The purpose of this submission is to request a revision of 0938-0892 (CMS-10080) to continue to collect information about how Medicare publications are perceived and used.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requests OMB clearance for the Study of Medicare Publication Usage, a survey first approved by OMB (control number 0938-0892) in 2003. This Supporting Statement involves revisions of the currently approved data collection study.
Continuing the goals of the original study, CMS intends to learn who reads Medicare publications, how well publications meet readers’ informational needs, and what health care decisions are motivated by Medicare publications. The current includes surveys of print-based publications and Web-based publications. Results from this data collection will be used by CMS to guide continued development, improvement, and dissemination of Medicare publications. In these surveys, CMS will evaluate the effectiveness of a range of publications, including new or revised publications.
We are requesting a three-year clearance, so that the feedback received through the survey may be used continually to update and improve research efforts and publications. The purpose of this submission is to request OMB authorization to collect information from publication users via the survey tool. A copy of the survey is included as “Collection Instrument.”
The survey has the following objectives:
Assess satisfaction with Medicare communication materials.
Assess knowledge of the Medicare program.
Assess use of online publications.
Each year Medicare sends the more than forty million beneficiaries a copy of the Medicare & You Handbook. In the past few years, over 5 million publications have been sent to individuals who called 1-800-MEDICARE or visited www.Medicare.gov to request a publication.
Publications posted on the Website are also utilized regularly. As print budgets have declined, it is likely that CMS will rely on Web-based publications to a greater extent. It is important for CMS to learn from users of this mode to assess differences in publication design to better develop materials for that target audience.
CMS has researched how recipients of Medicare publications use publications after they arrive in the mail and are accessed on the Website (e.g., read, skimmed, discarded, passed on to someone else); how useful Medicare publications are for making health care decisions; which characteristics of publications are more and less helpful; and who, demographically, is the audience of Medicare publications.
CMS needs to produce the most useful, targeted publications that best serve the needs of Medicare beneficiaries, caregivers, and other publication users. Revising and repeating the CMS Study of Medicare Publication Usage will allow CMS to maximize its resources devoted to the dissemination and assessment of Medicare publications.
1. Need and Legal Basis
The Publication Usage survey was developed to gather information from people who request or access Medicare publications, to ensure comprehension, usability, and use of the publications.
The national surveys will be administered over the contract period via telephone and internet. The Publication Usage survey, which is attached, has been used in prior studies. New questions were added, and some questions were deleted depending upon the initiatives and needs of the Agency.
2. Information Users
CMS is seeking understanding about whether publications have been effective in informing members of the Medicare audience regarding policy and benefits. Questions regarding the satisfaction of publication users with specific publications and with various channels of information delivery are included in the survey. In addition, some questions assess the effects of the publications on attitudes, knowledge, and behavior related to CMS programs. . Information gathered in this survey will be used only for purposes of targeting and improving communications with Medicare beneficiaries, caregivers, partners, and community organizations.
3. Use of Information Technology
A Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) system will be used to administer the telephone survey for the CMS Study of Medicare Publication Usage. Using this technology reduces respondent burden because logic checks and skip-pattern controls are directly programmed into the questionnaires, so that the screens presented to the interviewer or the computer screen contain only the appropriate questions to be asked of each respondent. These CATI functions will help to keep the interview at the projected 15-minute length.
The CATI system also contains protections against data loss. Completed questionnaire data are stored during the interviewing process; after every shift of telephone interviewing, a full backup of the entire CATI system takes place.
The CATI call management component allows for flexible scheduling of callbacks to allow respondents to be called at their convenience. It also contains well-tested calling algorithms for delivering cases to interviewers based on the outcomes of previous call attempts; these algorithms maximize the probability of completing interviews (thereby increasing response rates).
