BILL REQ. #:  H-1553.1 

Read first time 02/09/09.   Referred to Committee on Health Care & Wellness.

     AN ACT Relating to the office of financial management's access to health professional licensing information; and amending RCW 43.370.020.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1   RCW 43.370.020 and 2007 c 259 s 51 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The office shall serve as a coordinating body for public and private efforts to improve quality in health care, promote cost-effectiveness in health care, and plan health facility and health service availability. In addition, the office shall facilitate access to health care data collected by public and private organizations as needed to conduct its planning responsibilities.
     (2) The office shall:
     (a) Conduct strategic health planning activities related to the preparation of the strategy, as specified in this chapter;
     (b) Develop a computerized system for accessing, analyzing, and disseminating data relevant to strategic health planning responsibilities. The office may contract with an organization to create the computerized system capable of meeting the needs of the office;
     (c) ((Maintain access to deidentified data collected and stored by any public and private organizations as necessary to support its planning responsibilities, including state purchased health care program data, hospital discharge data, and private efforts to collect utilization and claims-related data. The office is authorized to enter into any data sharing agreements and contractual arrangements necessary to obtain data or to distribute data. Among the sources of deidentified data that the office may access are any databases established pursuant to the recommendations of the health information infrastructure advisory board established by chapter 261, Laws of 2005. The office may store limited data sets as necessary to support its activities.)) Have access to the information submitted as part of the health professional licensing application and renewal process, excluding background check information, whether the license is issued by the secretary or a board or commission. The office will also have access to information submitted as part of the medical or health facility licensing process. Access to and use of all data shall be in accordance with state and federal confidentiality laws and ethical guidelines and the office will maintain the same degree of confidentiality as the department of health. Unless specifically authorized, the office shall not collect data directly from the records of health care providers and health care facilities, but shall make use of databases that have already collected such information; and
     (d) Conduct research and analysis or arrange for research and analysis projects to be conducted by public or private organizations to further the purposes of the strategy.
     (3) The office shall establish a technical advisory committee to assist in the development of the strategy. Members of the committee shall include health economists, health planners, representatives of government and nongovernment health care purchasers, representatives of state agencies that use or regulate entities with an interest in health planning, representatives of acute care facilities, representatives of long-term care facilities, representatives of community-based long-term care providers, representatives of health care providers, a representative of one or more federally recognized Indian tribes, and representatives of health care consumers. The committee shall include members with experience in the provision of health services to rural communities.