32872 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 136 / Monday, July 16, 2018 / Notices 

1456. For press-related information, 

please contact Alison Hunt at (301) 427– 

1244 or Alison.Hunt@ahrq.hhs.gov. 

If sign language interpretation or other 

reasonable accommodation for a 

disability is needed, please contact the 

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 

Office of Equal Employment 

Opportunity and Diversity Management 

on (301) 827–4840, no later than 

Tuesday, July 3, 2018. The agenda, 

roster, and minutes will be available 

from Ms. Bonnie Campbell, Committee 

Management Officer, Agency for 

Healthcare Research and Quality, 5600 

Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 

20857. Ms. Campbell’s phone number is 

(301) 427–1554. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Purpose 

The National Advisory Council for 

Healthcare Research and Quality is 

authorized by Section 941 of the Public 

Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 299c. In 

accordance with its statutory mandate, 

the Council is to advise the Secretary of 

the Department of Health and Human 

Services and the Director of AHRQ on 

matters related to AHRQ’s conduct of its 

mission including providing guidance 

on (A) priorities for health care research, 

(B) the field of health care research 

including training needs and 

information dissemination on health 

care quality and (C) the role of the 

Agency in light of private sector activity 

and opportunities for public private 

partnerships. The Council is composed 

of members of the public, appointed by 

the Secretary, and Federal ex-officio 

members specified in the authorizing 

legislation. 

II. Agenda 

On Wednesday, July 18, 2018, the 

Council meeting will convene at 8:30 

a.m., with the call to order by the 

Council Chair and approval of previous 

Council summary notes. The meeting is 

open to the public and will be available 

via webcast at www.webconferences. 

com/ahrq. The meeting will begin with 

an update on AHRQ’s current research, 

programs, and initiatives. The agenda 

will also include updates on: AHRQ 

Data, Analytics, and Insights; Making 

Health Services Research Relevant to 

the C-Suite; and AHRQ’s Opioids 

efforts. The final agenda will be 

available on the AHRQ website at 

www.AHRQ.gov no later than Friday, 

July 13, 2018. 

Francis D. Chesley, Jr., 

Acting Deputy Director. 

[FR Doc. 2018–15105 Filed 7–13–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4160–90–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Agency for Healthcare Research and 

Quality 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities: Proposed Collection; 

Comment Request 

AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research 

and Quality, HHS. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces the 

intention of the Agency for Healthcare 

Research and Quality (AHRQ) to request 

that the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB) approve the proposed 

information collection project 

‘‘Consumer Assessment of Healthcare 

Providers and Systems (CAHPS) 

Clinician and Group Survey Database.’’ 

DATES: Comments on this notice must be 

received by September 14, 2018. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments should 

be submitted to: Doris Lefkowitz, 

Reports Clearance Officer, AHRQ, by 

email at doris.lefkowitz@AHRQ.hhs.gov. 

Copies of the proposed collection plans, 

data collection instruments, and specific 

details on the estimated burden can be 

obtained from the AHRQ Reports 

Clearance Officer. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Doris Lefkowitz, AHRQ Reports 

Clearance Officer, (301) 427–1477, or by 

emails at doris.lefkowitz@

AHRQ.hhs.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Proposed Project 

Renewal of the Consumer Assessment of 

Healthcare Providers and Systems 

(CAHPS) Clinician and Group Survey 

Database 

In accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501–3521, 

AHRQ invites the public to comment on 

this proposed information collection. 

The CAHPS Database is a repository for 

data from selected CAHPS surveys. The 

primary purpose of the CAHPS Database 

is to facilitate comparisons of CAHPS 

survey results by survey users. This 

voluntary compilation of survey results 

from a large pool of data into a single 

database enables survey users to 

compare their own results to relevant 

Database results. The CAHPS Database 

also offers an important source of 

primary data for research related to 

consumer assessments of quality as 

measured by CAHPS surveys. 

The CAHPS Clinician & Group Survey 

(CG–CAHPS) Database is the newest 

component of the CAHPS Database. It 

was developed in response to the 

growing demand for Database results for 

the various versions of the CG–CAHPS 

Survey, including the 12-month and 

Visit versions. In May 2011, the first set 

of Database results for both the 12- 

month and Visit versions was released 

through the CAHPS Database Online 

Reporting System. 

