emergency request

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

Public Health Service
Office of the Surgeon General
Rockville, MD 20852

June 3, 2016,
Dominic Mancini
Deputy Director
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Office of Management and Budget
Washington, DC
Subject: Request for Emergency Review and Clearance
Dear Mr. Mancini,
Pursuant to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) procedures established at 5 CFR Part
1320, Controlling Paperwork Burdens on the Public, I request that the proposed information
collection request (ICR) “Surgeon General’s Pledge to Stem the Opioid Epidemic” be processed
in accordance with section 1320.12 Emergency Processing.
I have determined that this information must be collected prior to the expiration of time periods
established under Part 1320, and that this information is essential to the U.S. Surgeon General’s
mission to communicate the best available public health information to the American people.
The goal of this ICR is to significantly diminish the amount of opioid misuse, abuse, addiction
and overdose. Nearly two million people in the U.S. have a prescription opioid use disorder, and
the number of opioid overdose death have quadrupled since 1999. The epidemic is contributing
to increased heroin use and the spread of HIV and hepatitis C among IV drug users.
Next week, the Surgeon General will mail a letter to 2.3 million prescribers (doctors, dentists,
nurse practitioners, etc.) calling on them to improve their prescribing practices and connect
patients with addiction to evidence-based treatment programs. The Surgeon General will invite
recipients of the letter to take a pledge on the TurnTheTideRx.org web site, where clinicians will
be asked to share data outlined in the ICR (first name, last name, email address, zip code,
profession and specialty). The Office of the Surgeon General (OSG) plans to use this information
to engage prescribers with the latest information on techniques to prevent and treat opioid use
disorders (such as the new prescriber guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention).
OSG needs to implement the information collection by June 6, in order to begin a soft launch of
the web site. After a week of testing the site to ensure functionality, OSG will launch it publicly
in conjunction with the Surgeon General’s opioid engagement tour of 10 cities beginning on June
13. The Surgeon General is also scheduled to appear on national media where he will direct
clinicians in the audience to use the web site as both a resource and as an avenue to receive direct
communications from him about the epidemic.

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OSG has been unable to begin this important initiative because of previously unresolved issues
around how and where the requested information will be stored and secured. Those issues have
now been resolved. Further delays will impede the success of the campaign, which has been
publicly announced by the White House and the Secretary of HHS.
Please provide an approval/disapproval determination of this request to collect information under
an emergency clearance by close of business June 6, 2016.
Sincerely,

____________________________
Parag V. Mehta, MPA
Chief of Staff, Office of the Surgeon General
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health