably with an 

electronic file as an e-mail attachment. 

Responses to this request should be 

submitted to: Anna Caponiti, Center for 

Quality Improvement and Patient 

Safety, Agency for Healthcare Research 

and Quality, 540 Gaither Road, 

Rockville, MD 20850, Phone: (301) 427–

1402, Fax: (301) 427–1341, E-mail: 

anna.caponiti@ahrq.hhs.gov. 

To facilitate handling of submissions, 

please include full information about 

the instrument developer or contact: (a) 

Name, (b) title, (c) organization, (d) 

mailing address, (e) telephone number, 

(f) fax number, and (g) e-mail address. 

Also please submit a copy of the 

instrument or items for consideration 

along with evidence that they meet the 

criteria below. It would be appreciated 

if each citation of a peer-reviewed 

journal article pertaining to the 

instrument includes the title of the 

article, author(s), publication year, 

journal name, volume, issue, and page 

numbers where article appears, but all 

of these details are not required. 

Submitters must also provide a 

statement of willingness to grant to 

AHRQ the right to use and authorize 

others to use submitted measures and 

their documentation as part of a 

CCAHPS-trademarked instrument. 

This CAHPS instrument for patients’

perspectives on cultural competency of 

healthcare professionals provision of 

care will be made publicly available, 

free of charge. Electronic submissions 

are encouraged. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Anna Caponiti, at the address above. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background Information 

The CAHPS program was initiated in 

1995 to develop a survey and report on 

consumers’ perspectives on the quality 

of their health plans. Since that time, 

the CAHPS program, in partnership 

with the Centers for Medicare and 

Medicaid Services (CMS) and others, 

has expanded its scope and developed 


jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES
60712 Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 199 / Monday, October 16, 2006 / Notices 

consumer surveys and reports regarding 

consumer perspectives on individual 

clinicians, group practices, in-center 

hemodialysis services, nursing homes 

and hospitals. AHRQ determined that 

the CAHPS team should develop a 

survey to obtain consumer perspectives 

on cultural awareness of healthcare 

professionals. 

The vision of the Agency for 

Healthcare Research and Quality is to 

foster health care research that helps the 

American health care system provide 

access to high-quality, cost-effective 

services; be accountable and responsive 

to consumers and purchasers; and 

improve health status and quality of life. 

The CAHPS program was developed as 

a result of AHRQ’s vision. One of the 

components missing from the current 

measurement set is an assessment of 

patients’ perspective on cultural 

awareness of healthcare professionals. 

Submission Criteria 

Instruments submitted should focus 

on patient perspectives on the quality of 

care and services provided by 

healthcare professionals in the context 

of cultural awareness demonstrated by 

those healthcare professionals. 

AHRQ is interested in measures that: 

(a) Capture patients’ experiences of 

quality of received health care in the 

context of healthcare professionals’

cultural awareness and (b) demonstrate 

a high degree of reliability and validity. 

Accordingly, each submission should 

include, in addition to the name of the 

pertinent instrument, domains 

included, and the language(s) the 

instrument is available in, the following 

information: Evidence of cultural/cross 

group comparability, if any; instrument 

reliability (internal consistency, testretest, etc.); validity (content, construct, 

criterion-related); response rates; 

methods and results of cognitive testing 

and field-testing as well as descriptions 

of sampling strategies (including payer 

type) and data collection protocols, 

including such elements as mode of 

administration, use of advance letters, 

timing and frequencies of contacts. 

Evidence addressing these criteria 

should be demonstrated through 

submission of peer-reviewed journal 

article(s) or through the best evidence 

available at the time of submission. 

In addition, a list of where the 

instrument has been fielded should also 

be included in the submission. 

Submission of copies of existing report 

formats developed to disclose findings 

to consumers and providers is desirable, 

but not required. Additionally, 

information about existing database(s) 

for the instrument(s) submitted is 

helpful, but not required for submission. 

