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.