[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 125 (Wednesday, June 28, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39854-39856]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-16255]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Economic Research Service
Notice of Intent To Seek Approval to Collect Information
AGENCY: Economic Research Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub.
L. No. 104-13) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations at
5 CFR 1320 (60 FR 44978, August 29, 1995), this notice announces the
Economic Research Service's (ERS) intention to request approval for a
new information collection from participants in the Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC);
from local WIC agency staff; and from food store cashiers, to address
the legislative mandate in the William F. Goodling Child Nutrition
Reauthorization Act of 1998 ( Pub. L. 105-336, 112 Stat. 3143) to study
the impact of cost containment in the WIC program. This information
will be used in the Assessment of WIC Cost-Containment Practices to
analyze the effects of current cost-containment practices established
by States on program participation, selected participant outcomes, and
program costs.
DATES: Written comments on this notice must be received by September 1,
2000 to be assured of consideration.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION OR COMMENTS: Requests for additional information
should be directed to Phil R. Kaufman, Food Markets Branch, Food and
Rural Economics Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of
Agriculture, 1800 M. St., NW, Room N2118, Washington, D.C. 20036-5801.
For further information contact: Phil R. Kaufman, 202-694-5376. Submit
electronic comments to pkaufman@ers.usda.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: Paperwork Reduction Act Submission (OMB-83-1).
Type of Request: New collection of information.
Abstract: ERS of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is responsible
for conducting studies and evaluations of the Nation's food assistance
programs that are administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS),
U.S. Department of Agriculture. WIC is the second largest domestic
food-assistance program in the United States. In Federal fiscal year
1998, WIC served approximately 7.4 million participants each month at
an annual cost approaching $4 billion (FNS, 1998). WIC is administered
through grants to the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico,
Guam, American Samoa, the American Virgin Islands, and 33 Indian Tribal
Organizations. State WIC agencies administer the program through
roughly 2,000 local agencies representing about 10,000 service delivery
sites.
WIC provides a comprehensive set of services including supplemental
foods, nutrition education, and increased access to health care and
social services for pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women;
infants; and children up to the age of five years. To qualify for WIC,
a health or nutritional risk must be documented by a health
professional and participants must be income-eligible.
WIC is not an entitlement program. Each State must operate within
annual funding levels established via a formula devised by FNS to
distribute funds appropriated by the Congress. This
[[Page 39855]]
necessitates setting a maximum caseload for each local agency. When a
local agency reaches this maximum, a system of priorities is used to
allocate benefits to eligible applicants. As a consequence, WIC
officials seek to contain program costs, particularly food costs, so
that they can serve the maximum feasible number of eligible persons
with the available funds. Cost-containment strategies employed by State
WIC agencies fall into three main categories:
--Restricting the size, brand, and price range of food items that
participants can buy with WIC benefits;
--Restricting the number and/or types of approved WIC vendors (food
stores); and
--Purchasing food items with manufacturer rebates.
Currently, all State agencies are required to buy infant formula
under rebate contracts and are strongly encouraged by FNS to employ
practices intended to reduce other costs of food benefits for women and
children. By design, the planned study will not examine infant formula
rebates. By reducing food costs, cost-containment practices have the
potential to increase the number of eligible women, infants and
children served by WIC. Concerns have been raised, however, that overly
restrictive policies may reduce participants' access to and consumption
of prescribed foods, and may ultimately lead to reduced participation
and adverse health impacts. In addition, some observers have questioned
whether cost-containment practices save enough in food costs to offset
their additional administrative costs.
As mandated by the William F. Goodling Child Nutrition
Reauthorization Act of 1998, ERS is conducting a study to describe and
assess the effects of these practices on seven outcomes: (1) Program
participation; (2) access and availability of prescribed foods; (3)
voucher redemption rates and actual food selections by participants;
(4) participants on special diets or with specific food allergies; (5)
participant use and satisfaction of prescribed foods; (6) achievement
of positive health outcomes; and (7) program costs. Pub. L. 105-336,
Sec. 203(r), 112 Stat. 3143, 3166. This study will provide the first
systematic data on the balance struck by WIC State agencies between the
goals of nutritional improvement and customer satisfaction and the need
to make the most of available program funds.
The study is being conducted in six States: California,
Connecticut, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas. These States
were purposively selected and recruited to participate because of their
use of specific combinations of the main types of cost-containment
practices and to represent diversity in geographical location, size,
and race/ethnicity of WIC participants. This selection method is
appropriate because of the need for State cooperation and because the
study is intended to explore the possibility that WIC cost-containment
practices have significant impacts on participants and program costs,
not to provide definitive, nationally-representative impact estimates.
ERS, working with Abt Associates, Inc., who will collect the
information, will draw on several data sources in each of the six
participating States. Maximum use will be made of existing data in
State WIC information systems, including participant certification
records, food instrument issuance and redemption records, and vendor
locations and characteristics. These data will be used to construct
sample frames for a survey of WIC participants, a survey of WIC
vendors, and focus groups with WIC participants who do not pick up all
of their WIC food vouchers, as well as in the analyses of outcomes. A
second existing information source is supermarket scanner data, which
will provide information on WIC transactions (such as brand and size of
food products selected) for a subset of WIC-approved vendors within
each State. Finally, electronic benefit transfer (EBT) transaction data
will provide similar information for WIC transactions in Ohio, the only
selected State that will be using EBT to process WIC transactions
during the study period.
