Privacy Act System Notice 09-20-0163

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System name: Applicants for National Center for Health Statistics Technical Assistance. HHS/CDC/NCHS.

Security classification: None.

System location: National Center for Health Statistics, Coordinating Center for Health Information and Service (CCHIS), Prince George’s Metro IV Bldg., Room 7209, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3311 Toledo Road, Hyattsville, MD 20782.

Categories of individuals covered by the system: Applicants for and students of concentrated, intensive short-term courses related to health statistics. They are employees of Federal, State, and local governments and other persons in health-related fields engaged in collecting and analyzing vital and health statistics.

Categories of records in the system: Applicant forms which contain brief education information, current employment, and courses in which applicant is interested.

Authority for maintenance of the system: Public Health Service Act, Section 304(b)(1)(42 U.S.C. 242b), authorizing the Secretary to use resources to provide technical assistance.

Purpose(s): To set up courses, notify applicants of acceptance or non-acceptance, and acceptance for a future course if necessary. Used exclusively within the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Routine uses of records maintained in the system, including categories of users and the purposes of such uses: Disclosure may be made to a congressional office from the record of an individual in response to an inquiry from the congressional office made at the request of that individual.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may disclose information from this system of records to the Department of Justice, or to a court or other tribunal, when: (a) HHS, or any component thereof; or (b) any HHS employee in his or her official capacity; or (c) any HHS employee in his or her individual capacity where the Department of Justice (or HHS, where it is authorized to do so) has agreed to represent the employee; or (d) the United States or any agency thereof where HHS determines that the litigation is likely to affect HHS or any of its components, is a party to litigation or has an interest in such litigation, and HHS determines that the use of such records by the Department of Justice, the court or other tribunal is relevant and necessary to the litigation and would help in the effective representation of the governmental party, provided, however, that in each case, HHS determines that such disclosure is compatible with the purpose for which the records were collected.

Policies and practices for storing, retrieving, accessing, retaining, and disposing of records in the system:

Storage: Alphabetically filed in file cabinet.

Retrievability: Retrieved by name.

Safeguards: Measures to prevent unauthorized disclosures are implemented as appropriate for the particular records maintained. NCHS implements personnel, physical and procedural safeguards as follows:

1. Authorized Users: Records are used only by staff administering the technical assistance programs.

2. Physical Safeguards: Building security in Hyattsville, MD includes the use of identification badges by employees and a card key system used to enter NCHS occupied space. Files are kept in locked filing cabinets.

3. Procedural Safeguards: Users of individually identified data protect information from public scrutiny, and only specifically authorized personnel may be admitted to the record storage area. NCHS employees who maintain records are instructed to check with the system manager prior to making disclosures of data.

4. Implementation Guidelines: These safeguards are in accordance with guidelines in Chapter 45-13 of the HHS General Administration Manual, entitled "Safeguarding Records Contained in System of Records" and the NCHS Staff Manual on Confidentiality.

Retention and disposal: Records are retained and disposed of in accordance with the CDC Records Control Schedule for NCHS records. Records are retained for various periods of time depending upon how useful they are considered to be, in accordance with NCHS policy. Some records may be maintained indefinitely. Disposal methods include burning or shredding hard copy records.

System manager(s) and address: Director, National Center for Health Statistics, CCHIS,  Prince George’s Metro IV Bldg., Rm. 7209, MS P08, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3311 Toledo Road, Hyattsville, MD 20782.

Notification procedure: To determine if a record exists, write to the system manager at the addressed specified above.

Record access procedures: Same as notification procedures. Positive identification is required from anyone seeking access. Requesters should also reasonably specify the record contents being sought. Individuals may also request an accounting of disclosures that have been made of his or her record, if any.

Contesting record procedures: Contact the official at the address specified under System Manager above, reasonably identify the record, specify the information being contested, the corrective action sought, and your reasons for requesting the correction, along with supporting information to show how the record is inaccurate, incomplete, untimely, or irrelevant.

Record source categories: Voluntary submission of application form by persons wishing to take the courses.

Systems exempted from certain provisions of the act: None.

[Federal Register: November 24, 1986 (Volume 51, Number 226)] [Notices] [Page 42368-42369] (PDF - 584 Kb)