In some cases, a self-administered Web-based pop-up survey may be utilized to assess Web-based use of Medicare publications. Such Web-based surveys incorporate many of the features of a CATI system such as utilizing skip patterns so only appropriate questions are asked, logic checks, and protections against data loss. This technology also allows CMS to conduct quick real-time analyses.
This collection does not require a signature from the respondent.
The data to be collected through the survey, which began in 2003, is not available elsewhere. Aside from this study, there is no existing quantitative research that examines how Medicare publications are actually used, what characteristics of Medicare publications are more and less helpful, and what information recipients of Medicare publications would like to receive in the future as well as how recipients would like to receive the information.
5. Small Business
Not applicable. The information collection request does not involve any small businesses.
6. Less Frequent Collection
This survey will be fielded four times a year in an attempt to receive feedback from those who receive or access publications. Less frequent information collection will not support the required analysis to determine whether Medicare publications are meeting the needs of Medicare’s audience.
7. Special Circumstances
These are no special circumstances with this information collection request.
8. Federal Register/Outside Consultation
A 60-day Federal Register notice will be published on June 26, 2009.
9. Payments/Gifts to Respondents
There are no provisions for payments or gifts to respondents.
Confidentiality
All information obtained through the surveys will be reported in aggregate. No individual respondent’s information will be reported independently or with identifying information. All identifying information will be removed from analytic files and will be destroyed after the aggregated information is assembled.
All information provided will be held in confidence by CMS. Individuals are not required to participate in any of these surveys. Participants help is voluntary and their decision to participate or not to participate will not affect their Medicare benefits or the person they care for Medicare benefits in any way.
According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this generic clearance package is 0938-0738. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average less than 15 minutes.
11. Sensitive Questions
There are no questions of a sensitive nature on the survey.
12. Burden Estimates (Hours & Wages)
The length of the telephone and web survey is approximately 15 minutes. There is no cost to respondents other than approximately 15 minutes of their time. The proposed survey will be completed by about 3,800 individuals who either request or access a publication. This survey will take 57,000 minutes/950 hours annually. This is a mix methods survey. The total burden includes conducting the survey via telephone or the web.
13. Capital Costs
There is no capital cost associated with this information collection request.
14. Cost to the Federal Government
The estimated cost to the government for conducting the upcoming surveys will be approximately $410,000 in contract costs per survey for labor hours, materials and supplies, overhead, general and administrative costs, and fees. The cost of the 2006 Publication Usage survey was $373,210, and the current approximated cost is based on a 10% increase.
15. Program/Burden Change
This is a revision of a previously approved collection. The total number of respondents has stayed the same. Due to previous years experience the survey length is expected to be 15 minutes.
16. Publication/Tabulation Dates
For this wave, the survey will be fielded four times a year for three years and will focus on use, comprehension, satisfaction and usability of Medicare publications. After each wave of testing, the Publication Usage survey will be analyzed to assess whether ratings or usage of the publications have increased. Survey results will be fully reported to CMS, to guide future publication materials.. It is possible that some survey results will be shared through conferences or other publications.
Analyses of surveys conducted under this program will involve simple tabulations. These include basic descriptive statistics such as response frequencies, means, standard deviations, confidence intervals, and breakdowns of these by important sub-groups of respondents. In some cases, depending on the specific questions that the research intends to address, more complex multivariate statistical analyses may be performed which could include linear and/or logistic regression, propensity score analysis, structural equation modeling, or segmentation analysis. Where appropriate, complex survey design characteristics (e.g., cluster sampling, stratification) will be addressed.
The schedule for information collection and dissemination of the data for the case studies is from June 2010 to June 2013 with a final report due within 5 weeks of the end of data collection.
17. Expiration Date
This section is not applicable.
18. Certification Statement
The proposed data collection does not involve any exceptions to the certification statement identified in line 19 of OMB form 83-I.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | Supporting Statement A of the Publication Usage Survey OMB Package |
| Subject | Supporting Statement A |
| Author | CMS/OEA/SRCMG/DR |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-02-03 |