Notice2022-13475
Proposed Temporary Changes in State Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant Allocations
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
June 24, 2022
Issuing agencies
Health and Human Services DepartmentHealth Resources and Services Administration
Abstract
This notice seeks comments on proposed temporary changes to the method of calculating poverty-based allocations under Title V of the Social Security Act for HRSA's State Title V Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Block Grant. Since Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, the poverty- based allocation has been based on the U.S. Census Bureau's 3-year American Community Survey (ACS) estimates using three pooled 1-year estimates. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were disruptions in the ACS data collection in 2020 resulting in data quality issues that prevented the Census Bureau from releasing standard 1-year ACS estimates; instead, the Census Bureau released experimental estimates. HRSA proposes that the ACS 2020 experimental estimates be excluded from calculating MCH block grant allocations and that the FY 2023 funding allocation be based on the same poverty data used in the FY 2022 allocation (i.e., pooled 1-year estimates for 2017, 2018, and 2019 ACS). Funding allocations for FY 2024 and FY 2025 would continue to incorporate the latest 1-year ACS data while skipping 2020 (i.e., for FY 2024, the 2018, 2019, and 2021 ACS data will be used; for FY 2025, the 2019, 2021, and 2022 ACS data will be used). In FY 2026, the temporary change to the method for calculating allocations will no longer be necessary, and HRSA will resume pooling of three consecutive 1-year estimates (2021-2023).
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 121 (Friday, June 24, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 121 (Friday, June 24, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37873-37874]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-13475]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Health Resources and Services Administration
Proposed Temporary Changes in State Title V Maternal and Child
Health Block Grant Allocations
AGENCY: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department
of Health and Human Services.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: This notice seeks comments on proposed temporary changes to
the method of calculating poverty-based allocations under Title V of
the Social Security Act for HRSA's State Title V Maternal and Child
Health (MCH) Block Grant. Since Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, the poverty-
based allocation has been based on the U.S. Census Bureau's 3-year
American Community Survey (ACS) estimates using three pooled 1-year
estimates. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were
disruptions in the ACS data collection in 2020 resulting in data
quality issues that prevented the Census Bureau from releasing standard
1-year ACS estimates; instead, the Census Bureau released experimental
estimates. HRSA proposes that the ACS 2020 experimental estimates be
excluded from calculating MCH block grant allocations and that the FY
2023 funding allocation be based on the same poverty data used in the
FY 2022 allocation (i.e., pooled 1-year estimates for 2017, 2018, and
2019 ACS). Funding allocations for FY 2024 and FY 2025 would continue
to incorporate the latest 1-year ACS data while skipping 2020 (i.e.,
for FY 2024, the 2018, 2019, and 2021 ACS data will be used; for FY
2025, the 2019, 2021, and 2022 ACS data will be used). In FY 2026, the
temporary change to the method for calculating allocations will no
longer be necessary, and HRSA will resume pooling of three consecutive
1-year estimates (2021-2023).
DATES: Interested persons are invited to comment on this proposed
change. Submit written comments no later than July 25, 2022. All
comments received on or before this date will be considered.
ADDRESSES: All written comments concerning this notice should be
submitted to Christopher Dykton, Acting Director of the Division of
State and Community Health, at the contact information below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christopher Dykton, Acting Director of
the Division of State and Community Health, Maternal and Child Health
Bureau (MCHB), HRSA, Room 18N35, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland
20857; telephone: (301) 433-2204; email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#9bd6d8d3d9f7f4f8f0dce9faf5efdbf3e9e8fab5fcf4ed"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="9cd1dfd4def0f3fff7dbeefdf2e8dcf4eeeffdb2fbf3ea">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The purpose of the Title V MCH Block Grant,
administered by HRSA's MCHB, is to improve the health of the nation's
mothers, infants, children, including children with special health care
needs, and their families by creating federal/state partnerships that
provide each state/jurisdiction with needed flexibility to respond to
its individual MCH population needs. Pursuant to section 502(c) of
Title V of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 702(c)), for any
available funding in excess of 1983 levels ($406,649,394), Title V MCH
Block Grant funds are allocated to States and the District of Columbia
based on the number of children living in poverty in an individual
state as a proportion of the total number of children living in poverty
in the U.S., using data for the number of children in poverty in each
State from the U.S. Census Bureau's ACS. Incorporating the proportion
of total number of children living in poverty into the state funding
formula for the Title V MCH Block Grant ensures that a portion of the
funding is distributed according to greatest need.
Beginning in FY 2013, data for the number of children in poverty in
each state has been based on the U.S. Census Bureau's ACS.\1\ In FY
2013, the allocation was based on 3-year rolling ACS estimates instead
of 1-year or 5-year ACS estimates also produced at that time to strike
a balance between reliability and currency of data. See 77 FR 65693
(October 30, 2012). However, since 2014 (for FY 2017), when the Census
Bureau discontinued the release of 3-year ACS estimates, HRSA has been
using three pooled ACS 1-year estimates for this purpose.
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\1\ Prior to this, the formula was based on poverty data from
the decennial Census long-form, which was replaced with the American
Community Survey.
