FPAR 2.0 Frequently Asked Questions

OPA considers the data elements final. OMB approved FPAR 2.0 data collection under OMB control number 0990-0479.

Every encounter record MUST contain the data corresponding to data elements required to upload encounter-level data including (1) Facility Identifier, (4) Patient Identifier, (5) Visit Date, (6) Birth Date, and (7) Sex. Files with missing values on any of these five data elements will not be accepted. 

All other data elements should be reported on each encounter if the data are collected and when clinically appropriate. The system will accept files with missing values on these data elements and missing data will be included in data quality reviews.

Please refer to the FPAR 2.0 valid values document for additional information about expected data. 

OPA encourages grantees who can report some (but not all) FPAR 2.0 data elements to submit any encounter-level FPAR 2.0 data available. Grantees will have two options for addressing incomplete data or data quality issues: 1) they can correct encounter-level data and resubmit the data via file upload, and 2) they can also edit the grantee-level tables produced by the FPAR 2.0 system to ensure totals for each table accurately represent services provided. Grantees who, for any reason, cannot submit FPAR 2.0 encounter-level data, should apply for a waiver so they can avail themselves of the alternate reporting option. Alternate reporting will consist of editing grantee-level tables to reflect aggregate data. 

Grantees must report response options as described in the FPAR 2.0 valid values spreadsheet. Please refer to the FPAR 2.0 valid values for reportable response options and for additional information about expected data.

Grantees can build their systems to collect any data elements they deem necessary and appropriate. For FPAR encounter-level reporting, grantees should submit only the data elements and FPAR 2.0 valid values.

Starting with calendar year 2022 data (2023 submission), CBE will no longer be collected in FPAR 2.0 due to changes in clinical guidance.

Grantees should provider their Type 2 National Provider Identifier (NPI2), which identifies a hospital or clinic, for this data element, when possible. Grantees can also choose to create a facility identifier. If grantees choose to create a facility identifier, grantees must ensure that the facility identifier is unique for each facility and is consistent across all records provided. OPA does not assign facility identifiers.

The Attending Physician NPI Provider should be that of the provider providing care to the client on the encounter date. The LOINC term is Attending Physician NPI Provider. OPA cannot modify this but recognizes that other providers besides physicians have NPI numbers. If the person providing family planning services has an NPI, whether they’re a physician or not, it should be reported. If the person who provided the family planning services does not have an NPI, the field should be left empty.

Grantees should report the role of the clinician providing care to the client on the encounter date. The current response options include a pre-existing list of provider roles that is also used for purposes other than FPAR reporting.

Currently, other types of providers cannot be included in the expected answer list for the Provider Role. Please submit one of the FPAR 2.0 valid values listed for Provider Role. Updates to the list of allowable responses may be considered in the future.

If grantees are concerned that the patient identifiers used by subrecipients are duplicated across subrecipients, they should append a forward slash (/) and the subrecipient name to the patient identifier. This modification enables the FPAR contractor to determine whether an encounter describes the same or different patients. Grantees should use the same modified identifier each year to ensure consistency in the records across years.

There are no requirements for the format of the patient identifier. The patient identifier is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a specific patient and is assigned by a specific organization (the assigning authority).

At this time, OPA allows for the use of a pseudo number/ID for the patient identifier. If grantees choose to use a pseudo ID for the patient identifier, they must ensure that:

1. Pseudo IDs are unique for each individual
2. They assign the same pseudo ID to the same individual across encounters each year to enable analysis of encounters over time.

Yes. Grantees must report Facility Identifier (Data Element 1), Patient Identifier (Data Element 4), Visit Date (Data Element 5), Birth Date (Data Element 6), and Sex (Data Element 7) for every family planning encounter to be able to upload the data. If an encounter-level file does not include any of these five data elements, the FPAR 2.0 system will reject the submission. 

OPA will not have access to birthdates. The contractor developing the FPAR 2.0 system will retain date of birth and other elements for one year after submission before they are destroyed. The FPAR 2.0 system will convert dates of birth to an age. It will also assign age 50 to all clients 50 years and older. OPA will only have access to summarized, de-identified data (such as age instead of date of birth).

The FPAR data elements and response options were designed to align with Interoperability Standards and EHR Certification requirements (United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) standards; ISA Standard Terminology). Currently FPAR 2.0 is accepting only male and female as responses for Data Element 7 (“Sex”). At this time, OPA’s annual National FPAR Summary Report presents analyses of certain family planning care variables based on sex. OPA will review the response options, value sets, and interoperability standards on an ongoing basis to identify future opportunities to enhance the allowable reporting options. 

