HHS Fiscal Year 2017 Freedom of Information Annual Report

I. Basic Information Regarding Report

1. Name, title, address, and telephone number of person(s) to be contacted with questions about the Report:

Michael S. Marquis
Director, Freedom of Information/Privacy Acts Division
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs
United States Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Suite 729H
Washington D.C. 20201
(202) 690-7453

2. Electronic Address for this Report on the World Wide Web:

https://www.hhs.gov/foia/reports/annual-reports/index.html

3. Address for Paper Copies of this Report

Contact Michael Marquis or Michael Bell, FOIA Public Liaison, at the address or telephone number listed above, or at: https://www.hhs.gov/foia/contacts/index.html

II. Making a FOIA Request

1. HHS and Operating Division Freedom of Information Officers/FOIA Requester Service Centers:

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):

Website: https://www.hhs.gov/foia
Freedom of Information Act Officer
Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Suite 729H
Washington D.C. 20201
Phone: (202) 690-7453

Administration for Children and Families (ACF):

Website: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/freedom-of-information-act
Freedom of Information Act Officer
Mary E. Switzer Building
330 C Street, S.W., Room 4004
Washington, D.C. 20201
Phone: 202-401-9215

Administration for Community Living (ACL):

Website: https://www.acl.gov/Site_Utilities/FOIA/index.aspx
Freedom of Information Act Officer
Administration for Community Living
Washington, D.C. 20201
Phone: 202-357-3540

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ):

Website: https://www.ahrq.gov/policy/foia/index.html
Freedom of Information Act Officer
Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Suite 729H
Washington D.C. 20201
Phone: (202) 260-6933

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

Website: https://www.cdc.gov/od/foia/
Freedom of Information Act Officer
1600 Clifton Road, N.E., MS D-54
Atlanta, Georgia 30333
Phone: 770-488-6277

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS):

Website: https://www.cms.hhs.gov/foia/
Freedom of Information Act Officer
North Building, Room N2-20-06
7500 Security Boulevard
Baltimore, Maryland 21244
Phone: 410-786-5353

Food and Drug Administration (FDA):

Website: https://www.fda.gov/RegulatoryInformation/foi/
Freedom of Information Act Officer
Division of Freedom of Information
Office the Executive Secretariat, OC
5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1035
Rockville, Maryland 20857
Phone: 301-796-3900

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA):

Website: https://www.hrsa.gov/foia/
Freedom of Information Act Officer
5600 Fishers Lane, Room 13-N82
Rockville, Maryland 20857
Phone: 301-443-2865

Indian Health Service (IHS):

Website: https://www.ihs.gov/AdminMngrResources/FOIA/
Freedom of Information Act Officer
5600 Fishers Lane, Mailstop 09E70
Rockville, Maryland 20857
Phone: 301-443-1116

National Institutes of Health (NIH):

Website: https://www.nih.gov/icd/od/foia/
Freedom of Information Act Officer
Building 31, Room 5B35
31 Center Drive
Bethesda, Maryland 20892-2107
Phone: 301-496-5633

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), including the U.S. Public Health Service:

Website: https://www.hhs.gov/foia
Freedom of Information Act Officer
Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Suite 729H
Washington D.C. 20201
Phone: (202) 260-6933

Office of Inspector General (OIG):

Website: https://oig.hhs.gov/foia/
Freedom of Information Act Officer
Cohen Building, Suite 1062
330 Independence Ave, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
Phone: 202-619-2541

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA):

Website: https://www.samhsa.gov/foia/
Freedom of Information Act Officer
5600 Fishers Lane, Room 18E73D
Rockville, Maryland 20857
Phone: 240-276-2000

2. Brief description of why some requests are not granted: Documents requested were protected by an exemption and release would have caused harm to the interest protected by the exemption. Information withheld may include home addresses and phone numbers, social security numbers, medical records, proprietary business records, investigatory records, that if released may interfere with open investigations, and drafts of documents.

