In carrying out this subsection, the Director shall cooperate and consult with the Assistant Secretary for Health, the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Director of the National Institutes of Health, the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, and the heads of any other interested Federal department or agency, and shall seek input, where appropriate, from professional societies and other private and public entities.
The Director shall conduct or support specific assessments of health care technologies and practices.
In addition to conducting assessments, the Director may make grants to, or enter into cooperative agreements or contracts with, entities described in paragraph (4) for the purpose of conducting assessments of experimental, emerging, existing, or potentially outmoded health care technologies, and for related activities.
An entity described in this paragraph is an entity that is determined to be appropriate by the Director, including academic medical centers, research institutions and organizations, professional organizations, third party payers, governmental agencies, minority institutions of higher education (such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Hispanic institutions), and consortia of appropriate research entities established for the purpose of conducting technology assessments.
In identifying the issues to be addressed by the report, the Director shall, to the extent practicable, take into consideration the expertise and experience of Federal and State law enforcement officials regarding the victims referred to in paragraph (1), and of other appropriate public and private entities (including medical societies, victim services organizations, sexual assault prevention organizations, and social services organizations).