13878 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 51 / Tuesday, March 17, 2015 / Notices 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

National Institutes of Health 

Submission for OMB Review; 30-Day 

Comment Request; Generic Clearance 

for the Collection of Qualitative 

Feedback on Agency Service Delivery 

(NIDA) 

SUMMARY: Under the provisions of 

Section 3507(a)(1)(D) of the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995, the National 

Institutes of Health (NIH) has submitted 

to the Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) a request for review and 

approval of the information collection 

listed below. This proposed information 

collection was previously published in 

the Federal Register Volume 79, No. 

250, on December 31, 2014, page 78875, 

and allowed 60-days for public 

comment. No public comments were 

received. The purpose of this notice is 

to allow an additional 30 days for public 

comment. The National Institute on 

Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes 

of Health, may not conduct or sponsor, 

and the respondent is not required to 

respond to, an information collection 

that has been extended, revised or 

implemented on or after October 1, 

1995, unless it displays a currently valid 

OMB control number. 

Direct Comments to OMB: Written 

comments and/or suggestions regarding 

the item(s) contained in this notice, 

especially regarding the estimated 

public burden and associated response 

time, should be directed to the: Office 

of Management and Budget, Office of 

Regulatory Affairs, OIRA_submission@

omb.eop.gov or by fax to 202–395–6974, 

Attention: NIH Desk Officer. 

Comment Due Date: Comments 

regarding this information collection are 

best assured of having their full effect if 

received within 30 days of the date of 

this publication. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To 

obtain a copy of the data collection 

plans and instruments, submit 

comments in writing, or request more 

information on the proposed project, 

contact: Genevieve deAlmeida, Project 

Clearance Liaison, National Institute on 

Drug Abuse, NIH, 6001 Executive 

Boulevard, Bethesda, MD 20892–9557, 

or call non-toll-free number (301) 594– 

6802, or Email your request, including 

your address to: dealmeig@nida.nih.gov. 

Formal requests for additional plans and 

instruments must be requested in 

writing. 

Proposed Collection: Generic 

Clearance for the Collection of 

Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service 

Delivery (NIDA), 0925–0655, Expiration 

Date 3/31/2015, EXTENSION, National 

Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). 

Need and Use of Information 

Collection: The information collected 

under this clearance will be qualitative 

customer and stakeholder feedback 

information—their perceptions, 

experiences and expectations of 

services, issues with service, to focus 

attention on areas where 

communication, training or changes in 

operations might improve delivery of 

products or services. The information 

will be useful and will allow for 

collaborative and actionable 

communications between the Agency 

and its customers and stakeholders, and 

will contribute directly to improving the 

programs and management of them. 

The information will not yield data 

that can be generalized to the overall 

population. The information may also 

be formative for the purpose of 

developing a concept for a new service 

program or dissemination program. The 

collections may still be eligible for 

submission for other generic 

mechanisms designed to yield 

quantitative results. The primary 

objectives are to obtain feedback on 

programs from customers and 

stakeholders, that would help make 

positive changes to the programs, or to 

assist in developing a new program or 

dissemination initiative, or to test 

medical tools and devices for usability, 

feasibility, and pilot testing of survey 

questionnaires for understandability. 

Data collection methods to be used in 

these studies include web-based and 

mailed surveys, focus groups, 

interviews with small groups, ad hoc 

collections at Conferences. The findings 

will provide valuable information to 

assist in improving programs that serve 

the public, and in developing good tools 

and devices to serve the public. OMB 

approval is requested for 3 years. 

NIDA will only submit a collection for 

approval under this generic clearance if 

it meets the following conditions: 

• The collections are voluntary; 

• The collections are low-burden for 

respondents (based on considerations of 

total burden hours, total number of 

respondents, or burden-hours per 

respondent) and are low-cost for both 

the respondents and the Federal 

Government; 

• The collections are noncontroversial and do not raise issues of 

concern to other Federal agencies; 

• Any collection is targeted to the 

solicitation of opinions from 

respondents who have experience with 

the program or may have experience 

with the program in the near future; 

• Personally identifiable information 

(PII) is collected only to the extent 

necessary and is not retained; 

• Information gathered will be used 

only internally for general service 

improvement and program management 

purposes and is not intended for release 

outside of the agency; 

• Information gathered will not be 

used for the purpose of substantially 

informing influential policy decisions; 

and 

• Information gathered will yield 

qualitative information; the collections 

will not be designed or expected to 

yield statistically reliable results or used 

as though the results are generalizable to 

the population of study. 

Feedback collected under this generic 

clearance provides useful information, 

but it does not yield data that can be 

generalized to the overall population. 

This type of generic clearance for 

qualitative information will not be used 

for quantitative information collections 

that are designed to yield reliably 

actionable results, such as monitoring 

trends over time or documenting 

program performance. Such data uses 

require more rigorous designs that 

address: The target population to which 

generalizations will be made, the 

sampling frame, the sample design 

(including stratification and clustering), 

the precision requirements or power 

calculations that justify the proposed 

sample size, the expected response rate, 

methods for assessing potential nonresponse bias, the protocols for data 

collection, and any testing procedures 

that were or will be undertaken prior to 

fielding the study. Depending on the 

degree of influence the results are likely 

to have, such collections may still be 

eligible for submission for other generic 

mechanisms that are designed to yield 

quantitative results. 

As a general matter, information 

collections will not result in any new 

system of records containing privacy 

information and will not ask questions 

of a sensitive nature, such as sexual 

behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, 

and other matters that are commonly 

considered private. 

An agency may not conduct or 

sponsor, and a person is not required to 

respond to, a collection of information 

unless it displays a currently valid 

Office of Management and Budget 

control number. 

OMB approval is requested for 3 

years. There are no costs to respondents 

other than their time. The total 

estimated annualized burden hours are 

1,560. 

