28504 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 16, 2009 / Notices 

EXHIBIT 2. ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED COST BURDEN—Continued 

Form Name Number of 

respondents 

Total burden 

hours 

Average 

hourly wage 

rate* 

Total cost burden 

Total .......................................................................................................... 7,200 2,400 na 46,944 

*Based upon the average wages, ‘‘National Compensation Survey: Occupational Wages in the United States, May 2007,’’ U.S. Department of 

Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Estimated Annual Costs to the Federal 

Government 

The total cost to the Federal 

Government for developing the Health 

Information Technology questions, and 

testing them within the CAHPS® 

Clinician & Group Survey, Adult 

Primary Care Questionnaire, is 

$780,000, including the cost of 

reviewing the literature, conducting 

focus groups and cognitive interviews, 

field testing the instrument, analyzing 

the data, finalizing the survey, preparing 

reports, writing papers for journal 

submission, and project management 

(see Exhibit 3). Data collection will not 

exceed one year. 

EXHIBIT 3. ESTIMATED ANNUAL COST

Cost component Total cost 

Review of literature ....................... $35,000 

Focus groups ................................ 60,000 

Cognitive interviews ...................... 80,000 

Field test ....................................... 260,000 

Data analyses ............................... 80,000 

Finalize survey .............................. 50,000 

Preparation of reports and journal 

papers ....................................... 85,000 

AHRQ project management ......... 130,000 

Total ....................................... 780,000 

Request for Comments 

In accordance with the above-cited 

Paperwork Reduction Act legislation, 

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: June 4, 2009. 

Carolyn M. Clancy, 

Director. 

[FR Doc. E9–14080 Filed 6–15–09; 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: ‘‘2010– 

2011 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey 

Insurance Component.’’ In accordance 

with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 

1995, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A), AHRQ 

invites the public to comment on this 

proposed information collection. 

DATES: Comments on this notice must be 

received by August 17, 2009. 

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 

e-mail at doris.lefkowitz@ahrq.hhs.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Proposed Project 

2010–2011 Medical Expenditure Panel 

Survey Insurance Component 

AHRQ seeks to renew the Medical 

Expenditure Panel Survey Insurance 

Component (MEPS–IC) for calendar 

years 2010 and 2011. The MEPS–IC, an 

annual survey of the characteristics of 

employer-sponsored health insurance, 

was first conducted by AHRQ in 1997 

for the calendar year 1996. The survey 

has since been conducted annually for 

calendar years 1996 through 2009, 

except for 2007. A change from prior 

year collection to calendar year 

collection in 2008 meant that no data 

were collected for the 2007 calendar 

year, but the change has allowed for 

much earlier release of the survey 

results for the 2008 calendar year 

forward. AHRQ is authorized to conduct 

the MEPS–IC pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 

299b-2. 

Employment-based health insurance 

is the source of coverage for over 90 

million workers and their family 

members, and is a cornerstone of the 

current U.S. health care system. The 

MEPS–IC measures the extent, cost, and 

coverage of employment-based health 

insurance. Statistics are produced at the 

National, State, and sub-State 

(metropolitan area) level. 

The MEPS–IC is designed to provide 

data for Federal policymakers 

evaluating the effects of National and 

State health care reforms. It also 

provides descriptive data on the current 

employment-based health insurance 

system and data for modeling the 

differential impacts of proposed health 

policy initiatives. The MEPS–IC also 

supplies critical State and National 

estimates of health insurance spending 

for the National Health Accounts and 

Gross Domestic Product. Data to be 

collected from each employer will 

include a description of the organization 

(e.g., size, industry) and descriptions of 

health insurance plans available, plan 

enrollments, total plan costs and costs 

to employees. This survey will be 

conducted for AHRQ by the Bureau of 

the Census using an annual sample of 

employers selected from Census Bureau 

lists of private sector employers and 

governments. 

