Proposed Collection: Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program; Request for Public Comment: 30-Day Notice

In compliance with Section 3507(a)(1)(D) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, for opportunity for public comment on proposed information collection projects, the Indian Health Service (IHS) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve the information collection list below. This proposed information collection project was published in the August 3, 2005, Federal Register (70 FR 44662) and allowed 60 days for public comment. No public comment was received in response to the notice. The purpose of this notice is to allow 30 days for public comment to be submitted to OMB. Proposed Collection: Title: 0917-0014, ``Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program''. Type of Information Collection Request: Extention of a currently approved collection which expires December 31, 2005. Form Number: No reporting forms required. Need and Use of Information Collection: The IHS Loan Payment Program (LRP) identifies health professionals with pre-existing financial obligations for education expenses that meet program criteria and who are qualified and willing to serve at, often remote, IHS health care facilities. Under the program, eligible health professionals sign a contract under which the IHS agrees to repay part or all of their indebtedness for professional training education. In exchange, the health professionals agree to serve for a specified period of time in IHS health care facilities. Eligible health professionals that wish to apply must submit an application to participate in the program. The application requests personal, demographic and educational training information, including information on the educational loans of the individual for which repayment is being requested (i.e., date, amount, account number, purpose of each loan, interest rate, the current balance, etc). The data collected is needed and used to evaluate applicant eligibility; rank and prioritize applicants by specialty; assign applicants to IHS health care facilities; determine payment amounts and schedules for paying the lending institutions; and to provide data and statistics for program management review and analysis. Affected Public: Individual and households. Type of Respondents: Individuals. Table 1 below provides the following: Types of data collection instruments, estimated number of respondents, number of responses per respondent, annual number of responses, average burden hour per response, and total annual burden hour.