3. HHS FOIA Regulations:

https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=790457d918cfcfebe483689ef4ac40bf&mc=true&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title45/45cfr5_main_02.tpl

III. Agency Component Abbreviations

Component Abbreviation	Component Name
OS	Office of the Secretary
ACF	Administration for Children and Families
ACL	Administration for Community Living
CDC	Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
CMS	Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
FDA	Food and Drug Administration
HRSA	Health Resources and Services Administration
IHS	Indian Health Service
NIH	National Institutes of Health
OASH	Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health
OIG	Office of Inspector General
SAMHSA	Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

IV. Exemption 3 Statutes

Statute	Type of Information Withheld	Case Citation	Agency / Component	Number of Times Relied upon by Agency / Component	Total Number of Times Relied upon by Agency Overall
5 U.S.C. app. § 107(a) (Ethics in Government Act of 1978)	Financial disclosure information pertaining to certain government employees	Meyerhoff v. EPA, 958 F.2d 1498, 1500-02 (9th Cir. 1992); Seife v. NIH, 874 F. Supp. 2d 248, 254 (S.D.N.Y. 2012); Concepcion v. FBI, 606 F. Supp. 2d 14, 33 (D.D.C. 2009), renewed motion for summary judgment granted in part on other grounds, 699 F. Supp. 2d 106 (D.D.C. 2010); Glascoe v. DOJ, No. 04-0486, 2005 WL 1139269, at *1 (D.D.C. May 15, 2005).	OASH	1	1
21 U.S.C. § 331(j) (Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act)	Certain information "concerning any method or process which as a trade secret is entitled to protection"	Anderson v. HHS, 907 F.2d 936, 950-51 (10th Cir. 1990).	CMS	1	27
			FDA	26
25 U.S.C. § 1675(g)	Medical quality assurance records		IHS	7	7
35 U.S.C. § 209(f)	Plans of a licensee for development or marketing of a federally owned invention		NIH	1	1
41 U.S.C. § 253b(m)(1) (currently at 41 U.S.C. § 4702)	Contractor proposals that are in the possession or control of an executive agency and that have not been set forth or incorporated by reference into contracts	Sinkfield v. HUD, No. 10-885, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35233, at *13-15 (S.D. Ohio Mar. 15, 2012); Margolin v. NASA, No. 09-CV-00421, 2011 WL 1303221, at *6 (D. Nev. Mar. 31, 2011); Hornbostel v. U.S. Dep't of the Interior, 305 F. Supp. 2d 21, 30 (D.D.C. 2003), summary affirmance granted, No. 03-5257, 2004 WL 1900562 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 25, 2004).	CDC	4	42
			CMS	29
			FDA	3
			HRSA	1
			NIH	2
			OASH	3
42 U.S.C. § 242m(d)	Identifiable information for certain research and statistical activities		CDC	12	12
42 U.S.C. § 262a(h)	Bioterrorism-related information		CDC	10	14
			OIG	4
42 U.S.C. § 300aa-12(d)(4)(A) (National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986)	"Except as provided in subparagraph (B), information submitted to a special master or the court in a proceeding on a petition [for compensation under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program] . . . without the express written consent of the person who submitted the information"	Long v. DOJ, 778 F. Supp. 2d 222, 234 (N.D.N.Y. 2011)	HRSA	3	3
42 U.S.C. § 653(j)(7)(E)(ii)	Certain information in the Federal Parent Locator Service	N/A	ACF	1	1
42 U.S.C. § 1320c-9(a)	Certain information related to Medicare End Stage Renal Disease provided to an organization not considered a Federal Agency for FOIA purposes		CMS	2	2
42 U.S.C. § 1395bb(b)	Information related to Accreditation Survey Information		CMS	1	1
42 U.S.C. § 11137(b)	Adverse reports of a health practitioner's conduct		HRSA	2	2
5 U.S.C. app. 3 § 7(b)	Name of employees who provide information or complaints to the Inspector General		OIG	29	29
42 U.S.C. § 653(l)(1)	Information in the Federal Parent Locator Service	N/A	ACF	2	2

