AN ACT

RELATING TO HEALTH DISPARITIES AND DATA COLLECTION; AMENDING A SECTION OF THE NMSA 1978.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     Section 1. Section 24-14A-3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1989, Chapter 29, Section 3, as amended) is amended to read:

     "24-14A-3. HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM--CREATION--DUTIES OF COMMISSION.--

          A. The "health information system" is created for the purpose of assisting the commission, legislature and other agencies and organizations in the state's efforts in collecting, analyzing and disseminating health information to assist:

                (1) in the performance of health planning and policymaking functions, including identifying personnel, facility, education and other resource needs and allocating financial, personnel and other resources where appropriate;

                (2) consumers in making informed decisions regarding health care; and

                (3) in administering, monitoring and evaluating a statewide health plan.

          B. In carrying out its powers and duties pursuant to the Health Information System Act, the commission shall not duplicate databases that exist in the public sector or databases in the private sector to which it has electronic access. Every governmental entity shall provide the commission with access to its health-related data as needed by the commission. The commission shall collect data from data sources in the most cost-effective and efficient manner.

          C. The commission shall establish, operate and maintain the health information system.

          D. In establishing, operating and maintaining the health information system, the commission shall:

                (1) obtain information on the following health factors:

                     (a) mortality and natality, including accidental causes of death;

                     (b) morbidity;

                     (c) health behavior;

                     (d) disability;

                     (e) health system costs, availability, utilization and revenues;

                     (f) environmental factors;

                     (g) health personnel;

                     (h) demographic factors;

                     (i) social, cultural and economic conditions affecting health, including language preference;

                     (j) family status;

                     (k) medical and practice outcomes as measured by nationally accepted standards and quality of care; and

                     (l) participation in clinical research trials;

                (2) give the highest priority in data gathering to information needed to implement and monitor progress toward achievement of the state health policy, including determining where additional health resources such as personnel, programs and facilities are most needed, what those additional resources should be and how existing resources should be reallocated;

                (3) standardize collection and specific methods of measurement across databases and use scientific sampling or complete enumeration for collecting and reporting health information;

                (4) take adequate measures to provide health information system security for all health data acquired under the Health Information System Act and protect individual patient and provider confidentiality. The right to privacy for the individual shall be a major consideration in the collection and analysis of health data and shall be protected in the reporting of results;

                (5) adopt and promulgate rules necessary to establish and administer the provisions of the Health Information System Act, including an appeals process for data sources and procedures to protect data source proprietary information from public disclosure;

                (6) establish definitions, formats and other common information standards for core health data elements of the health information system in order to provide an integrated financial, statistical and clinical health information system, including a geographic information system, that allows data sharing and linking across databases maintained by data sources and federal, state and local public agencies;

                (7) develop and maintain health and health-related data inventories and technical documentation on data holdings in the public and private sectors;

                (8) collect, analyze and make available health data to support preventive health care practices and to facilitate the establishment of appropriate benchmark data to measure performance improvements over time;

                (9) establish and maintain a systematic approach to the collection and storage of health data for longitudinal, demographic and policy impact studies;

                (10) use expert system-based protocols to identify individual and population health risk profiles and to assist in the delivery of primary and preventive health care services;

                (11) collect health data sufficient for consumers to be able to evaluate health care services, plans, providers and payers and to make informed decisions regarding quality, cost and outcome of care across the spectrum of health care services, providers and payers;

                (12) collect comprehensive information on major capital expenditures for facilities, equipment by type and by data source and significant facility capacity reductions; provided that for the purposes of this paragraph and Section 24-14A-5 NMSA 1978, "major capital expenditure" means purchases of at least one million dollars ($1,000,000) for construction or renovation of facilities and at least five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for purchase or lease of equipment, and "significant facility capacity reductions" means those reductions in facility capacities as defined by the advisory committee established by the commission;

                (13) serve as a health information clearinghouse, including facilitating private and public collaborative, coordinated data collection and sharing and access to appropriate data and information, maintaining patient and client confidentiality in accordance with state and federal requirements;

                (14) collect data in the most cost-efficient and effective method feasible and adopt regulations, after receiving recommendations from the advisory committee, that place a limit on the maximum amount of unreimbursed costs that a data source can incur in any year for the purposes of complying with the data requirements of the Health Information System Act; and

                (15) identify disparities in health care access and quality by aggregating the information collected pursuant to Paragraph (1) of Subsection D of this section by population subgroups to include race, ethnicity, gender and age."