Grantees can report options other than male and female using Data Element 43 (Gender Identity) to represent the client’s gender identity. For FPAR reporting, please map all data to the appropriate FPAR 2.0 valid value. 

If it is unclear whether the person is proficient in English and “Other” is listed as the primary language, grantees should not report a value for Data Element 8 (Limited English Proficiency). An individual may have a primary language other than English and may also be proficient in English. If it is known that the individual is not proficient in English, grantees should report the valid value that corresponds to “Not proficient in English” for Data Element 8 (Limited English Proficiency).

Response options for this data element are “Hispanic or Latino” or “Not Hispanic or Latino”. This term is used for reporting the ethnicity based on classifications provided by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity.

Race is the only multi-select data element. The CSV file should contain one column for each of the Race categories, which can each take a value of LA33-6 (for yes) and LA32-8 (for no). Please review the FPAR 2.0 Implementation Guide, FPAR 2.0 valid values, and sample files for additional guidance on reporting.

If clients select ‘multiracial’ AND indicate specific race selections (e.g., Asian, Black or African American, White) for race (Data Element 10), then please indicate “Yes” (LA33-6) for the identified race selections. However, if a client selects ‘multiracial’ but does not indicate specific race selections, then please report “Yes” (LA-33-6) for ‘Race – Unknown’, and “No” for all other specific race categories.

Grantees can leave the field blank for all clients who do not know or who are unwilling to report their income. However, grantees should report a non-negative integer if they are able to report annual household income for the client.

When reporting household size, grantees should ask clients to include themselves in the total number of people living in their household.

Please report only one insurance coverage type per encounter. The Insurance Coverage Type element is intended to determine clients’ access to comprehensive primary medical care. If a client has access to comprehensive primary medical care, please report one option that is most applicable to the clients’ insurance from the list of response options provided. For further guidance on reporting Insurance Coverage Type, please reference the Insurance Coverage Mapping Guidance document.

Grantees do not need to offer all response options as a selection option for subrecipients if response options are not applicable.

Grantees should report the appropriate FPAR 2.0 valid values file for each client in their encounter-level data. If a client is uninsured, select the response option that best applies to the client (e.g., pay, health spending account). If the insurance coverage type of the client is unknown, then leave the data element blank for the client.

When grantees submit their encounter-level data, the FPAR 2.0 system will automatically categorize the response options for Insurance Coverage Type under four categories (public, private, uninsured, or unknown/not reported) to populate Table 5 (Unduplicated Number of Family Planning Users by Principal Health Insurance Coverage Status). Further information on how response options are categorized can be found in the Insurance Coverage Mapping Guidance.

If a client has more than one form of insurance listed, grantees should report the insurance used to cover family planning-related activities. If both are used, grantees should report the primary insurance.

For all clients who are uninsured, grantees should report the valid value that corresponds to “pay” for Data Element 13 (Insurance coverage type). However, if clients are being subsidized through a government program, then report the valid value that corresponds to a safety net clinic program.

For more information on each of the response options for Data Element 13 (Insurance coverage type), refer to the coverage type value set.

Grantees should determine the response option that best fits the client’s insurance. Definitions for each response option can be found on the HL7 website. For example, if a client has a Medicaid MCO, please report the valid value that corresponds to a subsidized managed care program.

MCPOL should only be used for private managed care plans.

If Medicare is considered the client’s principal insurance, whether they attained Medicare due to a disability or not, the valid value that corresponds to a subsidized managed care program  should be reported as their insurance coverage type.

The purpose of the Insurance Coverage Type data element is to capture a high-level description of a patient’s access to broad primary medical care health coverage type, including various categories of insurance (i.e.,public, private, etc.) and self-pay. For Insurance Coverage Type codes, please report the FPAR 2.0 valid value most applicable to the family planning client. 

For the Payer for Visit data element, the payer source charged by the organization for Title X services should be reported. If this information cannot be determined, the Payer for Visit data element contains a response option of 'None (no charge for current services)’ and ‘Other (specify).’ For Payer for Visit, grantees should report the respective FPAR 2.0 valid values.

Grantees' electronic health record (EHR) should include a distinct question to capture pregnancy status. Pregnancy Status is a separate data element and should be reported as a separate field. Please refer to the FPAR 2.0 valid values for the pregnancy status data element.

Grantees may leave this field blank for family planning clients who are male at birth.

The purpose of the pregnancy intention data element is to capture a client’s intention in the next year to either become pregnant or prevent a future pregnancy. This includes male clients seeking pregnancy with a female partner. However, grantees may leave this field blank for family planning clients who are male at birth. Pregnancy intention may be used to help improve preconception health screenings and decisions based on client needs.

