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[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 72 (Monday, April 15, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22266-22267]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-08409]

[[Page 22266]]

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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.

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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: ``The Feasibility of Alternative Models for Collecting New 
Data on Physicians and Their Practices.'' In accordance with the 
Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501-3521, AHRQ invites the public 
to comment on this proposed information collection.

DATES: Comments on this notice must be received by June 14, 2013.

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

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Proposed Project

    The Feasibility of Alternative Models for Collecting New Data on 
Physicians and Their Practices Physicians play a vital role in the 
American health care system. Physicians, and other providers in their 
practices, provide direct medical care, and they also refer patients 
for many other medical services. Directly or indirectly, therefore, 
physician activities can have an important impact on healthcare access, 
quality, and cost. Given their key role, accurate and timely 
longitudinal information about physicians is essential to understanding 
the functioning of the health care system, identifying best practices 
and potential efficiencies, and assessing the impact of programmatic 
and policy reforms, including the development of new organizational 
forms relevant to physician practices (e.g., accountable care 
organizations).
    At present, however, no comprehensive longitudinal data collection 
effort addresses all levels of the current complexity of physician 
practices and, most importantly, the larger organizational context of 
their decision making. This has limited the ability of researchers to 
monitor and predict the behavior of health care providers; assess or 
anticipate the likely impact of proposed policy changes; understand 
geographic variations in the provision, cost, and quality of health 
care services; assess health care provider availability and labor 
resource issues; and provide timely information and analyses about such 
issues to public policymakers and private sector decision makers and 
managers.
    The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), 
policymakers, researchers who directly inform policymakers, and Federal 
and other stakeholders, all working together, have identified a clear 
need for an ongoing, regular way to collect new data in order to 
provide a comprehensive picture of physicians, their immediate practice 
sites, and the larger organizational and market contexts in which 
individual practices sit. The long term aims are to track, monitor, and 
analyze how physicians are responding to: (1) Ongoing health reform 
initiatives (both Federal and State) and (2) associated market and 
technological changes. AHRQ has developed survey instruments 
(questions) and, with this project, will test the feasibility of 
extracting this new policy relevant information from a random sample of 
physicians and their practices. The questionnaire development was based 
on an extensive environmental scan which reviewed all surveys of 
physicians conducted over the last decade and through discussions with 
our technical expert panel and stakeholders, in order to avoid 
duplication with other efforts and to build on and use other efforts in 
strategically productive ways.
    This research seeks to add to the knowledge available from current 
surveys in two important ways. First, we are testing the addition of 
questions for all physicians specialties, including radiology, 
anesthesiology, and pathology which are currently excluded from other 
surveys. Second, this effort includes an innovative experiment to 
obtain information about the organization within which the sampled 
physician practices. Many of the changes taking place in the health 
care market are occurring at the organizational level. Physicians may 
or may not be the most reliable respondent for questions about 
organizational changes that do not directly affect the physician-
patient interaction. However, organizational information is vitally 
important for assessing the changing health care system. This project 
aims to fill that gap by providing data on optimal methods for 
collecting organizational information. For example, the data collection 
effort involves experimental solicitation of information from the 
physician, a designated manager, or both. Other experiments involve 
variation in how particular questions might be asked.
    This data collection will enable AHRQ and the Department to pretest 
new physician questions and new physician practice questions, so that 
future acquisitions of such information--whether in a new survey or an 
expansion of an existing federal survey--rest on empirical analyses 
derived from a real-world fielding of the questions.
    This study is being conducted by AHRQ through its contractor, 
Mathematica Policy Research, pursuant to AHRQ's statutory authority to 
conduct and support research on health care and systems for the 
delivery of such care, including activities with respect to the 
quality, effectiveness, efficiency, appropriateness, and value of 
health care services, clinical practice, and health statistics and 
surveys (42 U.S.C. 299a(a)(1), (4), and (8)).

Estimated Annual Respondent Burden

    Exhibit 1 shows the estimated annual burden hours for each 
respondent's participation time in this research project. The physician 
questionnaire will be completed by 1,750 physicians and takes 20 
minutes to complete. The practice questionnaire will be completed by 
334 practice administrators and 333 physicians (667 total) and takes 10 
minutes to complete. The total annual burden is estimated to be 694 
hours.
    Exhibit 2 shows the estimated annual cost burden associated with 
the respondents' time to participate in this research. The total annual 
cost burden is estimated to be $63,725.

[[Page 22267]]

                                  Exhibit 1--Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                     Number of
                    Form name                        Number of     responses per     Hours per     Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent       response          hours
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Physician Questionnaire.........................           1,750               1           20/60             583
Practice Organization Questionnaire.............             667               1           10/60             111
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................           2,417              na              na             694
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                                   Exhibit 2--Estimated Annualized Cost Burden
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                                                     Number of     Total burden   Average hourly    Total cost
                    Form name                       respondents        hours        wage rate*        burden
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Physician Questionnaire.........................            1750             583      $95.79 \a\         $55,846
Practice Organization Questionnaire.............             667             111       70.98 \b\           7,879
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................           2,417             694              na          63,725
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* National Compensation Survey: Occupational wages in the United States May 2011, ``U.S. Department of Labor,
  Bureau of Labor Statistics.''
\a\ Based on the mean wages for Pediatricians, General (29-1065); Family and General Practitioners (29-1062);
  Internists, General (29-1063); Psychiatrists (29-1066); Anesthesiologists (29-1061); Surgeons (29-1067);
  Obstetricians and Gynecologists (29-1064); and Physicians & Surgeons, All Other (29-1069)
\b\ Based on the mean wages for 334 Medical and Health Services Managers (11-9111) and 333 physicians (as
  defined above).

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 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.

    Dated: March 12, 2013.
Carolyn M. Clancy,
Director.
[FR Doc. 2013-08409 Filed 4-12-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160-90-M
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