Notice2023-16011
Request for Public Comment: 30-Day Information Collection: Indian Health Service Medical Staff Credentials Application
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
July 28, 2023
Issuing agencies
Health and Human Services DepartmentIndian Health Service
Abstract
In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Indian Health Service (IHS) invites the general public to comment on the information collection titled, "Indian Health Service Medical Staff Credentials Application," OMB Control Number 0917-0009, which expires August 31, 2023.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 144 (Friday, July 28, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 144 (Friday, July 28, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48896-48898]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-16011]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Indian Health Service
Request for Public Comment: 30-Day Information Collection: Indian
Health Service Medical Staff Credentials Application
AGENCY: Indian Health Service, HHS.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments; request for revision to a
collection.
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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the
Indian Health Service (IHS) invites the general public to comment on
the information collection titled, ``Indian Health Service Medical
Staff Credentials Application,'' OMB Control Number 0917-0009, which
expires August 31, 2023.
DATES:
Comment Due Date: August 28, 2023. Your comments regarding this
information collection are best assured of having full effect if
received within 30 days of the date of this publication.
Direct Your Comments to OMB: Send your comments and suggestions
regarding the proposed information collection contained in this notice,
especially regarding the estimated public burden and associated
response time to: Office of Management and Budget, Office of Regulatory
Affairs, New Executive Office Building, Room 10235, Washington, DC
20503, Attention: Desk Officer for IHS.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request additional information,
please contact Evonne Bennett, Information Collection Clearance Officer
by email at: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#bcf9cad3d2d2d992fed9d2d2d9c8c8fcd5d4cf92dbd3ca"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="f0b5869f9e9e95deb2959e9e958484b0999883de979f86">[email protected]</span></a> or telephone at 240-472-1996.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This previously approved information
collection project was last published in the Federal Register on May
11, 2023 (88 FR 30317), and allowed 60 days for public comment. There
was one public comment received in response to the notice. This notice
announces our intent to submit this collection, which expires August
31, 2023, to OMB for approval of an extension with revisions, and to
solicit comments on specific aspects for the proposed information
collection.
A copy of the supporting statement is available at
<a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a> (see Docket ID IHS-2023-0001).
Comment: Commenter requested the IHS review the medical staff
credentials application and revise or remove any invasive or
stigmatizing language around mental health.
Response to Comment: The IHS does not believe there are any
stigmatizing language around mental health in the application. Should
specific stigmatizing language be presented to IHS, IHS will review the
language and then determine whether remedial action needs to be taken.
Information Collection Title: ``Indian Health Service Medical Staff
Credentials Application, 0917-0009.''
Type of Information Collection Request: Revision of an approved
information collection, and retitled to, ``Indian Health Service
Medical Staff Credentials and Privileges Records, 0917-0009.''
Form Numbers: 0917-0009.
Need and Use of Information Collection: This collection of
[[Page 48897]]
information is used to evaluate IHS medical and health care
professionals to include: licensed practitioners (LP) applying for
medical staff membership, credentialing and privileges at IHS health
care facilities. Practitioner credentialing and privileging in the IHS
has been identified as a priority area for quality improvement to
support patient safety, demonstrate quality of care, and improve
practitioner satisfaction.
Indian Health Service policy specifically requires all LP (i.e.,
Federal employees, contractors, and/or volunteers) who intend to
provide health care services at IHS facilities to be credentialed and
privileged prior to providing such care. When a practitioner applies to
provide health care services at an IHS clinic or hospital, that
application contains two parts. The first is for membership in the
medical staff. Criteria for such membership may include type of
licensure, education, training, and experience. The second part is for
privileges, which define the scope of clinical care that a practitioner
can administer and matches the practitioner's current clinical
competency. There are certain criteria that practitioners must meet in
order to exercise particular privileges in the facilities. These
criteria may overlap with criteria for membership on the medical staff,
but those for privileges are more specific and must be facility
specific to meet the facility's requirements.
The IHS operates health care facilities that provide health care
services to American Indian and Alaska Native patients. To provide
these services, the IHS employs (direct-hire and direct-contract)
several categories of fully licensed, registered, or certified
individuals permitted by law to independently provide patient care
services within the scope of the individual's license, registration, or
certification, and in accordance with individually granted clinical
privileges when the individual is a credentialed member of the IHS
medical staff. Licensed Practitioners who are eligible may become
medical staff members, depending on the local health care facility's
capabilities and medical staff bylaws.
All LP who provide care at IHS facilities must maintain full,
active, unrestricted, and current licensure and credentials, and be
proficient in their granted privileges in accordance with the
facility's medical staff bylaws, accreditation standards, privilege
criteria, agency and local policies, and applicable law and guidelines.
