Supporting Statement A_Million Hearts_Network Survey_Passback_ASPE

Million Hearts Social Network Analysis—Network Survey

Supporting Statement – Section A

Submitted: May 5, 2016

Contracting Officer Representative

Daniel Duplantier

Social Science Analyst
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation

200 Independence Avenue SW, Washington DC 20201

202.260.6544

Daniel.Duplantier@hhs.gov

Section A – Justification

1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary

Heart attacks and strokes contribute to the almost 800,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease each year. The trauma to families and communities is devastating; the cost to the US economy is nearly $1 billion each day in medical costs and lost productivity. To achieve sustainable prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services launched Million Hearts®, a five-year national initiative co-led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS), to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. Million Hearts® focuses on aligning the efforts of federal agencies, states, regions, health systems, communities and individuals towards this common goal, ensuring the coordination of public health, clinical care, and policy approaches to this complex problem. Collaborative efforts among organizations with a variety of programming, resources and skill sets have been shown to result in higher levels of community impact. Integrated efforts to address public health issues by involving multiple stakeholders are predicted to result in better health outcomes than programs that do not use a collaborative approach.

Million Hearts® could be an example of a public-private partnership that HHS may be able to model in the future. Therefore this study will examine how partnerships may have played a role in Million Hearts® and the study will also examine if HHS can model similar partner engagement efforts. Under Title IV, 2.2 Section 4002 Prevention and Public Health Fund of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) ASPE is collecting this data as part of “prevention research, health screenings, and initiatives.”

2. Purpose and Use of the Information Collection

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (HHS/ASPE) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded a contract to RAND to examine partnership engagement and the level of communication among Million Hearts® (MH) partners.

The goals of this project are to:

1. Describe the partnership engagement process and level of strength and interaction among partners in the MH Initiative.

2. Examine changes in the activities, programs, policies, or systems that have occurred as a result of the MH Initiative.

3. Identify facilitators and barriers to public-private partnerships with the federal government.

4. Synthesize the information obtained through the above three aims to inform future partnership efforts.

To address the first and second components of the study, the contractor conducted a qualitative assessment with an environmental scan, as well as stakeholder engagement through key informant interviews that will provide respondents for a social/organizational network analysis. The key informant interviews were approved and conducted under ASPE’s generic information collection request OMB No. 0990-0421. This methodology should provide information on activities conducted as a result of participation and partnership with MH and identify facilitators and barriers of public/private partnerships with the federal government.

To address the third component of the study, the contractor will then conduct a Social/Organizational Network Analysis that will focus specifically on the network of MH partners. This method is used to gather and analyze data to explain the degree to which network actors connect to one another and the structural makeup of collaborative relationships. Using information generated from the key informant interviews RAND will create a list of contacts/key people from the private sector organizations (e.g. American Medical Association (AMA), American Heart Association (AHA), etc.) and the federal agencies (e.g. CMS, CDC, OPM, etc.) that represent the extent of the Million Hearts partners to “bound” the network. All of the individuals in this network will then receive an online survey that will ask them to provide information about everyone else in the network. The survey will help show which people in the network are connected (e.g. communicate/work together frequently), how those connections may vary and change, and describe the patterns of the relationships. The information collected will then be analyzed to understand how to potentially improve the network or do outreach to partners.

3. Use of Improved Information Technology and Burden Reduction

Data will be collected through the Program to Analyze, Record, and Track Networks to Enhance Relationships (PARTNER) tool. This is an online system maintained by Dr. Varda with the University of Colorado, Denver. The system allows for the dissemination of online surveys, data collection, analysis, and generating of social network graphs.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication and Use of Similar Information

To our knowledge, there is no information that has been or is currently being collected similar to these. This is an exploratory study to answer questions that we currently do not have the data to answer.

5. Impact on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities

No small businesses will be involved in this data collection.

6. Consequences of Collecting the Information Less Frequently

This request is for a one time data collection.

7. Special Circumstances Relating to the Guidelines of 5 CFR 1320.5

There are no special circumstances with this information collection package. This request fully complies with the regulation 5 CFR 1320.5 and will be voluntary.

