Content created by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Division
System Name: Health Manpower Inventories and Surveys, HHS/OASH/NCHS.
Security Classification: None.
System Location(s): National Center for Health Statistics, Presidential Building, rm. 1140, Centers for Disease Control, 6525 Belcrest Road, Hyattsville, Maryland 20782.
Categories of Individuals Covered by the System: Individuals trained in specific health occupations, such as dentists, nurses, pharmacists, optometrists, dental hygienists, and other providers of health care services.
Categories of Records in the System: Records containing information on educational attainment, place of education, activity status, place and setting of employment or practice, place of residence, date of birth, sex, and marital status.
Authority for Maintenance of the System: Public Health Service Act, section 306(b) (42 U.S.C. 242k).
Purpose(s): The data are used for statistical purposes only. Uses within the Department include the preparation of aggregated data in the form of statistical tables for publication, analysis, and interpretation to meet legislative mandates of the Public Health Service Act, section 306 (42 U.S.C. 242k), such as an annual report on health resources, including a description and analysis of the statistics included under section 306(b)(1)(G). In addition, probability samples of individuals are selected by NCHS for statistical research purposes. Tables, magnetic tapes, and statistical samples of individuals are provided for statistical purposes only to the Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration, for its use in determining health manpower scarcity areas, for loan forgiveness, and developing and evaluating educational and training programs for health manpower.
Routine Uses of Records Maintained in the System, Including Categories of Users and the Purposes of such Uses: The data are made available to Health Systems Agencies and the State Agency designated under the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C 300 l and m) for statistical purposes only for developing and evaluating health plans.
The data are also disseminated for the purpose of statistical research and analysis outside DHHS in forms which do not permit the identification of individuals, such as publication of statistical tables, specially requested tables, and public use magnetic tapes. These are communicated to interested persons outside DHHS, such as Members of Congress, other executive branch agencies, professional associations, universities, State, cities, private foundations, etc. The statistical summaries are used by health manpower researchers, legislators statisticians and concerned citizens to evaluate the Nation's health manpower resources, make determinations on needs for legislation, new health manpower training programs, and the like.
The Department occasionally contracts with a private firm for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, aggregating or otherwise refining records in the system. Relevant records are disclosed to such a contractor. The contractor is required to maintain Privacy Act safeguards with respect to such records.
Records may be disclosed to student volunteers, individuals working under a personal services contract, and other individuals performing functions for PHS who do not technically have the status of agency employees, if they need the records in the performance of their agency functions.
Policies and Practices for Storing, Retrieving, Accessing, Retaining, and Disposing of Records in the System—
Storage: Paper files and magnetic tape.
Retrievability: Name and address, date of the inventory or survey, and other identifiers permit the retrieval of a computer record of the individual's information contained on magnetic tape. Original records of information are reviewed by the contractor and/or National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) staff for accuracy and edited, and data with personal identifier (such as name and address) are transferred to magnetic tape. The records are then matched by personal identifiers to produce an unduplicated file of individuals in a health occupation.
Safeguards: Measures to prevent unauthorized disclosures are implemented as appropriate for the particular records maintained. NCHS and its contractors implement personnel, physical, and procedural safeguards as follows:
1. Authorized users: Persons authorized and needing to use the records, including project directors, contract officers, interviewers, analysts, statisticians, statistical clerks, and data entry personnel on the staffs of the Center and the contractors.
2. Physical safeguards: The manual portions of the records are stored in locked files or offices when not in use. The automated records and the computer equipment are in secured areas with fire extinguishers and sprinkler system. Access to the buildings in which the manual and the automated records are stored is controlled by special entry devices and 24-hour security guards.
3. Procedural safeguards: All employees of NCHS and contractor personnel with access to NCHS records are required, as a condition of employment, to sign an affidavit binding them to nondisclosure of individually identifiable information; periodic training sessions are conducted to reinforce the confidentiality restrictions. Data stored in computers are accessed through the use of passwords/keywords known only to the principal investigators and authorized personnel. These passwords/keywords are changed frequently.
Contractors who maintain records in the system are instructed to make no further disclosure of the records. Privacy Act requirements are specifically included in contracts for survey and research activities related to this system. The HHS project directors, contract officers, and project officers oversee compliance with these requirements.
These safeguards are in accordance with chapter 45-13, "Safeguarding Records Contained in Systems of Records," of the HHS General Administration Manual; supplementary chapter PHS.hf: 45-13; Part 6, "ADP Systems Security," of the HHS ADP Systems Manual; the National Bureau of Standards of Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS Pub. 41 and FIPS Pub. 312); and the NCHS Staff Manual on Confidentiality.
Retention and Disposal: The original records are retained in the offices of national professional associations and/or State boards of licensure, or the NCHS data processing facility until the process of conversion to magnetic tape and verification of information is completed and a subsequent inventory or survey is initiated. For these reasons the records may be retained for a period of up to five years before disposal.
System Manager(s) and Address(es): Director, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control, Presidential Building, Rm. 1140, 6525 Belcrest Road, Hyattsville, Maryland 20782.
Notification Procedure: To determine if a record exists, write to the System Manager at the above address.
Record Access Procedures: Access to record systems which have been granted an exemption from the Privacy Act access requirement may be made at the discretion of the System Manager. Positive identification is required from anyone seeking access. Appeal of access refusal may be made to the Director, Office of Management, Public Health Service. An individual may also request an accounting of disclosure of his/her record, if any.
Contesting Record Procedures: If access has been granted, contact the System Manager and reasonably identify the record, specify the information being contested, and state the corrective action sought, with supporting information to show how the record is inaccurate, incomplete, untimely, or irrelevant.
Record Source Categories: Health practitioners, state licensing agencies, or professional associations.
Systems Exempted from Certain Provisions of the Act: With respect to this system of records, exemption has been granted from the requirements contained in subsections 552a(c)(3), (d)(1) through (4), and (e)(4)(G) and (H) in accordance with the provisions of subsection 552a(k)(4) of the Privacy Act of 1974. The reasons that the system has been exempted is that this system contains only records required by statute to be maintained and used solely as statistical records. The exemption was published in the Federal Register, October 8, 1975, page 47413.