Supporting Statement

Health Resources and Services Administration

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

TA Activities for HRSA’s National Technical Assistance for

Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program

A. Justification

1. Circumstances of Information Collection

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) currently has approval under the generic clearance, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Control No. 0915-0212, to conduct customer satisfaction surveys and focus groups This collection of information helps fulfill the requirements of:

1. Executive Order 12862, “Setting Customer Service Standards,” which directs Agencies to continually reform their management practices and operations to provide service to the public that matches or exceeds the best service available in the private sector.

This is a request for OMB approval of an electronic qualitative customer satisfaction under HRSA’s generic clearance. HRSA’s National Technical Assistance Contract (TAC) for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program was developed to foster long-term, sustainable improvement in all Ryan White HIV/AIDS program grantee operations. The delivery of technical assistance services through the contract also serves as a tool for HRSA’s HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB), especially Project Officers to enhance the performance of their grantees. Through the implementation of TA activities, HAB staff will obtain feedback from Ryan White grantees regarding their experience as recipients of TA service upon their completion of two survey tools. Data collected from these surveys ultimately serves to support HRSA’s Ryan White HIV/AIDS program address the goals set forth in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) and according to health insurance reform legislation namely the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The primary objective of the data collection is to assess the impact and utility of the Comprehensive Site Visits that are provided to Ryan White Grantees in order to identify strengths and weaknesses and improve service delivery. Specifically, these survey tools will assess Ryan White grantees’ overall satisfaction with a specific type of HRSA-mandated technical assistance (TA): Comprehensive Site Visits and Non-comprehensive Site Visits.

2. Purpose and Use of the Information

The full implementation of ACA in 2014 and its expected impact on Ryan White funded treatment and care services drives the critical importance of HAB’s access to quality assurance mechanisms that assess the effects of Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program resources on the health outcomes of people living with HIV and AIDS. There are two categories of onsite TA available to Ryan White program grantees- Comprehensive site visits and Non-comprehensive visits. Comprehensive reviews/visits, also called diagnostic compliance onsite reviews/visits, are mandated by HAB and serve as mechanisms to assess the specific nature and extent of administrative or operational challenges experienced by Ryan White HIV/AIDS programs, recommends specific actions to resolve the problems identified, and advises sites on appropriate action plans. Non-comprehensive onsite visits serve to improve Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program grantee program performance within a specific area of need through on-site TA requested by the grantee, or advocated by HAB program officials.

The primary use of the information gathered through the surveys is to identify strengths and weaknesses of TA providers or consultant(s) who deliver Comprehensive and Non-comprehensive onsite technical support provided to Ryan White Grantees. This information will be used to improve service delivery, as well as to assess the usefulness, impact and utility of the Comprehensive and Non-comprehensive onsite technical support. HRSA will only use the information gathered for internal purposes.

Survey respondents will include Ryan White grantees from Parts A-D. The surveys will include quantitative questions that assesses the technical assistance provided in the following areas: achieved agreed upon goals, met grantees’ expectations, followed agenda, impact on existing program operations, and satisfaction with TA consultant. Respondents will also have an opportunity to qualitatively provide feedback in the open-ended text boxes for “other comments.” Respondents will be asked to complete the survey twice; once immediately following the completion of the Comprehensive Site Visit, and once more 6-months after the completion of the Comprehensive Site Visit. Copies of the Baseline and Follow-up survey instruments are attached.

Upon completion of all Comprehensive and Non-comprehensive on-site visits, the Ryan White grantee receives an e-mail requesting their voluntary participation to complete the survey and link to complete it. (See Attachment A.) The introduction page of the electronic survey will explain the purpose of the survey, inform each respondent that participation is voluntary, communicate that the information provided will only be shared with HRSA/HAB and the evaluation team members, and thank respondents in advance for their participation. The information provided from the surveys will be instrumental to improving the delivery of the Comprehensive Site Visits and Non-comprehensive site visits. (See Attachment B for the Comprehensive on-site visits/reviews and Attachment C for Non-comprehensive on-site visits.)

3. Use of Improved Information Technology

The surveys will be administered using information technology. As described above, grantees will receive a request to participate in an online survey through electronic mail. This email provides the respondent with a link to access the survey. Both baseline and follow-up surveys will be administered using this procedure. In addition, auto-generated “thank you” messages will be sent to the respondent after completing the baseline and follow-up surveys.