AHRQ developed the database for 

CAHPS CG Survey data following the 

CAHPS Health Plan Database as a 

model. The CAHPS Health Plan 

Database was developed in 1998 in 

response to requests from health plans, 

purchasers, and CMS for survey data to 

support public reporting of health plan 

ratings, health plan accreditation and 

quality improvement (OMB Control 

Number 0935–0165, expiration 5/31/ 

2020). Demand for survey results from 

the CG Survey has grown as well, and 

therefore AHRQ developed a dedicated 

Clinician and Group Database to 

support benchmarking, quality 

improvement, and research (OMB 

Control Number 0935–0197, expiration 

02/28/2019). 

The CAHPS Database contains data 

from AHRQ’s standardized CAHPS 

Surveys which provide survey measures 

of quality to health care purchasers, 

consumers, regulators, and policy 

makers. The Health Plan Database also 

provides data for AHRQ’s annual 

National Healthcare Quality and 

Disparities Reports. 

The goal of this project is to renew the 

CAHPS CG Survey Database. This 

database will continue to update the 

CAHPS CG Database with the latest 

results of the CAHPS CG Survey. These 

results consist of 31 items that measure 

5 areas or composites of patients’ 

experiences with physicians and staff in 

outpatient medical practices. This 

database can be used to do the 

following: 

(1) Improve care provided by 

individual providers, sites of care, 

medical groups, or provider networks. 

(2) Offer several products and 

services, including providing survey 

results presented through an Online 

Reporting System, summary chartbooks, 

custom analyses, private reports in 

Excel format, and data for research 

purposes. 

(3) Provides information to help 

identify strengths and areas with 

potential for improvement in patient 

care. The five composite measures are: 

Getting Timely Appointments, Care, and 

Information 

How Well Providers Communicate With 

Patients 

Helpful, Courteous, and Respectful 

Office Staff 

Providers’ Use of Information to 

Coordinate Patient Care 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 136 / Monday, July 16, 2018 / Notices 32873 

Patients’ Rating of the Provider 

This study is being conducted by 

AHRQ through its contractor, Westat, 

pursuant to AHRQ’s statutory authority 

to conduct and support research on 

health care and on systems for the 

delivery of such care, including 

activities with respect to the quality, 

effectiveness, efficiency, 

appropriateness and value of health care 

services and with respect to quality 

measurement and improvement, and 

health surveys and database 

development. 42 U.S.C. 299a(a)(1), (2), 

and (8). 

Method of Collection 

To achieve the goal of this project, the 

following activities and data collections 

will be implemented: 

(1) Registration Form—The purpose of 

this form is to determine the eligibility 

status and initiate the registration 

process for participating organizations 

seeking to submit their CAHPS CG 

survey data voluntarily to the CAHPS 

CG Survey Database. The point of 

contact (POC) at the participating 

organization (or parent organization) 

will complete the form. The POC is 

either a corporate-level health manager 

or a survey vendor who contracts with 

a participating organization to collect 

the CAHPS CG survey data. 

(2) Data Use Agreement—The purpose 

of the Data Use Agreement (DUA) is to 

obtain authorization from participating 

organizations to use their voluntarily 

submitted CAHPS CG survey data for 

analysis and reporting according to the 

terms specified in the DUA. The DUA 

states how data submitted by 

participating organizations will be used 

and provides confidentiality assurances. 

The POC at the organization will 

complete the form. Vendors do not sign 

the DUA. 

(3) Data Submission—The number of 

submissions to the database may vary 

each year because medical groups and 

practices may not administer the survey 

and submit data each year. Data 

submission is typically handled by one 

POC who is either a health system, a 

medical group or practice or a survey 

vendor who contracts with the medical 

group or practice to collect data on their 

behalf. After the POC has completed the 

Registration Form and the DUA, they 

will submit patient-level data collected 

from the CAHPS CG survey to the 

CAHPS CG Survey Database. Data on 

organizational characteristics such as 

ownership, number of patient visits per 

week, provider specialty, and 

information related to survey 

administration such as mode, dates of 

survey administration, sample size, and 

response rate, which are collected as 

part of CAHPS CG survey operations are 

also submitted. 