The remaining data sources, for which OMB clearance will be needed,
are a survey of WIC participants, a screener survey to recruit WIC
participants for focus groups, a survey of WIC food availability and
prices, and interviews with WIC staff. The Survey of WIC Participants
is a telephone survey of active WIC recipients in each of the six
participating States, with field follow-up. The survey will be
administered to a random sample of recipients selected by a two-stage
process. In each State, three study sites will be selected, one from
each stratum defined by urban, suburban, and rural areas. WIC
participants will then be randomly selected from a list of all
participants residing in the study sites, stratified by women and
children.
The Survey of WIC Participants will collect information relevant to
all study objectives including: access to WIC vendors; food item
selections and food consumption; satisfaction with WIC food items; food
preferences; food selection problems associated with special diets or
food allergies; use of health services; and selected participant
demographics not available from State WIC records. Cross-state analyses
will compare responses of participants from States implementing one or
more types of cost-containment practice to responses of participants
from States who are not using the same (or any) practices to determine
whether there are any systematic differences in the relevant outcome
measures. Within-state analyses will focus on a comparison of responses
from those participants who are and are not constrained by cost-
containment practices. Finally, responses of participants with special
diets or food allergies will be examined to determine the extent to
which they may have greater problems associated with cost-containment
than other participants.
To explore the possible effects of cost containment on participant
drop-out rates, the study will use State information systems data to
identify those WIC participants who have failed to pick up one or more
of their monthly food package instruments. A screening interview will
be used to select those participants whose decision not to pick up
their food instruments may have been affected by cost-containment
practices. Focus groups with these WIC participants will take place in
each participating State.
The Survey of Food Prices and Item Availability will be a major
data source for estimating cost savings due to cost-containment
practices; it also provides information on both the variety of WIC
foods offered and shelf availability. Abt Associates data collectors
will obtain information on food items normally stocked by asking store
cashiers to scan a set of UPC (Universal Product Code) codes for a
standard list of foods meeting Federal WIC guidelines. Stores will be
sampled from among all WIC-authorized vendors in the study sites
selected for the Survey of WIC Participants; stores will be stratified
by store type (supermarket vs. grocery store), size, and WIC vs. non-
WIC status. In States with vendor restrictions, non-WIC vendors will
also be sampled and surveyed. In States with vendor restriction
practices, food prices and availability will be compared between WIC
vendors and non-WIC vendors. In States with item restriction practices,
food prices and availability will be compared between WIC-approved food
items and non-WIC approved foods that meet Federal guidelines.
[[Page 39856]]
Finally, State and local WIC officials in each of the participating
States will be interviewed about the expenses of implementing cost
containment, the extent to which savings have been used to increase
participation, and other impacts on program operations. Interviews with
the six State WIC directors will be conducted in person. The director
of each selected local agency and other staff with key responsibilities
related to cost containment will also be interviewed; these interviews
will be conducted by telephone. The information collected from State
and local WIC staff is essential for evaluating the effects of cost-
containment practices on program participation and costs.
The above-mentioned information collection is needed to complete
the Assessment of WIC Cost-Containment Practices mandated by Congress
and to equip FNS and State WIC administrators with a comprehensive
understanding of the potential impacts of cost containment as they make
decisions in the future regarding the implementation of these
practices. No existing data source can provide all of the information
needed to complete the evaluation. Existing WIC information system
databases from the six States will be used to construct the survey
sample frames and to obtain demographic data on participants and WIC
vendors affected by cost containment. Computer-assisted telephone
interviewing will be used to minimize respondent burden and interviewer
error in the Survey of WIC Participants. Focus group samples will be
drawn from a limited geographic area to minimize travel time and
expense for focus group participants. The survey questionnaire and
screener and local agency interviews will be kept as simple and
respondent-friendly as possible. Responses are voluntary and
confidential. Survey and interview data will be combined with other
data for statistical purposes and reported only in aggregate or
statistical form.
Estimate of Burden: Public reporting burden for this data
collection is estimated to vary by the type of respondent. Responses to
the Survey of WIC participants are estimated to average 30 minutes.
Responses from WIC participants who did not pick up their WIC vouchers
are estimated at 5 minutes, on average, for a screening interview and
an average of 90 minutes for the focus group session. The Survey of
Food Prices will involve an estimated 15 minutes of time from the store
cashier for scanning. Responses by local agency WIC staff are estimated
to total 60 minutes, on average. The estimates include time for
listening to instructions, gathering data needed, and responding to
questionnaire or interview/discussion items.
Respondents: Participants in the local WIC agency staff, and WIC-
authorized food store cashiers in six selected States.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 2,052 in total: 1,200 active WIC
participants, 600 WIC participants who failed to pick up their
vouchers, 72 WIC participants for focus groups, 18 local WIC agency
staff, and 162 food store cashiers.
Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: Total of 816.5 hours.
Survey of WIC Participants: 600 hours, Screener Survey for Focus
Groups: 50 hours, Focus Groups: 108 hours, Local Agency Interview: 18
hours, and Survey of Food Prices and Item Availability: 40.5 hours.
Copies of the information to be collected can be obtained from Phil R.
Kaufman, Food Markets Branch, Food and Rural Economics Division,
Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1800 M. St.,
NW, Room N2118, Washington, D.C. 20036-5801, 202-694-5376.
Comments
Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of
the Department, including whether the information will have practical
utility; (b) the accuracy of the Agency's estimate of the burden of the
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance the quality,
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (d) ways to
minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are
to respond, such as through the use of appropriate automated,
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or
other forms of information technology. Comments should be sent to the
address stated in the preamble. All responses to this notice will be
considered and included in the request for OMB approval. All comments
will also become a matter of public record.
Dated: June 22, 2000.
Betsey Kuhn,
Director, Food and Rural Economics Division.
[FR Doc. 00-16255 Filed 6-27-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-18-P