V. A. FOIA Requests -- Received, Processed and Pending FOIA Requests

Agency / Component	Number of Requests Pending as of Start of Fiscal Year	Number of Requests Received in Fiscal Year	Number of Requests Processed in Fiscal Year	Number of Requests Pending as of End of Fiscal Year
OS	224	1,293	770	747
ACF	253	244	332	165
ACL	3	28	30	1
CDC	416	1,040	1,295	161
CMS	2,051	18,016	18,142	1,925
FDA	2,489	11,062	10,881	2,670
HRSA	42	247	249	40
IHS	34	143	152	25
NIH	147	1,389	1,246	290
OASH	46	340	281	105
OIG	31	1,043	1,035	39
SAMHSA	30	133	134	29
AGENCY OVERALL	5,766	34,978	34,547	6,197

Due to data entry delays in reporting the correct ending / beginning pending case counts, the following changes are reported for the HHS components:

ACF reported 249 at the end of FY 2016, 253 at the beginning of FY 2017
CDC reported 424 at the end of FY 2016, 416 at the beginning of FY 2017
CMS reported 2,011 at the end of FY 2016, 2,051 at the beginning of FY 2017
FDA reported 2,472 at the end of FY 2016, 2,489 at the beginning of FY 2017
OIG reported 33 at the end of FY 2016, 31 at the beginning of FY 2017
OS reported 223 at the end of FY 2016, 224 at the beginning of FY 2017

V. B. (1) Disposition of FOIA Requests - All Processed Requests

V. B. (2) Disposition of FOIA Requests -- "Other" Reasons for "Full Denials Based on Reasons Other Than Exemptions"

Agency / Component	Description of "Other" Reasons for Denials from Chart B(1)	Number of Times "Other" Reason Was Relied Upon	TOTAL
ACF	Litigation	1	1
CMS	Unable to locate requester	40	42
	Aggregated request	2
IHS	Directed Requester to Publicly Available Information	16	16
OIG	N/A		0
OS	N/A	0	0
ACL	N/A	0	0
HRSA	N/A	0	0
NIH	N/A	0	0
OASH	N/A	0	0
SAMHSA	Unable to locate requester	1	1
AGENCY OVERALL			60

V. B. (3). Disposition of FOIA Requests - Number of Times Exemptions Applied

VI. A. Administrative Appeals of Initial Determinations of FOIA Requests -- Received, Processed, and Pending Administrative Appeals

Agency / Component	Number of Appeals Pending as of Start of Fiscal Year	Number of Appeals Received in Fiscal Year	Number of Appeals Processed in Fiscal Year	Number of Appeals Pending as of End of Fiscal Year
OS	212	154	118	248
CMS	181	62	123	120
AGENCY OVERALL	393	216	241	368

CMS reported 174 at the end of FY 2016, 181 at the beginning of FY 2017

VI. B. Disposition of Administrative Appeals -- All Processed Appeals

Agency / Component	Number Affirmed on Appeal	Number Partially Affirmed & Partially Reversed/Remanded on Appeal	Number Completely Reversed/Remanded on Appeal	Number of Appeals Closed for Other Reasons	TOTAL
OS	15	11	7	85	118
CMS	1	0	1	121	123
AGENCY OVERALL	16	11	8	206	241

VI. C. (1). Reasons for Denial on Appeal -- Number of Times Exemptions Applied

VI. C. (2). Reasons for Denial on Appeal -- Reasons Other Than Exemptions

VI. C. (3). Reasons for Denial on Appeal -- "Other" Reasons

Agency / Component	Description of "Other" Reasons for Denial on Appeal from Chart C(2)	Number of Times "Other" Reason Was Relied Upon	TOTAL
CMS	No component response to adjudicate	1	1
OS	N/A	0	0
AGENCY OVERALL			1

VI. C. (4). Response Time for Administrative Appeals

Agency / Component	Median Number of Days	Average Number of Days	Lowest Number of Days	Highest Number of Days
OS	193.00	301.91	<1	1,202.00
CMS	376.00	391.00	3.00	963.00
AGENCY OVERALL	287.00	347.38	<1	1,202.00

