Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 223 / Friday, November 18, 2011 / Notices 71573 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 

Services 

[CMS–3254–N] 

Medicare Program; Request for 

Nominations for Members for the 

Medicare Evidence Development & 

Coverage Advisory Committee 

AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services, HHS. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces the 

request for nominations for membership 

on the Medicare Evidence Development 

& Coverage Advisory Committee 

(MEDCAC). Among other duties, the 

MEDCAC provides advice and guidance 

to the Secretary of the Department of 

Health and Human Services (the 

Secretary) and the Administrator of the 

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 

Services (CMS) concerning the 

adequacy of scientific evidence 

available to CMS for ‘‘reasonable and 

necessary’’ determinations under 

Medicare. 

We are requesting nominations for 

both voting and nonvoting members to 

serve on the MEDCAC. Nominees are 

selected based upon their individual 

qualifications and not as representatives 

of professional associations or societies. 

We wish to ensure adequate 

representation of the interests of both 

women and men, members of all ethnic 

groups and physically challenged 

individuals. Therefore we encourage 

nominations of qualified candidates 

who can represent these interests. 

The MEDCAC reviews and evaluates 

medical literature, technology 

assessments, and hears public testimony 

on the evidence available to address the 

impact of medical items and services on 

health outcomes of Medicare 

beneficiaries. 

DATES: Nominations will be considered 

if postmarked by Monday, January 30, 

2012 and mailed to the address 

specified in the ADDRESSES section of 

this notice. 

ADDRESSES: You may mail nominations 

for membership to the following 

address: Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services, Office of Clinical 

Standards and Quality, Attention: Maria 

Ellis, 7500 Security Boulevard, Mail 

Stop: South Building 3–02–01, 

Baltimore, MD 21244. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Maria Ellis, Executive Secretary for the 

MEDCAC, Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services, Office of Clinical 

Standards and Quality, Coverage and 

Analysis Group, S3–02–01, 7500 

Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 

21244 or contact Ms. Ellis by phone 

(410) 786–0309) or via email at 

Maria.Ellis@cms.hhs.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

The Secretary signed the initial 

charter for the Medicare Coverage 

Advisory Committee (MCAC) on 

November 24, 1998. A notice in the 

Federal Register (63 FR 68780) 

announcing establishment of the MCAC 

was published on December 14, 1998. 

The MCAC name was updated to more 

accurately reflect the purpose of the 

committee and on January 26, 2007, the 

Secretary published a notice in the 

Federal Register (72 FR 3853), 

announcing that the Committee’s name 

changed to the Medicare Evidence 

Development & Coverage Advisory 

Committee (MEDCAC). The charter for 

the committee was renewed by the 

Secretary on November 24, 2010. The 

current charter is effective for 2 years. 

The MEDCAC is governed by 

provisions of the Federal Advisory 

Committee Act, Pub. L. 92–463, as 

amended (5 U.S.C. App. 2), which sets 

forth standards for the formulation and 

use of advisory committees, and is 

authorized by section 222 of the Public 

Health Service Act as amended (42 

U.S.C. 217A). 

The MEDCAC consists of a pool of 

100 appointed members including: 94 

voting members of whom 6 are 

designated patient advocates, and 6 

nonvoting representatives of industry 

interests. Members generally are 

recognized authorities in clinical 

medicine including subspecialties, 

administrative medicine, public health, 

biological and physical sciences, 

epidemiology and biostatistics, clinical 

trial design, health care data 

management and analysis, patient 

advocacy, health care economics, 

medical ethics, or other relevant 

professions. 

The MEDCAC works from an agenda 

provided by the Designated Federal 

Official. The MEDCAC reviews and 

evaluates medical literature, technology 

assessments, and hears public testimony 

on the evidence available to address the 

impact of medical items and services on 

health outcomes of Medicare 

beneficiaries. The MEDCAC may also 

advise CMS as part of Medicare’s 

‘‘coverage with evidence development’’ 

initiative. 

II. Provisions of the Notice 

As of June 2012, there will be 30 

membership terms expiring. Of the 30 

memberships expiring, 1 is a nonvoting 

industry representative, 4 are voting 

patient advocates and the remaining 25 

membership openings are for the 

general MEDCAC voting membership. 

Accordingly, we are requesting 

nominations for both voting and 

nonvoting members to serve on the 

MEDCAC. Nominees are selected based 

upon their individual qualifications and 

not as representatives of professional 

associations or societies. We wish to 

ensure adequate representation of the 

interests of both women and men, 

members of all ethnic groups and 

physically challenged individuals. 

Therefore, we encourage nominations of 

qualified candidates from these groups. 

All nominations must be 

accompanied by curricula vitae. 

Nomination packages must be sent to 

Maria Ellis at the address listed in the 

ADDRESSES section of this notice. 

Nominees for voting membership must 

also have expertise and experience in 

one or more of the following fields: 

• Clinical medicine including 

subspecialties 

• Administrative medicine 

• Public health 

• Biological and physical sciences 

• Epidemiology and biostatistics 

• Clinical trial design 

• Health care data management and 

analysis 

• Patient advocacy 

• Health care economics 

• Medical ethics 

• Other relevant professions 

We are looking for experts in a 

number of fields. Our most critical 

needs are for experts in hematology; 

genomics; Bayesian statistics; clinical 

epidemiology; clinical trial 

methodology; knee, hip, and other joint 

replacement surgery; ophthalmology; 

psychopharmacology; rheumatology; 

screening and diagnostic testing 

analysis; and vascular surgery. We also 

need experts in biostatistics in clinical 

settings, cardiovascular epidemiology, 

dementia, endocrinology, geriatrics, 

gynecology, minority health, 

observational research design, stroke 

epidemiology, and women’s health. 