Each submission will consist of 3 data 

files: (1) A Group File that contains 

information about the group ownership, 

(2) a Practice File containing the 

practice ownership and affiliation (i.e., 

commercial, hospital or health system, 

university or academic medical center, 

community health center, military or 

county), number of providers working 

each week, sampling information, 

number of patient visits per week, 

contact information and (3) a Sample 

File that contains one record for each 

patient surveyed, the date of visit, 

survey disposition code, information 

about survey completion, and survey 

responses. 

Survey data from the CAHPS CG 

Database is used to produce four types 

of products: (1) An online reporting of 

results available to the public on the 

CAHPS Database website; (2) individual 

participant reports (in Excel format), 

used for comparing a participating 

organization’s CAHPS survey results to 

the database averages, that are 

confidential and customized for each 

participating organization that submits 

their data, (3) an annual Chartbook that 

presents summary-level results in a 

downloadable file in PDF format; and 

(4) a de-identified dataset that is made 

available to researchers for additional 

analyses. 

Information for the CAHPS CG 

Database has been collected by AHRQ 

on an annual basis since 2010. 

Participating organizations are asked to 

submit their data voluntarily to the 

database each year. The data are cleaned 

with standardized programs, then 

aggregated and used to produce 

summarized results. In addition, reports 

in Excel format are produced that 

compare the participating organizations’ 

results to the overall database results. 

These reports are sent via a secured FTP 

site upon the participating 

organization’s request. 

Database results and individual 

participant reports can serve a variety of 

purposes: 

• Identifying areas for quality 

improvement at multiple levels, 

including medical group, practice site, 

and individual practitioner. 

• Briefing senior leadership on 

patients’ views of the health care they 

receive. 

• Supporting public reporting of 

patients’ assessments of care. 

• Combining with other quality 

measures to examine health care 

outcomes. 

The CAHPS CG Database supports 

research by providing a de-identified 

analytic database. Much like the CAHPS 

Health Plan Database developed in 1998 

(OMB Control Number 0935–0165, 

Expiration Date 5/31/2020), researchers 

can use the CAHPS CG Survey Database 

to examine: 

• Disparities in CAHPS satisfaction 

scores by racial and ethnic 

characteristics of patients. 

• Comparisons of adult and child 

CAHPS survey results. 

Analysis of case-mix factors affecting 

CAHPS scores, such as patient age, 

education, and self-reported health 

status. 

Estimated Annual Respondent Burden 

Exhibit 1 shows the estimated burden 

hours for the participating in the CG 

database. The 11 POCs in exhibit 1 are 

the number of estimated vendors. 

Survey vendors assist the Health/ 

Medical entities with submitting data 

submission materials. Survey vendors 

generally submit all required survey 

data and other materials other than the 

DUA. The 86 POCs in exhibit 1 are the 

number of estimated participating 

Health/Medical entities based on 2017 

submission. 

Each vendor will register online for 

submission. The online Registration 

Form will require about 5 minutes to 

complete. The DUA will be completed 

by the 86 participating Health/Medical 

entities. Vendors do not sign DUAs. The 

DUA process requires about 15 minutes 

to sign and return by fax, mail or to 

upload directly to the submission 

system and includes an accompanying 

practice site excel file that is uploaded 

to the submission system. Each 

submitter will provide a copy of their 

questionnaire and the survey data file in 

the required file format. Survey data 

files must conform to the data file layout 

specifications provided by the CAHPS 

Database. The average number of data 

submissions per vendor is estimated to 

be 10. Once a data file is uploaded, the 

file will be automatically checked to 

ensure it conforms to the specifications 

and a data file status report will be 

produced and made available to the 

submitter. Submitters will review each 

report and will be expected to fix any 

errors in their data file and resubmit if 

necessary. It will take about one hour to 

complete each file submission. The total 

burden is estimated to be 133 hours 

annually. 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES
32874 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 136 / Monday, July 16, 2018 / Notices 

Form name 

Number of 

respondents/ 

POCs 

Number of 

responses for 

each POC 

Hours per 

response 

Total 

burden 

hours 

Registration Form ............................................................................................ 11 1 5/60 1 

Data Use Agreement ....................................................................................... 86 1 15/60 22 

Data Submission .............................................................................................. 11 10 1 110 

Total .......................................................................................................... 108 NA NA 133 

Exhibit 2 shows the estimated 

annualized cost burden based on the 

respondents’ time to complete the 

submission process. The cost burden is 

estimated to be $6,602 annually. 

