Supporting Statement
Regional Extension Center Cooperative Agreement Program and Customer Relations Management (CRM) Tool
A. Justification
Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary
The Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is requesting an approval by the Office of Management and Budget. ONC is requesting expedited procedures for this application because this information is needed immediately to assure that ARRA funds are used timely and effectively.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, under section 3012 of the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) authorizes “a Health Information Technology Extension Program…to furnish assistance, defined as education, outreach, and technical assistance, to help providers in their geographic service areas select, successfully implement, and meaningfully use certified EHR technology to improve the quality and value of healthcare.” Regional Centers are expected to demonstrate their effectiveness by reporting on three program milestones: (1) providers sign-up and recruitment to the Regional Center; (2) Provider demonstrates ‘go-live’ status on an ONC-certified EHR and (3) provider certification of meaningful use.
Purpose and Use of Information Collection
The ultimate measure of this program’s effectiveness will be measured via the achievement of the Program’s three milestones and ultimately, the number of providers certified of achieving meaningful use of EHRs. It is expected that by the end of the two year project period, collectively all of the Regional Centers participating in the program, will bring 100,000 priority primary care providers to meaningful use of electronic health record systems. To work toward this goal, the funding opportunity is designed to provide cooperative agreements with multiple Regional Centers, covering the entire continental United States and U.S. territories.
The data collection will be used by ONC to evaluate program performance of each Regional Extension Center and track monetary draw downs for Core funding Direct Assistance allocation. Each Regional Center will have a proposed target number for priority primary care providers that they will help with EHR adoption and eventually meaningful use within their service area. Regional Centers are required to report on key activities, track milestone progress, training, and expenditures for each provider signed-up during the designated project period.
The CRM Tool will assist ONC in monitoring and assessing REC program performance, satisfy quarterly reporting requirements to the White House, conduct quality control between Regional Center reports on ONC monthly and quarterly reports and ARRA quarterly reports. Information from the CRM Tool will also be used to update Operations plan, cooperative agreements between ONC and the awardees that are selected to implement the program, and coordination between the Regional Centers and other ONC-funded programs. 60 Regional Centers, targeting over 130,000 providers, are participating in the Regional Extension Center Cooperative Agreement Program.
Use of Improved Information Technology and Burden Reduction
All documents for the information collection will be submitted electronically using the Salesforce Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool. ONC staff will analyze the data electronically and communicate with the practices using email. Additionally, data collected will help satisfy ONC quarterly and ARRA quarterly reporting requirements.
Efforts to Identify Duplication and Use of Similar Information
Since this is a new program that was created through ARRA the information that will be collect has never been collected before by the federal government.
Impact on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities
No impact on small business.
Consequences of Collecting the Information Less Frequent Collection
The CRM Tool allows for Regional Centers to use the tool as a data repository for performance measures and data collection required for ONC quarterly reporting requirements, ARRA reporting requirements, audit reports, and other ad hoc reporting requirements. The tool allows Regional Centers to generate reports based on data collected over a specific time period and use the information to satisfy the various reporting requirements.
There are no legal obstacles to reduce the burden.
Special Circumstances Relating to the Guidelines of 5 CFR 1320.5
No special circumstances are required for use of the CRM Tool. Data collection via the CRM tool complies with federal statues and regulations.
Comments in Response to the Federal Register Notice/Outside Consultation
The original publication date for the CRM tool was June 30th 2010, Vol. 75, No. 125. The REC program received commentary from the workforce development program regarding the inclusion of the Workforce Community College program’s measures in the tool. The CCC program is also using the same CRM Tool for data collection and collaboration with the REC program. The REC program responded to the commentator, indicating that these measures would be incorporated into the CRM tool, pending PRA clearance, given that it would not incur additional burden hours of REC awardees; however, the Community College Consortia awardees would be responsible for collecting the workforce program measures.
Explanation of any Payment/Gift to Respondents
Not applicable.
Assurance of Confidentiality Provided to Respondents
No personal health information will be collected. All grant information will be kept confidential pursuit to application laws/regulations. Log into the CRM tool requires a username and password. For password and username resets, Regional Centers must contact internal ONC/REC Cooperative Agreement Program staff.
Justification for Sensitive Questions
No sensitive information will be collected.
Estimates of Annualized Burden Hours (Total Hours & Wages)
To satisfy quarterly reporting requirements, each Regional Center is required to report on program milestone achievements, summary of key activities, Operations plan updates, and draw down of monetary funds. They will be required to: develop REC goals and objectives, activities both to internal audiences and external stakeholders, document explicit activity parameters and assumptions about program direction and priorities, report on milestones and metrics used for tracking performance throughout the duration of the project period, risk mitigation, implementation goals for priority primary care providers (ppcps) without electronic health records and implementation goals for ppcps with electronic health records.
Given the amount of time, however, it is estimated that it will take approximately 1080 hours to complete the report . These will consist of quarterly reporting for three staff members, including a project lead, CRM coordinator and administrative assistant.
12A. Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
Estimated Annualized Burden Table
Forms (If necessary) |
Type of Respondent
|
Number of Respondents |
Number of Responses per Respondent |
Average Burden hours per Response |
Total Burden Hours |
CRM Tool |
Regional Extension Center |
60 |
12 |
1.5 |
1080 |
CRM Tool |
Community College Consortia |
84 |
20 |
1.5 |
2,520 |
Total |
|
|
|
|
3600 |
12B. Cost estimates for a single respondent that has to complete the preliminary application.
Type of respondent |
Total Burden Hours |
Hourly Wage Rate |
Total respondent cost |
Regional Extension Center Program |
1080 |
$35.00 |
$37,800 |
Community College Consortia |
2,520 |
$35.00 |
$88,200 |
Total |
|
|
126,000 |
Salaries were taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics website (http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos007.htm)
Estimates of other Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents or Recordkeepers/Capital Costs
There are no additional recordkeeping/capital costs
Annualized Cost to Federal Government
This is the cost to government to review the program.
Type Federal employee support
|
CRM Tools |
Hours per report |
Total Hours
|
Hourly Wage Rate (GS 12 step 1)
|
Total Costs to Federal Government
|
Project Officers (8) |
60 |
3 |
1440 |
$30 |
$43,200 |
Salaries are based on a 12 Grade/Step 1 in Washington DC area.
Explanation for Program Changes or Adjustments
This is a new data collection.
Plans for Tabulation and Publication and Project Time Schedule
Data collection will begin as soon as clearance is received and will be completed in quarterly and monthly, contingent upon individual grant program term and conditions.
Reason(s) Display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate
Not applicable.
Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions
There are no exceptions to the certification.
The applications will be reviewed but the data will not be analyzed using statistical methods.
All
reporting will be completed via the CRM reporting tool available on
the salesforce.com website. The tool will require username and
password information for log-in.
Applications
procedures: You must access the CRM reporting tool via
www.salesforce.com.
Lead awardees are requested, to submit an Operations Plan reflecting their strategy for satisfying reward requirements. The Operations plan will outline strategies for achieving the objectives outlined in the Health Information Technology Program: Regional Extension Centers Cooperative Agreement Program Application Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA).
A copy of the CRM Reporting Tool Operations Plan and Reporting System templates are attached.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | How to Write and Submit |
| Author | CMS |
| Last Modified By | DHHS |
| File Modified | 2010-10-29 |
| File Created | 2010-10-29 |