General Assembly Raised Bill No. 6548 January Session, 2011 LCO No. 4129 *04129_______PH_* Referred to Committee on Public Health Introduced by: (PH) General Assembly Raised Bill No. 6548 January Session, 2011 LCO No. 4129 *04129_______PH_* Referred to Committee on Public Health Introduced by: (PH) AN ACT CONCERNING THE COLLECTION OF DATA BY THE OFFICE OF HEALTH CARE ACCESS DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened: Section 1. Section 19a-654 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2011): (a) As used in this section: (1) "Patient-identifiable data" means any information that identifies or may reasonably be used as a basis to identify an individual patient; and (2) "De-identified patient data" means any information that meets the requirements for de-identification of protected health information as set forth in 45 CFR 164.514. (b) The Office of Health Care Access division of the Department of Public Health shall require short-term acute care general or children's hospitals to submit [such data, including] patient-identifiable inpatient discharge data, as it deems necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of the office. Such data shall include data taken from patient medical record abstracts and [hospital] bills. The office shall specify the timing and format of such [submission shall be specified by the office] submissions. [The data may be submitted through a contractual arrangement with an intermediary. If the data is submitted] If a hospital submits data through an intermediary, the hospital shall ensure that such submission of the data is timely and [that the data is] accurate. The office may conduct an audit of the data submitted [to] through such intermediary in order to verify its accuracy. [Individual patient and physician data identified by proper name or personal identification code submitted pursuant to this section shall be kept confidential, but aggregate reports from which individual patient and physician data cannot be identified shall be available to the public.] (c) The office shall release de-identified patient data or aggregate patient data to the public. Such released data shall exclude provider, physician and payer organization names or codes. The office may release patient-identifiable data in accordance with section 19a-25 and regulations adopted pursuant to said section. No individual or entity receiving patient-identifiable data may release such data in any manner that may result in an individual patient, physician, provider or payer being identified. The office shall impose a reasonable, cost-based fee for any patient data provided to a nongovernmental entity. (d) The Commissioner of Public Health shall adopt regulations, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54, to carry out the provisions of this section. This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections: Section 1 October 1, 2011 19a-654 This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections: Section 1 October 1, 2011 19a-654 Statement of Purpose: To clarify the role of the Office of Health Care Access in collecting de-identified patient data and patient-identifiable data. [Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]