[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 96 (Wednesday, May 19, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28025-28026]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-11962]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB
Review; Comment Request
In compliance with section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 concerning opportunity for public comment on proposed
collections of information, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration (SAMHSA) will publish periodic summaries of
proposed projects. To request more information on the proposed projects
or to obtain a copy of the information collection plans, call the
SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer on (240) 276-1243.
Project: Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block Grant
Uniform Application Guidance and Instructions FY 2011-2013 and
Regulations (OMB No. 0930-0080)--Revision
Sections 1921 through 1935 of the Public Health Service Act (U.S.C.
300x-21 to 300x-35) provide for annual allotments to assist States to
plan, carry out and evaluate activities to prevent and treat substance
abuse and for related activities. Under the provisions of the law,
States may receive allotments only after an application is submitted
and approved by the Secretary, DHHS. For the Federal fiscal years (FY)
2011-FY 2013 Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block
Grant application cycles, SAMHSA will provide States with revised
application guidance and instructions to implement changes made in
accordance with recommendations from the National Association of State
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD) and their member States in
the revisions and clarification of data reporting requirements and
instructions.
During negotiations with the States resulting in agreement on the
National Outcome Measures (NOMs) for substance abuse treatment and
prevention, SAMHSA pledged to the States to:
1. Reduce respondent burden;
2. Work with the States to improve performance management of the
SAPT Block Grant;
3. Improve the availability, timeliness, and quality of data
available to Federal, State, and provider administrators of block grant
funded programs.
This revision of the Uniform Application and Regulation for the
SAPT Block Grant takes additional steps toward implementing these
commitments. SAMHSA, in consultation with NASADAD, has provided States
the ability to reduce their application burden by consolidating the FY
2011-FY 2013 State Plan into a 3-year plan. With the exception of the
projected annual budget form, States only would be expected to submit
any proposed revisions to its approved three year plan but would
otherwise not have to resubmit a State Plan during FY 2012 and FY 2013.
Individual States may reduce their respondent burden further by
selecting the option of using SAMHSA pre-populated tables for Section
IVa and IVb. The data for these tables would be drawn from SAMHSA data
sets known as Drug and Alcohol Services Information System (DASIS)
Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) and National Survey on Drug Use and
Health (NSDUH) by SAMHSA and provided to the States. In addition, the
web-based Block Grant Application System now facilitates completion of
the provider entity table through added pre-populated data items. The
data for this table would be drawn from SAMHSA data set known as DASIS
National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS) SAMHSA
will continue to work with NASADAD and the States to assess the
feasibility and usefulness of pre-populating additional sections of the
application with data extracted from SAMHSA data sets to further reduce
respondent burden.
SAMHSA continues to provide the States with the option of reporting
on prevention expenditures utilizing the six primary prevention
strategies or utilizing the Institute of Medicine classification of
Universal, Selective or Indicated. SAMHSA has designed the State
Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG) competitive
program and funded contracts in States without a SPF SIG to support
data driven prevention planning by the Single State Agencies for
Substance Abuse. States are expected to use the State level data
collected with support from these programs in the planning in section
II of the Uniform Application.
The Uniform Application has been modified to move needs assessment,
planning narrative and future year budget forms into Section II, the FY
2011-FY 2013 Plan section.
In December 2004, SAMHSA and the States agreed on the goal of
having all States reporting the NOMs measures as defined at the meeting
by the end of a 3-year implementation period starting in FY 2005 and
concluding at the end of FY 2007. By January 2006, supportive technical
assistance on information technology design and payment for data
submitted became available by the State Outcomes Measurement and
Management System (SOMMS) program. States who have participated in the
SOMMS/NOMs subcontracts may choose to have their data pre-populated
which would significantly reduce their reporting burden for this
application. During the subsequent three years, SAMHSA in partnership
with the States and all other SAPT Block Grant stakeholders have
continued to work towards improving standards for
[[Page 28026]]
analyzing and responding to the results of NOMs data appropriate to
each level of block grant funded administration including Federal,
State, and Provider roles and responsibilities.