8. Comments in Response to the Federal Register Notice and Efforts to Consult Outside the Agency

The 60 day notice was published in the Federal Register on February 4, 2016 Vol. 81 #23 page 6022. No comments were received. ASPE worked with the following contacts to design this study: Michael Schooley, PhD, Branch Chief for Applied Research and Program Evaluation, Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Malcolm Williams, PhD, Policy Researcher, Associate Research Department Director, Behavioral and Policy Sciences Department at the RAND Corporation. Contact information will be supplied upon request.

9. Explanation of Any Payment or Gift to Respondents

We will not be providing incentives for this study.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality Provided to Respondents

We are not collecting personally identifiable information. We are asking respondents about their experience and relationships with others in a professional capacity. The names and work email addresses of respondents will be used only for the purposes of this survey. The data will remain in the PARTNER tool during data collection. Once collection is complete, names will be de-identified. Any analysis or presentation of social network graphs will be labeled with the individual’s organization, not their name. For example, John Smith at CMS would be presented as CMS-06 and be pictured as node in a social network graph.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

We will not be asking any questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimates of Annualized Burden Hours and Costs

The social network analysis survey will take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Table A-12: Estimated Annualized Burden Hours and Costs to Respondents

Type of Respondent	No. of Respondents	No. of Responses per Respondent	Average Burden per Response (in hours)	Total Burden Hours	Hourly Wage Rate	Total Respondent Costs
Private sector, State, and Local Partners	100	1	0.5	50	$34.21	$1,710.50
TOTALS	100	100		50		$1,710.50

13. Estimates of Other Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents or Record Keepers

There will be no direct costs to the respondents other than their time to participate in the data collection.

14. Annualized Cost to the Government

Table A-14: Estimated Annualized Cost to the Federal Government

Staff (FTE)	Average Hours per Collection	Average Hourly Rate	Average Cost
Social Science Analyst, GS 11	70	33.00	$2310
Social Science Analyst, GS 15	30	76.00	$2280
Estimated Total Cost of Information Collection			$4590

15. Explanation for Program Changes or Adjustments

This is a new data collection.

16. Plans for Tabulation and Publication and Project Time Schedule

1. Describe the partnership engagement process and level of strength and interaction among partners in the MH Initiative.

2. To assess changes in the activities, programs, policies, or systems that have occurred as a result of the MH Initiative.

3. Identify facilitators and barriers to public-private partnerships with the federal government.

4. Synthesize the information obtained through the above three aims to inform future partnership efforts.

As mentioned previously, goals one and two were conducted earlier in the project, and were approved using the ASPE Generic Clearance for Qualitative Research.

For goals three and four, we will conduct a social network analysis and develop a final report describing facilitators to partner communication and engagement as well as barriers to collaboration. We have developed a network survey that will be administered to respondents identified through the key informant interviews and environmental scan. This survey will be revised and improved based upon the results from the informant interviews. We anticipate sending the survey to approximately 100 respondents. Previous research indicates that most networks have 100 or fewer partners. The survey will allow us to collect the frequency of interaction, perceptions of value, and perceptions of trust between partners. The analysis of this data will reveal areas of the network that are strong, areas that are weak, and provide ways to improve the communication and collaboration of the whole network.

Timeline:

Completion Date	Major Tasks/Milestones
December 2015	Submit project for IRB approval
January 2016	Submit request for OMB approval under an existing generic PRA clearance for the key informant interviews Receive draft Environmental Scan for review Provide feedback and finalize Environmental scan Receive OMB approval under an existing generic PRA clearance Receive IRB approval
February 2016	Receive qualitative analysis plan Provide feedback and finalize analysis plan Submit 60 day notice for full OMB approval of social network survey
April 2016	Receive list of potential key informants Provide feedback and finalize list of informants and interview guide
May—July 2016	Conduct key informant interviews
June—July 2016	Receive list of potential social network survey respondents Develop dissemination plan
August 2016	Conduct qualitative data analysis on informant interviews Revise and finalize list of social network survey respondents Revise and finalize social network survey
September 2016	Present preliminary findings from qualitative interviews Conduct social network survey
November 2016	Present findings from interviews and social network analysis
December 2016—January 2017	Present final report Present manuscript for journal submission Deliver final briefings and presentation of results

17. Reason(s) Display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate

We are requesting no exemption.

18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

There are no exceptions to the certification. These activities comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.

LIST OF ATTACHMENTS – Section A

Note: Attachments are included as separate files as instructed.

1. Social Network Questionnaire