VI. C. (5). Ten Oldest Pending Administrative Appeals

VII. A. Processed Requests - Response Time for All Processed Perfected Requests

VII. B. Processed Requests - Response Time for Perfected Requests in Which Information Was Granted

VII.C. PROCESSED SIMPLE REQUESTS -- RESPONSE TIME IN DAY INCREMENTS

VII.C. PROCESSED COMPLEX REQUESTS -- RESPONSE TIME IN DAY INCREMENTS

VII.C. PROCESSED REQUESTS GRANTED EXPEDITED PROCESSING -- RESPONSE TIME IN DAY INCREMENTS

VII.D. PENDING REQUESTS -- ALL PENDING PERFECTED REQUESTS

VII.E. PENDING REQUESTS -- TEN OLDEST PENDING PERFECTED REQUESTS

VIII.A. REQUESTS FOR EXPEDITED PROCESSING

Agency / Component	Number Granted	Number Denied	Median Number of Days to Adjudicate	Average Number of Days to Adjudicate	Number Adjudicated Within Ten Calendar Days
OS	18	21	10	21	20
ACF	0	1	1	1	1
ACL	0	0	N/A	N/A	N/A
CDC	8	69	1	0.79	76
CMS	58	79	4	10	112
FDA	0	494	6	5.8	491
HRSA	0	3	1	1	3
IHS	0	0	N/A	N/A	N/A
NIH	3	18	4.5	6	6
OASH	0	0	N/A	N/A	N/A
OIG	0	58	2	1	58
SAMHSA	0	0	N/A	N/A	N/A
AGENCY OVERALL	87	743	5	6.39	767

VIII.B. Requests for Fee Waiver

Agency / Component	Number Granted	Number Denied	Median Number of Days to Adjudicate	Average Number of Days to Adjudicate
OS	11	1	1.5	2.33
ACF	0	0	0	0
ACL	0	0	N/A	N/A
CDC	17	90	1	22.51
CMS	46	41	3	9
FDA	1	12	4	10.6
HRSA	0	0	N/A	N/A
IHS	0	0	N/A	N/A
NIH	0	7	3	4
OASH	0	0	N/A	N/A
OIG	0	64	2	2
SAMHSA	0	0	N/A	N/A
AGENCY OVERALL	75	215	2	12.11

IX. FOIA Personnel and Costs

X. Fees Collected for Processing Requests

Agency / Component	Total Amount of Fees Collected	Percentage of Total Costs
OS	$0.00	0.00%
ACF	$0.00	0.00%
ACL	$0.00	0.00%
CDC	$102,575.39	4.05%
CMS	$62,577.00	0.71%
FDA	$392,017.45	1.15%
HRSA	$8,975.10	1.76%
IHS	$1,104.00	0.32%
NIH	$33,783.00	1.07%
OASH	$0.00	0.00%
OIG	$2,250.00	0.76%
SAMHSA	$0.00	0.00%
AGENCY OVERALL	$603,281.94	1.15%

XI.A. Number of Times Subsection Used

Agency / Component	Number of Times Subsection Used
OS	0
ACF	0
ACL	0
CDC	0
CMS	0
FDA	0
HRSA	0
IHS	0
NIH	0
OASH	0
OIG	0
SAMHSA	0
AGENCY OVERALL	0

XI.B. Number of Subsection Postings

Agency / Component	Number of Records Posted by the FOIA Office	Number of Records Posted by Program Offices
OS	3	0
ACF	3	3,686
ACL	0	0
CDC	0	0
CMS	3	33
FDA	0	15,329
HRSA	0	50
IHS	0	0
NIH	880	33
OASH	0	0
OIG	0	215
SAMHSA	0	0
AGENCY OVERALL	889	19,346

XII.A. Backlogs of FOIA Requests and Administrative Appeals

Agency / Component	Number of Backlogged Requests as of End of Fiscal Year	Number of Backlogged Appeals as of End of Fiscal Year
OS	629	235
ACF	150	N/A
ACL	0	N/A
CDC	87	N/A
CMS	1,081	116
FDA	2,279	N/A
HRSA	26	N/A
IHS	20	N/A
NIH	152	N/A
OASH	72	N/A
OIG	27	N/A
SAMHSA	22	N/A
AGENCY OVERALL	4,545	351

