Supporting Statement for the Epidemiological Research Request
20 CFR 401.165
A. Justification
5 USC 552a and 42 USC 1306 of the United States Code, Section 1106 of the Social Security Act, and 20 CFR 401.165 of the Code of Federal Regulations require the Social Security Administration (SSA) to provide information as to whether study subjects are alive or dead (vital status) for the purposes of epidemiological or similar research that will contribute to a national health interest.
SSA uses the information collected on the application to process the request for vital status information for epidemiological research purposes. An evaluating team conducts a review of the application to determine if the scientific merit of the study/service allows us to process the request for vital status death information. SSA also uses information collected to compute and collect the required payment for the service. The requestors are scientific researchers who are applying to receive vital status information about individuals from Social Security administrative data records.
SSA posts the application requirements on the Internet and the requestor prints and mails their signed application to the Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics. However, the Epidemiological Research Request is not currently scheduled for electronic implementation due to its low volume.
The nature of the information being collected and the manner in which it is collected preclude duplication. There is no other collection instrument used by SSA that collects data similar to that collected here.
This collection does not have a significant impact on a substantial number of small businesses or other small entities.
Section 311 of the Social Security Independence and Program Improvements Act of 1994 directs SSA to provide support to health researchers involved in epidemiological research which contributes to a national health interest. If the information on the Epidemiological Research Request were not collected, then SSA would be in violation of this Act. The information could not be collected less frequently, because we only use this form once per request.
There are no special circumstances that would cause this information collection to be conducted in a manner that is not consistent with 5 CFR 1320.5.
The 60-day advance Federal Register Notice was published on November 30, 2007 at 72 FR 67776, and SSA has received no public comments. The second Notice was published on February 11, 2008, at 73 FR 7782. There have been no outside consultations with members of the public.
SSA provides no payment or gifts to the requestors.
The information requested is protected and held confidential in accordance with 42 U.S.C. 1306, 20 CFR 401 and 402, 5 U.S.C. 552 (Freedom of Information Act), 5 U.S.C. 552a (Privacy Act of 1974) and OMB Circular No. A-130.
The information collection does not contain any questions of a sensitive nature.
The Epidemiological Research Request is used by approximately 30 requestors annually. The estimated average time it takes a requestor to complete the application is 120 minutes, for a total of 60 annual burden hours. The total burden is reflected as burden hours, and no separate cost burden has been calculated. The number of requestors, frequency of request and estimated burden to apply for vital status by requestor type category are: State/Local entities (15, 1 and 30 hours), Private entities (13, 1 and 26 hours) and Federal entities (2, 1 and 4 hours).
There is a minimal cost to the respondent for requesting this information from SSA. The current cost for this service is $0.21175 per record (data supplied to identify one study subject) up to 25,000 records. Additional records are processed at a cost of $0.03905 per record. The average annual cost per requestor is $3,665.
The annual cost to the Federal Government is approximately $110,000. This estimate is a projection of the costs for maintaining the collection instrument and for collecting the information.
The increase in the annual public reporting burden from 50 to 60 hours is due to an increase in the number of Cancer Registries who are using this service.
The results of the information collection will not be published.
SSA is not requesting an exception to the certification requirements at 5 CFR 1320.9 and related provisions at 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods
Statistical methods are not used for this information collection.
| File Type | application/msword |
| Author | Elizabeth A. Davidson |
| Last Modified By | 177717 |
| File Modified | 2008-02-12 |
| File Created | 2007-10-25 |