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In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were disruptions in
the ACS data collection that prevented the Census Bureau from releasing
standard 1-year ACS estimates for 2020. According to the Census Bureau
report, ``An Assessment of the COVID-19 Pandemic's Impact on the 2020
ACS 1-Year Data,'' \2\ both survey administration methods (mailed
questionnaires and interviewing in-person) were impacted beginning in
March 2020. For example, no mailings were completed from April through
June 2020, and when they resumed, they did not include the mailing of
most of the reminder letters and postcards. Similarly, there was an
abrupt switch from in-person to telephone-only interviews from March
2020 through June 2020, and the universe of addresses for which
telephone numbers can be obtained is likely different than the universe
of addresses obtained through in-person methods, over-representing
certain types of addresses. In May, the option to complete the
interview online became available. In-person
[[Page 37874]]
interviewing resumed in July, but not for all areas.
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\2\ <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/working-papers/2021/acs/2021_CensusBureau_01.html">https://www.census.gov/library/working-papers/2021/acs/2021_CensusBureau_01.html</a>.
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All of these changes affected response rates, in terms of who was
most likely to complete the mailed surveys or participate in
interviews, etc. The Census Bureau concluded that the 2020 ACS 1-year
data were not ``reasonable'' as respondents disproportionately ``had
higher levels of education, had more married couples and few never
married citizens, had less Medicaid coverage, had higher median
household incomes, and fewer non-citizens, and were more likely to live
in single-family housing units'' than respondents in previous years.
Therefore, the Census Bureau decided not to release standard 2020 ACS
1-year estimates. The Census Bureau is providing only ``experimental
estimates'' for 2020 ACS 1-year data.\3\ The Census Bureau indicated
that the experimental 2020 estimates were released in an attempt to
account for the differential response from more educated, higher
income, single-family households, but also acknowledged the approach
has not been thoroughly investigated.\4\
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\3\ The Census Bureau defines experimental data products as
``innovative statistical products created using new data sources or
methodologies that benefit data users in the absence of other data
products . . . Census Bureau experimental data may not meet all of
HRSA's data quality standards. Because of this, HRSA clearly
identifies experimental data products and includes methodology and
supporting research with their release.'' <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products.html">https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products.html</a>.
\4\ <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/data/experimental-data.html">https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/data/experimental-data.html</a>.
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Upon their release, HRSA examined the 2020 ACS experimental
estimates and compared the change in poverty share using a 3-year
estimate incorporating the 2020 experimental estimate with prior year-
to-year changes since 2014--the first year of annual updates to poverty
share data using 3-year ACS estimates. Using the 2020 experimental
estimates, HRSA noted an increase in the variability, with 12 states
having their largest observed relative percentage change, 9 states
having large (>5 percent) relative percentage changes, and 6 states
having large (>5 percent) relative decreases in poverty share from the
prior year. Moreover, in years prior, large relative percentage changes
were most often increases, but the opposite occurred in 2020 using the
experimental estimates, i.e., six states would have a large decrease
vs. three states would have a large increase. Thus, due to the greater
observed data variability and number of states that would experience
large decreases in their poverty share, HRSA has concerns about the
accuracy of the 2020 experimental estimates as applied to the MCH
allocation. For smaller states, in particular, large relative decreases
in poverty share can result in meaningful absolute decreases in the
poverty-based allocation. As state budgets are impacted by the COVID-19
pandemic, HRSA proposes a conservative approach that limits such
decreases based on uncertain experimental estimates to the extent
possible.
In order to ameliorate these concerns and because of the nature of
the data, HRSA proposes that the ACS 2020 experimental estimates not be
used in calculating MCH block grant allocations. Instead, HRSA proposes
that the FY 2023 funding allocation be based on the same poverty data
used in the FY 2022 allocation (i.e., pooled 1-year estimates for 2017,
2018, and 2019 ACS). Funding allocations for FY 2024 and FY 2025 would
continue to incorporate the latest 1-year ACS data while skipping the
2020 experimental data (i.e., for FY 2024, the 2018, 2019, and 2021 ACS
data will be used; for FY 2025, the 2019, 2021, and 2022 ACS data will
be used). In FY 2026, the temporary change to the method for
calculating allocations will no longer be necessary, and HRSA will
resume pooling of 3 consecutive 1-year estimates (2021-2023). HRSA's
proposal to temporarily change the method of calculating allocations
continues to support the objective of distributing funding according to
greatest need. In so doing, HRSA will avoid the use of lower quality
and potentially inaccurate poverty data for 2020 that would result in
larger funding fluctuations than observed in previous years, and will
continue to use the latest available data in future years. With this
approach, no state will see a decrease in its poverty-based allocation
of funding in FY 2023.
If the poverty data used for the FY 2022 allocation is used again
for the FY 2023 allocation, all states will receive the same proportion
of poverty-based funding as they received in FY 2022, which will
prevent potentially inaccurate changes in allocations. HRSA recognizes
the possibility that the changes seen with 2020 ACS experimental
estimates may actually reflect real changes in the distribution of
children in poverty which may be seen when the 2021 ACS 1-year
estimates (to be released in Fall 2022) are incorporated. If that is
the case, then the difference in FY 2024 allocations as compared to the
FY 2023 allocations will accurately reflect those changes by
incorporating the 2021 data.
Diana Espinosa,
Deputy Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2022-13475 Filed 6-23-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4165-15-P
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