Submitters’ willingness to grant to 

AHRQ the right to use and authorize 

others to use their instrument or item 

and accompanying explanatory material 

means that the CAHPS trademark will 

be applied to a new instrument which 

will combine the best features of the 

submissions as well as any ideas that 

may develop from reviewing them. It 

also ensures free access to this 

instrument and the instrument’s 

supportive/administrative information. 

AHRQ, in collaboration with CAHPS 

grantees, will evaluate all submitted 

instruments or items. As the CAHPS 

instrument is constructed, one or more 

items may be selected for use, either in 

whole or in part, or modified, prior to 

testing them. AHRQ will assume 

responsibility for the final instruments 

as well as any future modifications. 

The final instrument will bear the 

CAHPS trademark and it will be made 

available without charge for use by all 

interested parties. Submitters will have 

relinquished ownership of any items 

that appear in the final instrument. 

However, item ownership will be 

protected during testing of the survey. 

As a matter of quality control, there will 

be warnings that the CAHPS trademark 

or identification may not be used if any 

changes are made to the instrument or 

final measure set without review and 

permission of the Agency. 

Dated: October 5, 2006. 

Carolyn M. Clancy, 

Director. 

[FR Doc. 06–8674 Filed 10–13–06; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4160–90–M 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Agency for Healthcare Research and 

Quality 

Request for Measures of Consumers’

Health Information Delivery 

Experiences 

AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research 

and Quality (AHRQ), DHHS. 

ACTION: Notice of request for measures. 

SUMMARY: The Agency for Healthcare 

Research and Quality (AHRQ) is 

soliciting the submission of instruments 

or items that measure how well health 

plans, hospitals, clinicians, and group 

practices address health literacy issues. 

Based on a literature review and an 

assessment of currently available 

questionnaires, AHRQ identified the 

need to develop a new health literacy 

module of the CAHPS survey. The 

intent of the planned module is to 

examine patients’ perspectives on how 

well health information is 

communicated to them by healthcare 

professionals in greater detail than 

before. The intent of the new module is 

to provide information to health plans, 

hospitals, clinicians, group practices, 

and other interested parties regarding 

quality of health information delivered 

to patients. 

Based on prior work, there are several 

functional areas that the planned 

instrument could address. These 

include the clarity and usability of 

provided health information related to: 

(a) Preventive services (e.g., risk and 

benefits of the service, explanation of 

screening results; (b) health problems/ 

concerns (e.g., information on how to 

stay healthy or prevent illness); (c) 

treatment choices, instructions, or goals 

(e.g., pros and cons of each treatment 

option); and (d) medications (e.g., 

reason for taking medications, 

instructions on how to take 

medications, possible side effects). 

AHRQ is especially interested in 

measures of patients’ assessments of 

written communications (e.g., 

instructions for self-care, health 

promotion materials), and the use and 

effectiveness of educational techniques 

to ensure patient’s comprehension of 

health information (e.g., allowing time 

for questions, repeating information, 

using visual aids, employing health 

educators to review treatment plans and 

follow-up). AHRQ is also interested in 

measures that assess the quality of 

services supporting health information 

delivery such as language assistance 

(e.g., availability and timeliness of 

interpreter services, availability of 

patient education materials in other 

language), and administrative assistance 

(e.g., assistance in completing medical 

paperwork). 

DATES: Please submit instruments or 

individual items and supporting 

information on or before November 15, 

2006. AHRQ will not respond 

individually to submitters, but will 

consider all submitted instruments and 

publicly report the results of the review 

of the submissions in aggregate. 

ADDRESSES: Submissions should include 

a brief cover letter, a copy of the 

instrument or items for consideration 

and supporting information as specified 

under the Submission Criteria below. 

Submissions may be in the form of a 

letter or e-mail, preferably with an 

electronic file as an e-mail attachment. 

Responses of this request should be 

submitted to: Anna Caponiti, Center for 

Quality Improvement and Patient 

Safety, Agency for Healthcare Research 

and Quality, 540 Gaither Road, 

Rockville, MD 20850, phone: (301) 427–


jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES