February 2010, Issue VII

NCHS Policy Watch is designed to provide regular updates on congressional and administrative policies that impact NCHS and summarize implications for the broader health community, including researchers, policy analysts, practitioners, industry representatives, patient advocates, and decision makers in the public and private sectors that use NCHS data.

FY 2010 Budget Passed into Law

On December 16, the president signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of FY 2010. The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) received $138.7 million, a $14 million (11 percent) increase over FY 2009. With additional funding, the agency will be able to prevent additional cuts to NHIS and NHANES and is in the initial stages of restoring its core surveys and data collection activities. NCHS says additional funding will be needed to continue these core activities, restore and implement new data collection and analysis initiatives, and modernize its systems to increase efficiency, interoperability, and security.

Release of FY 2011 Budget

President Obama released his FY 2011 budget February 1, 2010. Despite a top line freeze on domestic nondefense discretionary spending, the President proposes a significant $23 million (16.5 percent) increase for NCHS. The President proposes that this funding be used to support and enhance seminal surveys and data collections systems, improve data access and dissemination, and strengthen data collection methodologies.

According to the budget justification prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for congressional appropriators, this $23 million increase would fully fund all surveys and sample sizes at expanded levels, including the purchase of data currently collected by vital statistics jurisdictions, for a full 12 months within the calendar year. Specifically, the funding would allow NCHS to:

• Expand the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) from 35,000 households to 43,000 households to allow for state and community estimates for approximately 30 of the largest states and the large metropolitan areas using $8 million of the proposed increase.
• Continue to conduct the National Health Care Surveys, which are nationally representative health care provider-based surveys. Specifically, the budget provides $3.5 million for the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey to support an increased sample size of physician and patient records to allow for some state-level data.
• Collect at least a full 12 months of core birth and death data from vital records jurisdictions through the National Vital Statistics System. In addition, the President requests $8 million to support states and territories in adopting the 2003 standard birth certificate and/or implementing Web-based electronic birth records. The budget request also includes $3 million to help “gradually phase in” electronic death records (EDRs) using a 50-50 cost sharing mechanism. Under this new program, states would be invited to submit proposals for the initiation or expansion of EDRs; awards would be made based on criteria developed by NCHS.
• Continue to conduct the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) on a nationally representative sample of 5,000 individuals from 15 U.S. cities.

With a proposed budget of $162 million in FY 2011, NCHS would work to improve data access and dissemination by making data available in more easily accessible forms (data briefs, pre-tabulated tables, and interactive data warehouses), providing more detailed charts and tables on health status and its determinants, and providing better mechanisms for researchers to access the full range of data collected by NCHS while protecting respondents’ confidentiality and privacy. NCHS would also make improvements in data collection methodology and dissemination to provide more accurate and timely data.

The Friends of NCHS—a voluntary alliance of organizations that support the mission of NHCS and advocate on its behalf—will be working over the next several months to ensure that the President’s vision for NCHS is realized, seeking from congressional appropriators the $162 million included in his request. For more information about the Friends and its activities, please contact its Washington representative, Emily Holubowich, at eholubowich@dc-crd.com.

Training Opportunity

The Mid-Atlantic Public Health Training Center and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will offer a training session on Wednesday, February 17 titled, “The Revised U.S. Standard Birth Certificate: Opportunities and Challenges.” Speakers include:

• Isabelle Horn, Dr.P.H., Director, Vital Statistics Administration
  Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene
• Bernard Guyer, M.D., M.P.H., Zanvyl Kreiger Professor of Children’s Health
  Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

The event will take place from 12:00–1:30 p.m. EST at Johns Hopkins University, Sheldon Hall, W1214, Wolfe Street Building. A live webcast is also available through: jhsph.edu/maphtc/training_events/events_calendar.html. For more information, please call the Mid Atlantic Public Health Training Center at 443-287-7833 or email them at maptc@jhsph.edu.

Save the Date and RSVP

Dr. Ed Sondik, director of NCHS will address the NCHS user community on February 23 at 10:00 a.m. regarding NCHS’s FY 2010 activities and its FY 2011 budget request. Immediately following Dr. Sondik’s remarks, members of the Friends of NCHS are invited to participate in the annual business meeting to discuss the advocacy strategy for FY 2011. To RSVP for this meeting, please email april.falconi@academyhealth.org.

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