XII.B. CONSULTATIONS ON FOIA REQUESTS -- RECEIVED, PROCESSED, AND PENDING CONSULTATIONS

Agency / Component	Number of Consultations Received from Other Agencies that were Pending at the Agency as of Start of the Fiscal Year	Number of Consultations Received from Other Agencies During the Fiscal Year	Number of Consultations Received from Other Agencies that were Processed by the Agency During the Fiscal Year	Number of Consultations Received from Other Agencies that were Pending at the Agency as of End of the Fiscal Year
OS	10	55	41	24
ACF	0	2	0	2
ACL	0	0	0	0
CDC	4	13	17	0
CMS	0	0	0	0
FDA	2	8	10	0
HRSA	0	0	0	0
IHS	0	0	0	0
NIH	0	8	5	3
OASH	0	0	0	0
OIG	0	11	10	1
SAMHSA	0	0	0	0
AGENCY OVERALL	16	97	83	30

Due to data entry delays in reporting the correct ending / beginning pending consultation counts, the following changes are reported for the HHS components:
OS reported 9 pending at the end of FY 2016, 10 at the beginning of FY 2017
CDC reported 0 at the end of FY 2016, 4 at the beginning of FY 2017

XII.C. CONSULTATIONS ON FOIA REQUESTS -- TEN OLDEST CONSULTATIONS RECEIVED FROM OTHER AGENCIES AND PENDING AT THE AGENCY

XII.D.(1). COMPARISON OF NUMBERS OF REQUESTS FROM PREVIOUS AND CURRENT ANNUAL REPORT -- REQUESTS RECEIVED AND PROCESSED

Agency / Component	NUMBER OF REQUESTS RECEIVED		NUMBER OF REQUESTS PROCESSED
	Number Received During Fiscal Year from Last Year's Annual Report	Number Received During Fiscal Year from Current Annual Report	Number Processed During Fiscal Year from Last Year's Annual Report	Number Processed During Fiscal Year from Current Annual Report
OS	985	1,293	1,034	770
ACF	464	244	749	332
ACL	22	28	20	30
CDC	1,113	1,040	1,443	1,295
CMS	17,917	18,016	19,021	18,142
FDA	10,374	11,062	10,611	10,881
HRSA	305	247	318	249
IHS	156	143	161	152
NIH	1,324	1,389	1,266	1,246
OASH	392	340	399	281
OIG	1,015	1,043	989	1,035
SAMHSA	158	133	177	134
AGENCY OVERALL	34,225	34,978	36,188	34,547

Due to data entry delays in reporting the correct number of request received and processed during FY 2016, the following changes are reported:
CDC reported 1120 received and 1445 processed in FY 2016 - the updated numbers are reflected in the table above.

XII.D.(2). COMPARISON OF NUMBERS OF REQUESTS FROM PREVIOUS AND CURRENT ANNUAL REPORT -- BACKLOGGED REQUESTS

Agency / Component	Number of Backlogged Requests as of End of the Fiscal Year from Previous Annual Report	Number of Backlogged Requests as of End of the Fiscal Year from Current Annual Report
OS	195	629
ACF	242	150
ACL	0	0
CDC	374	87
CMS	1,271	1,081
FDA	2,248	2,279
HRSA	30	26
IHS	27	20
NIH	64	152
OASH	30	72
OIG	17	27
SAMHSA	21	22
AGENCY OVERALL	4,519	4,545

XII.E.(1). COMPARISON OF NUMBERS OF ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS FROM PREVIOUS AND CURRENT ANNUAL REPORT -- APPEALS RECEIVED AND PROCESSED

Agency / Component	NUMBER OF APPEALS RECEIVED		NUMBER OF APPEALS PROCESSED
	Number Received During Fiscal Year from Last Year's Annual Report	Number Received During Fiscal Year from Current Annual Report	Number Processed During Fiscal Year from Last Year's Annual Report	Number Processed During Fiscal Year from Current Annual Report
OS	180	154	157	118
CMS	82	62	175	123
AGENCY OVERALL	262	216	332	241

XII.E.(2). COMPARISON OF NUMBERS OF ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS FROM PREVIOUS AND CURRENT ANNUAL REPORT -- BACKLOGGED APPEALS

Agency / Component	Number of Backlogged Appeals as of End of the Fiscal Year from Previous Annual Report	Number of Backlogged Appeals as of End of the Fiscal Year from Current Annual Report
OS	206	235
CMS	169	116
AGENCY OVERALL	375	351