Original Generic Request

Health Resources and Services Administration

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program On-Site Compliance Review Awardee Feedback Form

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 qualitative voluntary customer satisfaction surveys under HRSA’s generic clearance.

The Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s Division of Home Visiting and Early Childhood Systems (DHVECS) conducts numerous oversight and technical assistance (TA) activities including site visits to support Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program awardees in the implementation of their grants. In 2020, HRSA was approved to modify the On-Site Review Awardee Feedback Form to include additional questions related to virtual site visits. In order to continue to assess MIECHV awardee satisfaction with the compliance review process, HRSA is submitting the On-Site Review Awardee Feedback Form under HRSA’s recently extended generic clearance without making any material change in the collection instrument, the instructions, the frequency of collection, or the use to which the information is to be put. Federal program staff and site visit contractors plan to use the information from these surveys for program improvement purposes only. The MIECHV Program is authorized under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 through fiscal year 2022.

Executive Order 12862 directs agencies that "provide significant services directly to the public" to "survey customers to determine the kind and quality of services they want and their level of satisfaction with existing services". The objectives of this data collection request is to assess MIECHV awardee satisfaction with the conduct of the on-site or virtual compliance review process. The contractor and HRSA shall use the feedback to improve the site visit process and determine if the needs of awardees are being met.

2. Purpose and Use of the Information

The purpose of this information collection request is to assess awardee satisfaction with the conduct of the MIECHV compliance review process. The overall purpose of the feedback forms is to collect immediate awardee feedback on their experiences of the process from pre-planning to post-site visit activities. The contractor will protect the integrity of the data collected, provide opportunities for honest feedback, and maintain the confidentiality of survey participants. Data analysis for the tool will include basic descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis of responses.

This information collection request contains one type of customer feedback and satisfaction survey:

• The MIECHV On-Site Compliance Review Awardee Feedback Form (see Attachment A)

The survey will be implemented following the conclusion of each site visit. The survey will be provided to all meeting participants who participated in the activity. Completion of the survey is voluntary.

Feedback contained in the surveys will be summarized and used by federal staff and contracted TA providers to identify overall strengths and weaknesses of a particular site visit. By collecting this information, HRSA is better able to assess the performance of contractor personnel and promote accountability to high-quality performance by contractors. Feedback and satisfaction data will also be used to inform a continuous quality improvement framework to refine the MIECHV On-Site or Virtual Compliance Review process.

3. Use of Improved Information Technology

HRSA plans to use electronic fillable forms to collect feedback from the awardees. The use of an electronic form will reduce reporting burden and ease data collection and analysis. HRSA estimates that 100% of survey responses will be collected electronically.

4. Efforts to Avoid Duplication

This information is not available through any other source. The proposed information collection is specific to MIECHV awardees.

5. Involvement of Small Entities

Proposed data collection includes participants attending MIECHV On-Site or Virtual Compliance Reviews. Generally, participation does not involve small entities, as most participants represent awardee organizations, which are typically state governments. No small businesses will be involved in this proposed information collection. Additionally, completion of the data collection forms is purely voluntary.

6. Consequences if Information Collected Less Frequently

Information will be collected following the conclusion of each site visit. Less frequent collection of this information will impede HRSA’s ability to utilize feedback and satisfaction data in order to tailor TA activities to awardee preferences. Contracted TA providers are contractually obligated to conduct, submit, and utilize awardee feedback and satisfaction surveys in order to assess their work and engage in improvement activities.

There are no legal obstacles to reduce the burden.

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

The notice required in 5 CFR 1320.8(d) was published in the Federal Register on December 15, 2020, (Vol. 85, No.241, pages 81210-81211). No public comments were received.

9. Remuneration of Respondents

No remuneration is sought for this proposed data collection activity.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality

To date, the HRSA customer satisfaction surveys have not collected personally identifiable information from respondents. No personally identifiable information will be collected as part of this proposed data collection activity.

11. Questions of a Sensitive Nature

No questions of a sensitive nature will be asked as part of this proposed data collection activity.

12. Estimates of Annualized Hour Burden

Respondents:

Respondents include participants attending the MIECHV On-Site or Virtual Compliance Review. HRSA estimates that there will be 21 site visits per year and that each site visit will have approximately 15 participants with an average time to complete the MIECHV On-Site Compliance Review Awardee Feedback Form of 0.25 hours. The total annual burden estimate for respondents is 78.75 hours.

This burden estimate is based on the number of participants at each site visit.

Exhibit 12.A - Annual respondent burden estimates:

Type of Collection	Number of Respondents	Responses per Respondent	Total Responses	Hours per Respondent	Total Burden Hours	Wage Rate	Total Hour Cost
MIECHV On-Site Compliance Review Awardee Feedback Form	315	1	315	.25	78.75	$36.13($72.26 accounting for fringe benefits and overhead)	$5,690.48
Total							$5,690.48

This information collection request contains one type of customer feedback and satisfaction survey: the MIECHV On-Site Compliance Review Awardee Feedback Form (see Attachment A). The annual burden estimate table summarizes the number of respondents per year per form.

Planned frequency of information collection:

Information will be collected at the conclusion of each site visit.

13. Estimates of Annualized Cost Burden to Respondents

HRSA anticipates the total annualized cost to respondents to be $5,690.48 (Exhibit 12.A). No capital or start-up costs are associated with this information collection request. The total annualized cost estimate is related to the time for respondents to complete and submit satisfaction surveys. This annualized cost to respondents is based on the average wage of state government employed Social and Community Service Manager from the 2020 Bureau of Labor Statistics report on Wage Estimates (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021) multiplied by 2 to account for the costs of fringe benefits and overhead. The wage is then multiplied by the estimated total respondent hours for each form.

14. Estimates of Annualized Cost to the Government

Costs to the federal government fall into the following categories:

• Cost for overseeing contracted TA providers

• Costs of contractual support for survey administration, analysis, and reporting

Exhibit 14.A - Annual Cost to Government Estimates:

Type of Cost	Description of Services	Annual Cost
Oversight of Contractors (Government Program Analyst - 10%)	Federal staff time to oversee contractors who administer TA activities	$ 22,734.40
Cost of Contractual Support	Time and effort for contractors to administer, analyze, and report on satisfaction surveys	$ 5,465.00

HRSA anticipates the average annual cost for the federal government will include personnel costs for contractual oversight. This will include a federal program analyst at Grade 13 Step 4 ($54.65 hourly rate multiplied by two to account for fringe benefits and overhead) (Office of Planning and Management, 2021) for 208 hours. Additionally, the federal government supports the TA contractor who administers the On-Site Compliance Review satisfaction surveys on behalf of the federal government. HRSA estimates that these activities constitute 5% of total contract costs.

The total cost to the federal government for these activities is $28,199.40 per year (Exhibit 14.A).

15. Change in Burden

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

16. Plans for Analysis and Timetable of Key Activities

Plans for analysis include aggregation and descriptive statistics of survey results in order to summarize grantee feedback on the site visit process. The satisfaction survey will be administered by contracted TA providers and will be summarized in a report submitted to HRSA.

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.

REFERENCES

Bureau of Labor Statistics (2021). May 2020 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, 11-9151 Social and Community Service Managers. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#11-0000

Office of Planning and Management (2021). SALARY TABLE 2019-DCB. Retrieved from https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2021/DCB_h.pdf

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