SAMHSA realigned resources to address the need for technical
assistance in information technology (IT) and software purchasing to
implement and maintain NOMs data standards. This technical assistance
first became available in September 2006 and IT support continues.
Revisions to the previously-approved Uniform Application resulting
from such stakeholder input reflect the following changes: (1) Section
I, Form 2, ``Table of Contents,'' was revised to appropriately
enumerate the specific items within each section; (2) In Section II,
the former single year ``Intended Use Plan'' is aggregated into a
``Three Year State Plan'' to reduce the States' annual plan reporting
burden. The first ``Three Year Plan'' will cover FYs 2011-2013. In the
next two subsequent years, only revisions or updates to the 3-year plan
will be required in the States' FY 2012 and FY 2013 Uniform
Applications. Planned expenditures of each Federal Fiscal Year award
will still be collected annually; (3) In Section II, the Form formerly
specified as Form 12 has been removed; (4) In Section III, Narratives
covering the Federal requirements, financial expenditure reports and
services utilization reports are consolidated into the ``Annual Report
Section''; (5) In Section IV subparts IVa and IVb, Treatment and
Prevention Performance Reporting Forms are maintained and are to be
completed annually.
The total annual reporting burden estimate is shown below:
FY 2011
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Number of
Number of Responses per hours per Total hours
respondents respondent response
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Sections I-III--States and Territories.......... 60 1 *480 28,800
Section IV-A.................................... 60 1 40 2,400
Section IV-B.................................... 60 1 42.75 2,565
Recordkeeping................................... 60 1 16 960
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Total....................................... 60 .............. .............. 34,725
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* (Additional 10 hours per completion of Section II per State due to addition of FYs 2012 and 2013 in ``Three
Year Plan.'')
FY 2012 and FY 2013
[Due to the reduction in section II]
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Number of
Number of Responses per hours per Total hours
respondents respondent response
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Sections I-III--States and Territories.......... 60 1 440 26,400
Section IVa..................................... 60 1 40 2,400
Section IVb..................................... 60 1 42.75 2,565
Recordkeeping................................... 60 1 16 960
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Total....................................... 60 .............. .............. 32,325
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* (Reduction of approximately 40 hours per respondent due to reductions in response burden for Section II,
``Three Year Plan.'')
SAMHSA received comments from ten separate State agencies
representing ten States.
In response to State comments, (1) SAMHSA clarified all form
labeling to provide a clear reference to the form number in the new
application as well as a reference to the former form number used in
previous applications. In addition, form references in the instructions
also provide reference to the former number of the form; (2) SAMHSA
also provided similar references to narrative requirements that had
been previously contained in separate attachments labeling these
sections in order to facilitate respondent understanding where this
data had been collected in previous applications; (3) In Section II,
instructions for the new form (Form 7) intended to summarize State
planning priorities, was modified to allow State to identify up to
twelve priorities as opposed to requiring twelve to be identified; (4)
Instructions were added to the section IVb; Prevention Forms P12a-P15,
to facilitate understanding of the time periods for which data were
being reported on these forms.
At least half of the respondents, albeit a small minority of the
overall set of grantees, objected to the timing of these changes
indicating that economic conditions and staffing affect their ability
to undertake such changes. SAMHSA contends that the transition to a
three year plan will reduce burden by an estimated total across all 60
applicants of about 800 hours and requires only an additional two pages
of narrative in the first year of the three-year Plan. The addition of
Form 7 requiring articulation of up to twelve State priorities is
offset by deleting the previous requirement to project future period
utilization data (Form 12) and its instructions entirely.
Average Annual Total Burden is projected to be 33,125 or a decrease
of about 800 hours.
Written comments and recommendations concerning the proposed
information collection should be sent by June 18, 2010 to: SAMHSA Desk
Officer, Human Resources and Housing Branch, Office of Management and
Budget, New Executive Office Building, Room 10235, Washington, DC
20503; due to potential delays in OMB's receipt and processing of mail
sent through the U.S. Postal Service, respondents are encouraged to
submit comments by fax to: 202-395-5806.
Dated: May 12, 2010.
Elaine Parry,
Director, Office of Program Services.
[FR Doc. 2010-11962 Filed 5-18-10; 8:45 am]
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