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Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 51 / Tuesday, March 17, 2015 / Notices 13879 

ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED BURDEN HOURS

Type of collection Number of 

respondents 

Annual 

frequency per 

response 

Hours per 

response Total hours 

Customer outcomes and usability testing ........................................................ 900 1 40/60 600 

Customer Satisfaction and needs assessment survey ................................... 600 1 40/60 400 

Focus Groups .................................................................................................. 130 1 1 130 

Small Discussion Groups ................................................................................. 130 1 1 130 

Pilot Testing of instruments for applicability among diverse populations ....... 450 1 40/60 300 

Dated: March 11, 2015. 

Genevieve deAlmeida, 

Project Clearance Liaison, NIDA, NIH. 

[FR Doc. 2015–06087 Filed 3–16–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4140–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Health Resources and Services 

Administration 

‘‘Low-Income Levels’’ Used for Various 

Health Professions and Nursing 

Programs Authorized in Titles III, VII, 

and VIII of the Public Health Service 

Act 

AGENCY: Health Resources and Services 

Administration, HHS. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Health Resources and 

Services Administration (HRSA) is 

updating income levels used to identify 

a ‘‘low-income family’’ for the purpose 

of determining eligibility for programs 

that provide health professions and 

nursing training to individuals from 

disadvantaged backgrounds. These 

various programs are authorized in 

Titles III, VII, and VIII of the Public 

Health Service Act. 

The Department periodically 

publishes in the Federal Register lowincome levels to be used by institutions 

receiving grants and cooperative 

agreements in order to determine 

individual eligibility for programs 

providing training for (1) disadvantaged 

individuals, (2) individuals from 

disadvantaged backgrounds, or (3) 

individuals from low-income families. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Many 

health professions and nursing grant 

and cooperative agreement awardees 

use the low-income levels to determine 

whether potential program participants 

are from an economically disadvantaged 

background and would be eligible to 

participate in the program, as well as to 

determine the amount of funding the 

individual receives. Federal agencies 

generally make awards to: Accredited 

schools of medicine, osteopathic 

medicine, public health, dentistry, 

veterinary medicine, optometry, 

pharmacy, allied health, podiatric 

medicine, nursing, and chiropractic; 

public or private nonprofit schools 

which offer graduate programs in 

behavioral health and mental health 

practice; and other public or private 

nonprofit health or education entities to 

assist the disadvantaged to enter and 

graduate from health professions and 

nursing schools. Some programs 

provide for the repayment of health 

professions or nursing education loans 

for disadvantaged students. 

The Secretary defines a ‘‘low-income 

family/household’’ for programs 

included in Titles III, VII, and VIII of the 

Public Health Service Act as having an 

annual income that does not exceed 200 

percent of the Department’s poverty 

guidelines. A family is a group of two 

or more individuals related by birth, 

marriage, or adoption who live together. 

On June 26, 2013, in U.S. v. Windsor, 

133 S. Ct. 2675 (2013), the Supreme 

Court held that section 3 of the Defense 

of Marriage Act, which prohibited 

federal recognition of same-sex spouses 

and same-sex marriages, was 

unconstitutional. In light of this 

decision, please note that in 

determining eligibility for these 

programs, same-sex marriages and samesex spouses will be recognized on equal 

terms with opposite-sex marriages and 

opposite-sex spouses, regardless of 

where the couple resides. This approach 

is consistent with a post-Windsor policy 

of treating same-sex marriages on the 

same terms as opposite sex marriages to 

the greatest extent reasonably possible. 

Thus, a ‘‘family or household’’ includes 

same-sex spouses that are legally 

married in a jurisdiction that recognizes 

same-sex marriage regardless of whether 

the same-sex spouses live in a 

jurisdiction that recognizes same-sex 

marriage or a jurisdiction that does not 

recognize same-sex marriage as well as 

the family members that result from 

such same sex-marriage. 

Most HRSA programs use the income 

of a student’s parents to compute lowincome status. However, a ‘‘household’’ 

may potentially be only one person. 

Other HRSA programs, depending upon 

the legislative intent of the program, the 

programmatic purpose related to income 

level, as well as the age and 

circumstances of the participant, will 

apply these low-income standards to the 

individual student to determine 

eligibility, as long as he or she is not 

listed as a dependent on the tax form of 

his or her parent(s). Each program 

announces the rationale and choice of 

methodology for determining lowincome levels in program guidance. 

The Secretary annually adjusts the 

low-income levels based on the 

Department’s poverty guidelines and 

makes them available to persons 

responsible for administering the 

applicable programs. The Department’s 

poverty guidelines are based on poverty 

thresholds published by the U.S. Bureau 

of the Census, adjusted annually for 

changes in the Consumer Price Index. 

The income figures that follow have 

been updated to reflect the Department’s 

2015 poverty guidelines as published in 

80 FR 3236 (January 22, 2015). 

LOW-INCOME LEVELS BASED ON THE

2015 POVERTY GUIDELINES FOR THE

48 CONTIGUOUS STATES AND THE

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Persons in family/household * Income level ** 

1 ............................................ 23,540 

2 ............................................ 31,860 

3 ............................................ 40,180 

4 ............................................ 48,500 

5 ............................................ 56,820 

6 ............................................ 65,140 

7 ............................................ 73,460 

8 ............................................ 81,780 

For families with more than 8 persons, add 

$8,320 for each additional person. 

LOW-INCOME LEVELS BASED ON THE

2015 POVERTY GUIDELINES FOR

ALASKA

Persons in family/household * Income level ** 

1 ............................................ 29,440 

2 ............................................ 39,840 

3 ............................................ 50,240 

4 ............................................ 60,640 

5 ............................................ 71,040 

6 ............................................ 81,440 

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