COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 137
(By Senators Tomblin, Mr. President, and Boley,
By Request of the Executive)
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[Originating in the Committee on Health and Human Resources;
reported February 28, 1995.]
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A BILL to amend chapter sixteen of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new article, designated article thirty-five, relating to the office of health information and analysis.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That chapter sixteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new article, designated article thirty-five, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 35. OFFICE OF HEALTH INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS.
§16-35-1. Findings.
The Legislature finds that:
(1) Successful efforts to control the state's rapidly escalating health care costs depend on the state's policy makers having access to accurate and timely information about the full range of health care services and programs offered by the state;
(2) Gathering and analyzing health information in a manner that is useful to policy makers is a complicated and potentially costly task requiring specialized knowledge of health care policy and computerized information systems;
(3) Various state health programs independently collect state health information from at least eighty-five different health-related data bases with nominal interagency coordination;
(4) The large number of persons insured by state health programs requires that state government participate effectively in the development of private and public sector electronic and community health information systems;
(5) The public and the state's policy makers find it extremely difficult to obtain comprehensive health information and analysis because of the numerous sources of such information and other barriers;
(6) No place exists in state government that has the expertise, technical resources, and authority to coordinate the collection and dissemination of all health care information needed by policy makers, the private sector and the public; and
(7) State health programs, policy makers, the private sector, and the public can benefit by pooling expertise, resources, and authority from various state health programs into a single office to meet the state's health information and analysis needs.
§16-35-2. Office of health information and analysis.
There is hereby created the office of health information and analysis, to be a distinct unit in the health care cost review authority. The purpose of the office is to gather and analyze health care related data. The office, which shall have a director appointed by the health care cost review authority board, shall:
(a) Coordinate the collection and analysis of health care information by state health programs;
(b) Make accurate, timely and useful health care information available to policy makers and to the public for health planning and policy purposes;
(c) Work specifically with the secretary of health and human resources to improve the medicaid program's ability to provide policy makers with timely, accurate and useful information;
(d) Work specifically with the commissioner of employment programs to improve the workers' compensation program's ability to provide policy makers with timely, accurate and useful information;
(e) Facilitate and support the development of statewide health information systems that will allow for the electronic transmittal of all health information and claims processing activities within the state and that will coordinate the development and use of electronic health information systems within state government;
(f) Establish minimum requirements and complementary reports for the information systems of all state health programs, including simplifying and standardizing forms, establishing information standards and reports for capitated managed care programs to be managed by the insurance commission, and defining and recommending a comprehensive system to collect ambulatory health care data to be managed by the health care cost review authority; and
(g) Coordinate the collection of information needed to allow the office, in conjunction with the state agency, created pursuant to the provisions of article twenty-nine-b, of this chapter, to develop recommended modifications to certificate of need standards as required in article two-d, of this chapter. When the office and state agency propose amendments or modifications to the certificate of need standards, they shall file with the secretary of state, for publication in the state register, a notice of proposed action, including the text of all proposed amendments and modifications, and a date, time and place for receipt of general public comment. To comply with the public comment requirement of this section, the state agency may hold a public hearing or schedule a public comment period for the receipt of written statements or documents.
All proposed amendments and modifications to the certificate of need standards, with a record of the public hearing or written statements and documents received pursuant to a public comment period, shall be presented to the governor. Within thirty days of receiving said proposed amendments or modifications, the governor shall either approve or disapprove all or part of said amendments and modifications, and, for any portion of amendments or modifications not approved, shall specify the reason or reasons for nonapproval. Any portions of the amendments or modifications not approved by the governor may be revised and resubmitted.
In preparing amendments or modifications to the certificate of need standards, the state agency is hereby empowered to order a moratorium upon the processing of an application or applications for the development of a new institutional health service filed pursuant to section three of this article, when criteria and guidelines for evaluating the need for such new institutional health service have not yet been adopted or are obsolete. Such moratorium shall be declared by a written order which shall detail the circumstances requiring the moratorium. Upon the adoption of criteria for evaluating the need for the new institutional health service affected by the moratorium, or one hundred eighty days from the declaration of a moratorium, whichever is less, the moratorium shall be declared to be over and affected applications shall be processed pursuant to section six of this article.
§16-35-3. Advisory council.
To assist the office of health information and analysis in the performance of its duties, an advisory council is hereby created consisting of one representative each from the public employees insurance agency, the health care cost review authority commissioners, the workers' compensation commission, the insurance commission, the state medicaid program, the bureau of public health, the office of community and rural health services, the office of the vice-chancellor for health sciences, and such other state health programs as necessary, plus six citizen members who shall be chosen by the governor and shall consist of the following: two persons representing private sector health care providers, two persons representing private sector purchasers, and two persons representing consumers. The terms of each member shall be for three years, except that of those initially appointed, two shall be appointed for one year, two shall be appointed for two years and two shall be appointed for three years. The governor shall make the initial appointments to the board no later than the first day of September, one thousand nine hundred ninety-five. Citizen members may be reimbursed by the office for reasonable travel expenses incurred in the exercise of his or her official duties.
§16-35-4. Access to state health program data bases.
The office of health information and analysis is authorized to gain access to any health-related data base in state government for the purposes of fulfilling its duties: Provided, That, for any data base to which the office gains access, the office of health information and analysis shall be required to abide by all the confidentiality provisions applicable to the state health program managing that data base.
§16-35-5. Office of health information and analysis fund.
In order to fund the office of health information and analysis, there is hereby created in the state treasury a special revolving fund to be known and designated as the "office of health information and analysis fund." These funds shall consist of appropriations made by the Legislature, funds received from other state agencies, and funds received from grants, contracts, or donations from other sources for services or other activities undertaken by the office of health information and analysis in order to comply with the purposes of this section. The fund shall initially receive two hundred thousand dollars from the health care cost review authority account, fund 5375-099 and one hundred thousand dollars from the insurance commission account, fund 7152-099. Each state agency managing a health-related data base is hereby authorized and directed to transmit to the office of health information and analysis for deposit in said special fund the charges made by the office of health information and analysis for services rendered to that agency relating to the coordination and analysis of health care information. For fiscal years one thousand nine hundred ninety-six and thereafter, such charges shall be fixed in a schedule or schedules approved by the secretary of the department of health and human resources and may be paid in advance of such services being rendered.
§16-35-6. Purchasing of health information and services.
The office of health information and analysis is hereby authorized to purchase health information and management services on behalf of any state health program, or combination of state health programs, upon approval of the secretary of each department in which such state health program or programs are located. Said purchases of health information and management services shall not be subject to the purchasing provisions of article three, chapter five-a of this code: Provided, That before entering into any such contract for a sum greater than ten thousand dollars, the office of health information and analysis shall invite bids from all vendors qualified to provide the requested services, deal directly with such vendors in presenting specifications and receiving quotations for bid purposes, and evaluate bids on a competitive basis, taking into account the experience of the offering vendor, the quality of the vendor's services, and the costs of the vendor's proposal.
§16-35-7. Termination.
The office of health information and planning shall terminate on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight, unless extended by legislation prior to that date.