The nomination letter must include a 

statement that the nominee is willing to 

serve as a member of the MEDCAC and 

appears to have no conflict of interest 

that would preclude membership. We 

are requesting that all curricula vitae 

include the following: 

• Date of birth 

• Place of birth 

• Social Security number 

• Title and current position 

• Professional affiliation 

• Home and business address 

• Telephone and fax numbers 

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71574 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 223 / Friday, November 18, 2011 / Notices 

• Email address 

• List of areas of expertise 

In the nomination letter, we are 

requesting that the nominee specify 

whether they are applying for a voting 

patient advocate position, for another 

voting position, or as a nonvoting 

industry representative. Potential 

candidates will be asked to provide 

detailed information concerning such 

matters as financial holdings, 

consultancies, and research grants or 

contracts in order to permit evaluation 

of possible sources of conflict of 

interest. 

Members are invited to serve for 

overlapping 2-year terms. A member 

may serve after the expiration of the 

member’s term until a successor is 

named. Any interested person may 

nominate one or more qualified persons. 

Self-nominations are also accepted. 

The current Secretary’s Charter for the 

MEDCAC is available on the CMS Web 

site at: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/FACA/ 

Downloads/medcaccharter.pdf, or you 

may obtain a copy of the charter by 

submitting a request to the contact listed 

in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT section of this notice. 

Authority: 5 U.S.C. App. 2, section 

10(a)(1) and (a)(2). 

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance 

Program No. 93.773, Medicare—Hospital 

Insurance; and Program No. 93.774, 

Medicare—Supplementary Medical 

Insurance Program.) 

Dated: October 18, 2011. 

Patrick Conway, 

CMS Chief Medical Officer and Director, 

Office of Clinical Standards and Quality, 

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 

[FR Doc. 2011–29784 Filed 11–17–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4120–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Administration for Children and 

Families 

Submission for OMB Review; 

Comment Request 

Title: Regional Partnership Grant 

(RPG) Program Data Collection. 

OMB No.: 0970–0353. 

Description 

On September 30, 2007, the 

Administration for Children and 

Families (ACF), Children’s Bureau 

awarded multi-year grants to 53 regional 

partnerships grantees (RPGs) to improve 

the safety, permanency and well-being 

of children affected by 

methamphetamine or other substance 

abuse who have been removed or are at 

risk of removal from their home. The 

Child and Family Services Improvement 

Act of 2006, the authorizing legislation 

for the RPG program, required that a set 

of performance indicators be established 

to periodically assess the grantees’ 

outcomes. The legislation mandated that 

these performance indicators be 

developed through a consultative 

process involving ACF, the Substance 

Abuse and Mental Health Services 

Administration (SAMHSA), and 

representatives of the State or Tribal 

agencies who are members of the 

regional partnerships. The legislation 

also requires the Secretary of the 

Department of Health and Human 

services to submit annually to Congress 

a report that includes the performance 

indicators established under this grant 

program. 

The final set of RPG performance 

indicators was approved by ACF and 

disseminated to the funded grantees in 

January 2008. It includes a total of 23 

indicators across four outcome domains: 

Child/youth (9 indicators), adult (7 

indicators), family/relationship (5 

indicators), and regional partnership/ 

service capacity (2 indicators). It also 

includes a core set of child and adult 

demographic elements that will provide 

important context needed to properly 

analyze, explain and understand the 

outcomes. No other national data 

collection measures these critical child, 

adult, family, and RPG outcomes 

specifically for these children and 

families. The data also will have 

significant implications for policy and 

program development for child wellbeing programs nationwide. 

The purpose of this request is to 

obtain OMB approval for an extension 

of the original three year request which 

was approved on March 31, 2009. Fortythree of the original 53 grantees were 

awarded for a five-year grant period, 

thus necessitating an extension of the 

original request in order to continue 

data collection for the remainder of the 

grant period. The first submission of 

RPG grantee data to the RPG data 

collection system occurred in December, 

2008, and every six months thereafter. 

Data collection will be conducted for 

the fifth year of the grant period, ending 

September 30, 2012, with data 

submission by January 2013. Data 

collection may be extended for one year 

until January 2014 should grantees 

request and be granted no-cost 

extensions. 

To minimize grantee data collection 

and reporting burden, many of the data 

elements are already being collected by 

counties and States in order to report 

Federally-mandated data to the 

Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and 

Reporting System (AFCARS), the 

Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) and 

the National Outcome Measures 

(NOMs); in addition, all States 

voluntarily submit data for the Federal 

National Child Abuse and Neglect Data 

System (NCANDS). Therefore, most 

child welfare data elements included in 

the RPG performance measures can be 

found in a State’s automated case 

management system, which is often a 

Federally-funded Statewide Automated 

Child Welfare Information System 

(SACWIS). TEDS admission and 

discharge data are collected by State 

substance abuse agencies according to 

their own information systems for 

monitoring substance abuse treatment 

admissions and transmitted monthly or 

quarterly to the SAMHSA contractor. As 

a result of prior Federal government 

reporting requirements, States are 

already collecting several data elements 

needed by the RPGs. The RPGs lead 

agency or their state or local partners are 

able to download information from 

these existing State child welfare and 

substance abuse treatment data systems 

to obtain data to monitor their RPG 

program outcomes, thereby reducing the 

amount of primary data collection 

needed. 

Respondents 

ANNUAL BURDEN ESTIMATES

Instrument Number of 

respondents 

Number of 

responses per 

respondent 

Average 

burden hours per 

response 

Total burden 

hours 

Private Sector .................................................................................. 17 2 175.5 5,967 

State, Local, or Tribal Government ................................................. 26 2 175.5 9,126 

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