Exhibit 2—Estimated Annualized Cost 

Burden 

Form name 

Number of 

respondents/ 

POCs 

Total 

burden 

hours 

Average 

hourly wage 

rate * 

Total cost 

burden 

Registration Form ............................................................................................ 11 1 a 40.95 $41 

Data Use Agreement ....................................................................................... 86 22 b 93.44 2,056 

Data Files Submission ..................................................................................... 11 110 c 40.95 4,505 

Total .......................................................................................................... 108 133 NA 6,602

* National Compensation Survey: Occupational wages in the United States May 2016, ‘‘U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.’’ 

(a) and (c) Based on the mean hourly wages for Computer Programmer (15–1131). (b) Based on the mean hourly wage for Chief Executives 

(11–1011). https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm. 

Request for Comments 

In accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act, comments on AHRQ’s 

information collection are requested 

with regard to any of the following: (a) 

Whether the proposed collection of 

information is necessary for the proper 

performance of AHRQ’s health care 

research and health care information 

dissemination functions, including 

whether the information will have 

practical utility; (b) the accuracy of 

AHRQ’s estimate of burden (including 

hours and costs) of the proposed 

collection(s) of information; (c) ways to 

enhance the quality, utility and clarity 

of the information to be collected; and 

(d) ways to minimize the burden of the 

collection of information upon the 

respondents, including the use of 

automated collection techniques or 

other forms of information technology. 

Comments submitted in response to 

this notice will be summarized and 

included in the Agency’s subsequent 

request for OMB approval of the 

proposed information collection. All 

comments will become a matter of 

public record. 

Francis D. Chesley, Jr., 

Acting Deputy Director. 

[FR Doc. 2018–15104 Filed 7–13–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4160–90–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 

Services 

[Document Identifiers: CMS–10669] 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities: Submission for OMB 

Review; Comment Request 

AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services, Department of 

Health and Human Services. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services (CMS) is announcing 

an opportunity for the public to 

comment on CMS’ intention to collect 

information from the public. Under the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

(PRA), federal agencies are required to 

publish notice in the Federal Register 

concerning each proposed collection of 

information, including each proposed 

extension or reinstatement of an existing 

collection of information, and to allow 

a second opportunity for public 

comment on the notice. Interested 

persons are invited to send comments 

regarding the burden estimate or any 

other aspect of this collection of 

information, including the necessity and 

utility of the proposed information 

collection for the proper performance of 

the agency’s functions, the accuracy of 

the estimated burden, ways to enhance 

the quality, utility, and clarity of the 

information to be collected and the use 

of automated collection techniques or 

other forms of information technology to 

minimize the information collection 

burden. 

DATES: Comments on the collection(s) of 

information must be received by the 

OMB desk officer by August 15, 2018. 

ADDRESSES: When commenting on the 

proposed information collections, 

please reference the document identifier 

or OMB control number. To be assured 

consideration, comments and 

recommendations must be received by 

the OMB desk officer via one of the 

following transmissions: 

OMB, Office of Information and 

Regulatory Affairs, Attention: CMS 

Desk Officer, Fax Number: (202) 395– 

5806, OR Email: OIRA_submission@

omb.eop.gov. 

To obtain copies of a supporting 

statement and any related forms for the 

proposed collection(s) summarized in 

this notice, you may make your request 

using one of the following: 

1. Access CMS’ website address at 

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/Paperwork

ReductionActof1995. 

2. Email your request, including your 

address, phone number, OMB number, 

and CMS document identifier, to 

Paperwork@cms.hhs.gov. 

3. Call the Reports Clearance Office at 

(410) 786–1326. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Reports Clearance Office at (410) 786– 

1326. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) 

(44 U.S.C. 3501–3520), federal agencies 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES