[Federal Register: May 17, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 95)]
[Notices]
[Page 27928-27929]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr17my04-83]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[Program Announcement 04126]
Vital Statistics Re-engineering Program; Notice of Intent To Fund
Single Eligibility Award
A. Purpose
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announces the
intent to fund fiscal year (FY) 2004 funds for a cooperative agreement
program to enhance the ability of state-owned vital statistics systems
to provide timely and high quality information to the National Vital
Statistics System based on the newly-approved U.S. Standard Certificate
for Birth and Death and the Report of Fetal Death. The Catalog of
Federal Domestic Assistance number for this program is 93.066.
B. Eligible Applicant
Assistance will be provided only to a public or private non-profit
organization whose primary mission is the support of state vital
statistics and vital records programs. The National Vital Statistics
System (NVSS) is one component of NCHS's health data collection
program.
NCHS operates this System to fulfill its legislatively mandated
mission to produce national vital statistics based on data from the
nation's birth and death records. The NVSS is a cooperative,
decentralized system in which data from over 6 million vital event
records are collected each year by all states and U.S. territories and
transmitted to the NCHS for processing and analysis. These records are
state-owned and are provided through state-owned and operated
registration systems. No federal constitutional mandate or law exits
requiring states to collect and/or report birth and death information
to NCHS.
Consequently, the collection of registration-based vital statistics
at the national level depends on a cooperative relationship between
states and the federal government. Since 1933, NAPHSIS and its
predecessor organizations have collectively represented the states on
policy and other agreements with the federal government. It is a
professional, non-profit organization whose members include primarily,
but not exclusively, the vital statistics registration executives and
other employees of state registration offices. In addition to providing
the states and territories with a common point of contact with the
federal government, NAPHSIS also facilitates inter-state exchange of
ideas, methods, and technology for the registration of vital events and
dissemination of vital and other public health statistics. Since the
inception of the NVSS Program, NAPHSIS has been the only national group
whose decisions fully reflect the views of the state vital records
offices and, accordingly, the state vital records office, generally
adhere to NAPHSIS' policy and program decisions. As further evidence of
its unique role with state vital statistics offices, NAPHSIS negotiates
with NCHS on behalf of the states about the deliverables, schedule,
quality, and other aspects of data provided for the NVSS. NAPHSIS is
one of the affiliates of the Association of State and Territorial
Health Organization.
Over the past two years, NCHS has jointly worked with NAPHSIS to
develop national, model standards and guidelines for how states may
best re-engineer their vital records systems to meet state and federal
needs. Those standards and guidelines will be available in early 2004,
when the task shifts to motivating each state and territory to
implement standards-based systems. The implementation of re-
[[Page 27929]]
engineered systems in all states is a top priority of NCHS.
Accomplishing this goal will: (1) Significantly increase the ability of
the NVSS to be responsive to emerging public health needs and user
demands; (2) result in more timely and higher quality data that better
describe the population by enabling a faster and more efficient
transfer of data as well as enhanced data integration among federal,
state, and local entities; and (3) permit the various vital
registration jurisdictions to implement the recently-approved U.S.
Standard Certificates of Birth and Death, and Report of Fetal Death,
thus providing the means to collect the most meaningful and uniform
health information related to births and deaths. NCHS'' ability to
produce a national vital statistics dataset is dependent on all states
fully reengineering their data collection systems and implementing the
revised certificates and report. Because vital statistics is a
decentralized, state-based system, we believe that the best and only
effective strategy for convincing all states is by working through
their own association, which is NAPHSIS.
NAPHSIS has a history of working collaboratively with NCHS and the
other CIOs within CDC on vital statistics related initiatives. Some of
these initiatives include:
The NVSS contract and policy negotiations on deliverables/
schedules/quality from state-owned vital statistics systems with CDC/
NCHS
The National Death Index Program with CDC/NCHS
The ``Improve State and Local Health Information Systems''
cooperative agreement with CDC/EPO
The Newborn Hearing Screening Project with CDC Center for
Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities
The National Electronic Disease Surveillance Project with
CDC-NEDSS Program
This project has a relationship with two prior or ongoing CDC-
funded activities. First, this project focuses on the development of
detailed systems (or non-functional) requirements for a model vital
statistics system, which is Phase II of the Re-engineering Project. In
Phase I, NAPHSIS was an active partner in the development of the
functional requirements for the model system. Second, this project is
related to the PHIN Project (previously NEDSS) currently underway in
CDC. This project will be exploring the use of the PHIN messaging
system with re-engineered vital statistics system, and will be
developing guidelines on PHIN-compatible re-engineered vital statistics
systems.
C. Funding
Approximately $171,500 is available in FY 2004 to fund this award.
It is expected that the award will begin on or before June 2004, and
will be made for a 12-month budget period within a project period of up
to three years. Funding estimates may change.
D. Where To Obtain Additional Information
For general comments or questions about this announcement, contact:
Technical Information Management, CDC Procurement and Grants
Office, 2920 Brandywine Road, Atlanta, GA 30341-4146, Telephone: 770-
488-2700.
For technical questions about this program, contact: Charles
Rothwell, Project Officer, National Center for Health Statistics,
Division of Vital Statistics, Room 7311, 3311 Toledo Road, Hyattsville,
Maryland 20782, Telephone: 301-458-4468, E-mail: cjr4@cdc.gov.
Dated: May 11, 2004.
Wiliam P. Nichols,
Acting Director, Procurement and Grants Office, Centers for Disease
Control, and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 04-11078 Filed 5-14-04; 8:45 am]
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