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Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 16, 2009 / Notices 28505 

The MEPS–IC is one of three 

components of the MEPS. The others are 

the Household and Medical Provider 

Components: 

• MEPS Household Component is a 

sample of households participating in 

the National Health Interview Survey in 

the prior calendar year. These 

households are interviewed 5 times over 

a 21⁄2 year period for MEPS. The 5 

interviews yield two years of 

information on use of and expenditures 

for health care, sources of payment for 

that health care, insurance status, 

employment, health status and health 

care quality. 

• MEPS Medical Provider Component 

collects information from medical and 

financial records maintained by 

hospitals, physicians, pharmacies, 

health care institutions, and home 

health agencies named as sources of 

care by household respondents. 

This clearance request is for the 

MEPS–IC only. 

Method of Collection 

Data collection for the MEPS–IC takes 

place in three phases at each sample 

establishment: Prescreening interview, 

questionnaire mailout, and nonresponse 

follow-up. An establishment is a single 

location of a private sector or State and 

local government employer. 

First, a prescreening interview is 

conducted by telephone. For those 

establishments that offer health 

insurance, its goal is to obtain the name 

and title of an appropriate person in 

each establishment to whom a MEPS–IC 

questionnaire will be mailed. For 

establishments which do not offer 

health insurance, a brief set of questions 

about establishment characteristics is 

administered at the end of the 

prescreening interview to close out the 

case. This step minimizes burden for 

many small establishments that do not 

offer health insurance. 

The next phase, questionnaire 

mailout, makes use of two forms—one 

requests establishment-level 

information (e.g., total number of 

employees) and the other requests planlevel information (e.g., the plan 

premium for single coverage) for each 

plan (up to four) offered by the 

establishment. 

In the final phase, establishments 

which do not respond to the initial 

MEPS–IC mail questionnaire are mailed 

a nonresponse follow-up package. Those 

establishments which fail to respond to 

the second mailing are contacted for a 

telephone follow-up using computerassisted interviewing. 

Data collection for the largest private 

sector and government units, which 

have high survey response burdens, may 

differ somewhat from the above pattern. 

Estimated Annual Respondent Burden 

Exhibit 1 shows the estimated 

annualized burden hours for the 

respondents’ time to provide the 

requested data. The Prescreener 

questionnaire will be completed by 

32,006 respondents and takes about 51⁄2

minutes to complete. The Establishment 

questionnaire will be completed by 

24,965 respondents and takes about 23 

minutes to complete. The Plan 

questionnaire will be completed by 

21,437 respondents and will require an 

average of 2.1 responses per respondent. 

Each Plan questionnaire takes about 11 

minutes to complete. The total 

annualized burden hours are estimated 

to be 20,471 hours. 

Exhibit 2 shows the estimated 

annualized cost burden associated with 

the respondents’ time to participate in 

this data collection. The annualized cost 

burden is estimated to be $546,576. 

EXHIBIT 1—ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED BURDEN HOURS

Form name Number of 

respondents 

Number of 

responses per 

respondent 

Hours per 

response 

Total burden 

hours 

Prescreener Questionnaire .............................................................................. 32,006 1 0.09 2,881 

Establishment Questionnaire ........................................................................... 24,965 1 0.38 9,487 

Plan Questionnaire .......................................................................................... 21,437 2.1 0.18 8,103 

Total .......................................................................................................... 78,408 na na 20,471 

Note: The total number of respondents 

increased from previous clearances not due 

to any increase in sample size, but due to a 

change in the way the number of respondents 

is reported. While now total respondents are 

the sum of respondents per form, previously 

they were reported as the number of unique 

establishments completing at least one form. 

EXHIBIT 2—ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED COST BURDEN

Form name Number of 

respondents 

Total burden 

hours 

Average 

hourly wage 

rate* 

Total cost 

burden 

Prescreener Questionnaire .............................................................................. 32,006 2,881 26.70 $76,923 

Establishment Questionnaire ........................................................................... 24,965 9,487 26.70 253,303 

Plan Questionnaire .......................................................................................... 21,437 8,103 26.70 216,350 

Total .......................................................................................................... 78,408 20,471 na 546,576 

* Based upon the mean wage for Compensation, benefits, and job analysis specialists, civilian workers, National Compensation Survey: Occupational Earnings in the United States, 2007, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Estimated Annual Costs to the Federal 

Government 

Exhibit 3 shows the estimated total 

and annualized cost for this two year 

project. The annual cost to the Federal 

Government is estimated to be $10.3 

million. 