4. Efforts to Avoid Duplication

Each survey is designed to assess grantee perceptions of the effectiveness of the content and methods associated with the onsite TA specifically for the Ryan White grantee program. Surveys have been designed and reviewed carefully to avoid potential duplication of other HAB assessments of technical assistance delivered by consultants. Therefore the proposed surveys are unique to this activity and the information is not found via web searches or elsewhere.

5. Involvement of Small Entities

These surveys will not have a significant impact on small businesses or other small entities.

6. Consequences if Information Collected Less Frequently

These surveys are being administered to help evaluate delivery of National Technical Assistance for Ryan White HIV/AIDS Programs, specifically as they relate to the Comprehensive and Non-comprehensive onsite reviews/visits. The frequency of data collection has been established to assess the efficacy of the technical assistance by providing a six-month period for grantees to assess the utility of the information and assistance provided and their ability to incorporate the recommendations produced through the technical assistance. To collect the data less frequently would not provide an adequate window for grantees to assess the utility of the technical assistance.

7. Consistency With the Guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2)

These surveys will be implemented in a manner fully consistent with 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).

8. Consultation Outside the Agency

In accordance with 5 CFR 1320.8(d), on April 24, 2009, a 30 day notice was published in the Federal Register for HRSA’s generic clearance, OMB Control No. 0915-0212 (Vol. 74, Page 18726). No public comments were received. The surveys for this activity were developed by contractors (GEARS, Inc. (Prime) and Abt Associates (Subcontractor)) with close collaboration and approval of HAB staff.

9. Remuneration of Respondents

Not Applicable.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality

To date, the HRSA customer satisfaction surveys have not collected personally identifiable information from respondents. This collection of information will involve names of respondents and their organization’s phone number to be able to conduct the telephone surveys and will fully comply with all aspects of the Privacy Act. Participation is fully voluntary and responses are anonymous. Respondents will be assured that neither their participation/non-participation nor any responses to items will have any effect on their participation in HRSA programs.

11. Questions of a Sensitive Nature

The surveys do not contain questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimates of Annualized Hour Burden

Respondents

This survey will target individuals indicated on the initial TA request from HRSA as the grantee point of contact. This individual will most likely serve in one of the following role(s): as Project/ Program Director or as Project/Program Manager of the agency’s Ryan White HIV/AIDS program.

Annual burden estimates

The total respondent burden for the online customer satisfaction surveys is estimated to be 156 hours. We expect a total of 78 respondents to participate in the Non-comprehensive and Comprehensive surveys: 38 respondents from the grantees receiving Non-comprehensive onsite reviews and 40 respondents from the grantees receiving Comprehensive onsite reviews.

Type of Collection	Number of Respondents	Responses per Respondent	Total Responses	Hours per Respondent	Total Burden Hours	Wage Rate	Total Hour Cost
Non-Comprehensive Onsite Visits	38	2	76	.166	12.62	$29	$365.98
Comprehensive Onsite Visits	40	2	80	.166	13.28	$29	$385.12
Total	78	2	156	.166	25.9		$751.10

Planned frequency of information collection

This information will be collected for all Comprehensive and Non-comprehensive onsite reviews/visits. Baseline information will be collected immediately after the onsite technical assistance has been given and follow-up will be collected six-months after the onsite technical assistance has been received.

13. Estimates of Annualized Cost Burden to Respondents

The only associated cost to respondents is their time to provide the requested information.

14. Estimates of Annualized Cost to the Government

The online survey will be overseen by GEARS, Inc. and their subcontractor Abt Associates. The estimated annual cost to the government is $135,469.08, which includes portal management, data collection, analysis and reporting.

15. Change in Burden

Not Applicable. This is a new activity under HRSA’s generic clearance and will be included in the total burden currently approved by OMB under OMB Control No. 0915-0212.

16. Plans for Analysis and Timetable of Key Activities

The online surveys will be conducted as part of the activities for the National Technical Assistance for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. Currently this covers a minimum of three months and a maximum of 15 months. Survey responses will be summarized and examined at minimum using descriptive analyses (e.g. means, standard deviations, frequencies, etc.). Parametric and non-parametric tests will be used where meaningful and appropriate. Qualitative data will be summarized and evaluated using descriptive and thematic analysis. Findings will only be used for internal service improvement and will not be generalized to the public. There are no plans for publication of any survey results.

17. Exemption for Display of Expiration Date

No exemption is being requested. The expiration date will be displayed.

18. Certifications

This information collection activity will comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.

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