National health care standards developed by the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Joint Commission, and other
accrediting organizations require health care facilities to review,
evaluate, and prime-source verify credentials of medical staff
applicants prior to granting medical staff privileges. Medical
credentials specifically include the primary source verified and
documented evidence of competence, character, judgment, education, and
training. In order to meet these standards, IHS health care facilities
require all medical staff applicants to provide verifiable information
concerning their education, training, licensure, work experience,
health status, and current professional conduct and competence and any
adverse disciplinary actions taken against them. This information is
collected through the agency's current commercial off the shelf
credentialing software to make the following application packets
electronically available via the internet. The Application packets are:
(1) Pre-Application; (2) Initial Application for Membership &
Privileges; (3) Reappointment Application for Membership and
Privileges; and (4) Credentialing by Proxy (CBP) Intake Form. The first
three application packets include an IHS Conditions of Application and
Release and Health Attestation Statement for the LP to sign; Item 4,
the CBP Intake Form, only includes an IHS Conditions of Application and
Release.
Privileges vary across all IHS Areas and clinics, as services and
procedures provided and equipment utilized varies across facilities and
can change often. Privilege forms are required to be current and
modified to reflect only services and procedures provided by that
specific facility in order to be in compliance with accreditation
standards. The electronic credentialing system allows tailoring the
privileging needs to site specifications.
Information collected in the application packets are prime-source
verified by IHS staff using standard IHS forms (Affiliation, Peer
Reference, Insurance, and Education) with the original source of the
credential. The credentials review includes, but is not limited to,
verifying information from: the state medical boards, the Drug
Enforcement Administration, Excluded Parties List System/System for
Awards Management, National Practitioner Data Bank, Office of Inspector
General, colleges or universities, residency programs, peer references,
insurance companies, etc.
Once the LP application packet is approved, agency policy requires
licensure, registration, and certification requirements and clinical
competency be continuously verified on an ongoing basis until the time
of the next reappointment. At the time of reappointment the health care
practitioner will go through a similar reappointment process to renew
their membership and privilege status. This review evaluates the
current competence of the health care providers and verifies whether
they are maintaining the licensure or certification requirements of
their specialty.
The medical staff credentials and privileges records are stored in
two ways: records stored in file folders are stored at the IHS
facilities or the Federal Record Center, and computer-based or
electronic records are located at the IHS Albuquerque Data Center in
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The IHS is continuing to standardize, transform, and optimize the
medical staff credentialing and privileging process into a centrally
automated, standardized, electronic/digital, measurable, portable,
accessible, and efficient business process to improve the effectiveness
of application and re-application to medical staff, movement of
practitioners within the IHS system, and recruitment/retention of high-
quality LP.
Affected Public: Individuals and households.
Type of Respondents: Individuals.
The table below provides: Types of data collection instruments,
Estimated Number of Respondents, Number of Annual Responses per
Respondent, Average Burden per Response, and Total Annual Burden Hours.
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Estimated Total annual
Data collection instrument(s) number of Responses per Average burden hour per burden
respondents respondent response * (current) **
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Pre-Application Package to Medical 500 1 .50 (30 min)............... 250
Staff.
Initial Application Package to 878 1 1 (60 min)................. 878
Medical Staff and/or Privileges.
Reappointment Application Package 2,212 1 0.50 (30 min).............. 1,106
to Medical Staff and/or Privileges.
[[Page 48898]]
Credentialing by Proxy Intake Form. 250 1 .25 (15 min)............... 63
Affiliation Verification........... 4,225 1 .25 (15 min)............... 1,056
Education Verification............. 3,289 1 .25 (15 min)............... 822
Malpractice Verification........... 2,535 1 .25 (15 min)............... 634
Peer Reference Verification........ 6,180 1 .25 (15 min)............... 1,545
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Total.......................... 20,069 .............. ........................... 6,354
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For ease of understanding:
* Average Burden Hour per Response are provided in actual minutes.
** Total Annual Burden (Current) are provided in hours.
Annual number of respondents and average burden hour were factored
based on total IHS providers credentialed and privileged Calendar Year
2022, accreditation requirements with estimates of verification per
applicant, and respondent estimate time of completion in the paragraphs
above.
There are no capital costs, operating costs, and/or maintenance
costs to respondents.
Requests for Comments: Your written comments and/or suggestions are
invited on one or more of the following points:
(a) Whether the information collection activity is necessary to
carry out an agency function;
(b) Whether the agency processes the information collected in a
useful and timely fashion;
(c) The accuracy of the public burden estimate (the estimated
amount of time needed for individual respondents to provide the
requested information);
(d) Whether the methodology and assumptions used to determine the
estimates are logical;
(e) Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information being collected; and
(f) Ways to minimize the public burden through the use of
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection
techniques or other forms of information technology.
P. Benjamin Smith,
Deputy Director, Indian Health Service.
[FR Doc. 2023-16011 Filed 7-27-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4165-16-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on July 28, 2023.
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