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28506 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 16, 2009 / Notices 

EXHIBIT 3—ESTIMATED TOTAL AND ANNUALIZED COST ($ THOUSANDS) 

Cost component Total cost Annualized 

cost 

Project Development ............................................................................................................................................... $3,099 $1,550 

Data Collection Activities ......................................................................................................................................... 7,230 3,615 

Data Processing and Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 7,230 3,615 

Project Management ................................................................................................................................................ 2,066 1,033 

Overhead ................................................................................................................................................................. 1,033 517 

Total .................................................................................................................................................................. 20,658 10,329 

Note: Components may not sum to Total 

due to rounding. 

Request for Comments 

In accordance with the above-cited 

Paperwork Reduction Act legislation, 

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, quality 

improvement and 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: June 4, 2009. 

Carolyn M. Clancy, 

Director. 

[FR Doc. E9–14079 Filed 6–15–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4160–90–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

National Institutes of Health 

Submission for OMB Emergency 

Review; Comment Request; NIH NCI 

Clinical Trials Reporting Program 

(CTRP) Database (NCI) 

SUMMARY: In accordance with Section 

3507(j) of the Paperwork Reduction Act 

of 1995, the National Cancer Institute 

(NCI), the National Institutes of Health 

(NIH), has submitted to the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) a 

request to Emergency review and 

approve the information collection by 

July 1, 2009. Given the long term nature 

of this project and the Recovery Act 

timelines, the NCI has requested 

approval to conduct emergency 

processing of information collections 

pursuant to 5 CFR 1320.13. NIH cannot 

reasonably comply with the normal 

clearance procedures for information 

collection, because the use of regular 

procedures would delay the collection 

and hinder the agency in accomplishing 

its mission and meeting new statutory 

requirements, to the detriment of the 

public good. The NIH 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. 

Proposed Collection 

Title: NIH NCI Clinical Trials 

Reporting Program (CTRP) Database. 

Type of Information Collection 

Request: Emergency. 

Need and Use of Information 

Collection: The NCI is developing an 

electronic resource, the NCI Clinical 

Trials Reporting Program (CTRP) 

Database, to serve as a single, definitive 

source of information about all NCIsupported clinical research, thereby 

enabling the NCI to execute its mission 

to reduce the burden of cancer and to 

ensure an optimal return on the nation’s 

investment in cancer clinical research. 

Information will be submitted by 

clinical research administrators as 

designees of clinical investigators who 

conduct NCI-supported clinical 

research. Deployment and extension of 

the CTRP Database, which will allow 

the NCI to consolidate reporting, 

aggregate information and reduce 

redundant submissions, is an 

infrastructure development project that 

will be enabled by public funds 

expended pursuant to the American 

Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, 

Public Law 111–5 (‘‘Recovery Act’’). 

This information collection adheres to 

The Public Health Service Act, Section 

407(a)(4) (codified at 42 U.S.C. 285a– 

2(a)(2)(D)), which authorizes and 

requires the NCI to collect, analyze and 

disseminate all data useful in the 

prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of 

cancer, including the establishment of 

an international cancer research data 

bank to collect, catalog, store, and 

disseminate insofar as feasible the 

results of cancer research undertaken in 

any country for the use of any person 

involved in cancer research in any 

country. 

Frequency of Response: Once per 

initial trial registration; four 

amendments per trial annually. 

Affected Public: Individuals, business 

and other for-profits, and not-for-profit 

institutions. 

Type of Respondents: Clinical 

research administrators on behalf of 

clinical investigators. The annual 

reporting burden is estimated at 33,000 

hours (see Table below). 

There are no Capital Costs, Operating 

Costs, and/or Maintenance Costs to 

report. 

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