Grantees' EHR should include a distinct question to capture Contraception At Intake and Reason for No Contraceptive Method at Intake. Contraceptive Method at Intake shall be reported as a separate field from Reason for No Contraceptive Method at Intake since each field is mapped to different LOINC codes.

Grantees should only report the most effective contraceptive method used by the client and how the most effective contraceptive method was provided: https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/contraception.

Grantees should report the most effective method reported by the client at the time of each family planning encounter.

Contraceptive Method at Exit shall be reported as a separate field from Reason for No Contraceptive Method Use Reported at Exit since each field is mapped to different LOINC codes.

Contraceptive counseling is an interaction in which a provider spends time (5-10 minutes) during an encounter discussing the patient's choice of contraceptive method and available options.

Counseling to achieve pregnancy is an interaction in which a provider spends time during an encounter discussing any services and/or provides counseling related to achieving pregnancy or addressing infertility.

For telehealth, it is up to the reporting organization and clinical judgment of their providers to determine when self-reported values are acceptable.

Grantees can report body height in either inches (in) or centimeters (cm). Please see the FPAR 2.0 valid values to reference acceptable response options.

Grantees should report body weight as pounds (lb), grams (g), or kilograms (kg). Please see the FPAR 2.0 valid values to reference acceptable response options.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Tobacco Glossary, a current every day smoker is someone who smokes daily, specifically “an adult who has smoked 100 cigarettes in his or her lifetime and who currently smokes cigarettes.” Further refinement specific to what constitutes a current every day smoker comes from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Specifically, a current every day smoker may be designated as either a heavy tobacco smoker – “a smoker who smokes more than 10 cigarettes per day, or an equivalent quantity of cigar or pipe smoke” or a light tobacco smoker – “a smoker who smokes less than 10 cigarettes per day, or an equivalent quantity of cigar or pipe smoke”.

Conversely, a current some day smoker refers to an occasional smoker, or “a person who has smoked at least 100 cigarettes in his or her lifetime, who smokes now, but does not smoke every day”.

For Data Elements 29 (Pap test performed at this visit), 31 (HPV test performed at this visit), 33 (Chlamydia test performed at this visit), 35 (Neisseria gonorrhoeae test performed at this visit), 37 (HIV test performed at this visit), and 39 (Syphilis test performed at this visit), grantees should report whether the respective tests were performed during the visit, rather than the actual result of the lab test. Please review the FPAR 2.0 valid values.

Grantees submitting a CSV file should submit all data elements (such as multiple tests ordered or performed during the encounter) on the same row if the provider administered the tests during the same encounter. For examples on how to report multiple tests in one encounter, please refer to the sample file.

Grantees can apply for a waiver if grantees are unable to submit encounter-level data. Meanwhile, grantees should implement plans to adopt or upgrade EHRs to submit encounter-level lab data for future submissions. Grantees should map tests and results available in their EHR to the most appropriate tests and FPAR 2.0 valid values responses.

OPA expects grantees following the preferred approach to provide both encounter-level and lab results data. There are two options for submitting lab results. In the first option, grantees can submit the encounter-level data and lab results data in one file. In the second option, grantees can submit their lab results data and encounter-level data separately. For further guidance on these options, please reference the sample file document.

For Data Elements 30 (Pap smear test results), 32 (HPV test results), 34 (Chlamydia sp test results), 36 (Neisseria gonorrhoeae test results), 38 (HIV 1 and 2 test results), and 40 (Syphilis test results), grantees should report the actual result of the lab test. Please see FPAR 2.0 valid values for potential result options.

Grantees should report the result that aligns with the provider’s clinical care decision. For example, if the clinician decides to treat for the STI, then report the positive result. Grantees can find further instructions on how to report lab results by referring to FPAR 2.0 valid values. A sample file is also available on the website.

Self-Identified Need for Contraception (SINC) is an electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) under development at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Reporting this data element is optional. If a grantee does not currently collect it, SINC does not need to be reported.

Data Element 41 is the self-identified need for contraception, part of the eCQM under development at UCSF under grant funding from OPA. Because it is not yet an endorsed measure, it’s only to be reported if (a) it’s already included in the grantees’ EHR and (b) if it’s part of the clinical visit.

For Data Elements 42 and 43, “Unknown” would be reported if the family planning client was not asked about their sexual orientation or gender identity, respectively, while “Asked, but unknown” would be used if the family planning client was asked about their sexual orientation or gender identity but the family planning client declined to answer.

The FPAR data elements and response options were designed to align with Interoperability Standards and EHR Certification requirements (United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) standards; ISA Standard Terminology). As such, the verbiage in the descriptions of codes used in FPAR reporting is not determined by OPA. The descriptions are chosen by the standards body creating the codes. Additional updates to the response options may be considered in the future.