30:4D-65 Findings, declarations relative to the "iPHD Project."

1. The Legislature finds and declares that:

a. Many New Jersey administrative departments and agencies, including, but not limited to, the Departments of Health, Human Services, Community Affairs, Corrections, and Agriculture, currently create, maintain, receive, and transmit individually identifiable data and aggregated data sets in order to perform necessary and vital administrative functions delegated to the agencies.

b. The creation of a process by which a State or federal administrative department or agency or an authorized researcher can access data and data sets created or maintained by a federal, State, or local administrative department or agency will help facilitate the development and evaluation of this data, reduce duplicative data collection and maintenance efforts, and allow for comparison of data for accuracy and reliability.

c. The linkage of multiple sources of State, federal, and local data and the application of valid statistical techniques can facilitate the identification of population trends and individual and community-level determinants directly related to the health, safety, security, and well-being of New Jersey residents.

d. The establishment of a secure, Statewide, integrated Population Health Data Project ("iPHD Project)" containing certain data collected by New Jersey administrative departments and agencies, that includes data related to health and publicly supported programs that will facilitate approved, project-by-project analysis and research and the development of the most effective means for improving the health, safety, security, and well-being of New Jersey residents and the overall cost-efficiency of government programs.

e. The Medicaid Accountable Care Organization Demonstration Project established pursuant to P.L.2011, c.114 (C.30:4D-8.1 et seq.) requires the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy to analyze patient data received from the Department of Human Services and from certified Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations in order to evaluate the achievement of the health care quality improvement and cost containment goals of the Demonstration Project, and the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy currently has the technological and operational resources required to receive, maintain, and transmit individually identifiable data and data sets in a secure database.

f. The Rutgers Center for State Health Policy is responsible for evaluating New Jersey's Comprehensive Medicaid Waiver Demonstration Project with funding from the New Jersey Department of Human Services and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, whereby it receives comprehensive Medicaid enrollment data, fee-for-service claims data, and managed care encounter data, and conducts analyses of Medicaid claims and encounter data to inform recommendations to improve care and reduce costs for the top one percent of Medicaid beneficiaries who account for a disproportionate share of program spending.

L.2015, c.193, s.1.