52:9YY-5 Duties of the department.

5. a. The department may:

(1) collect and maintain health data from State government agencies or other entities on:

(a) the extent, nature and impact of illness and disability on the population of the State;

(b) the determinants of health and health hazards;

(c) health resources, including the extent of available personnel and resources;

(d) utilization of health care;

(e) health care costs and financing; and

(f) other health-related matters;

(2) undertake and support research, demonstrations and evaluations concerning new or improved methods for obtaining current data with respect to any of the health data described in paragraph (1) of this subsection; and

(3) promote standards for health data that will facilitate the comparison of information and ease the burden of data preparation and reporting.

b. The department may collect health data on behalf of other entities.

c. The department shall collect health data only on a voluntary basis from persons and entities, except to the extent that specific statutory authority exists to compel the reporting of such data. When requesting health data from a person or entity, the agency shall notify the person or entity in writing as to the following:

(1) whether the person or entity is required to supply the health data and any sanctions which may be imposed for noncompliance;

(2) the purposes for which the health data is being collected; and

(3) if the department intends to disclose identifiable health data for other than research and statistical purposes, the information to be disclosed, to whom it is to be disclosed, and for what purposes.

d. No health data obtained by the department under this section may be used for any purpose other than the purpose for which they were supplied or for which the person or entity described in the data has otherwise consented.

e. The department shall:

(1) take such actions as may be necessary to assure that the health data which it obtains and maintains are accurate, timely and comprehensive, as well as specific, standardized and adequately analyzed and indexed; and

(2) publish, disseminate and otherwise make available these data on as wide a basis as practicable.

f. The department shall take such actions as are appropriate to effect the collection and compilation of health data produced within the State and to maximize the usefulness of the data collected.

g. The department shall:

(1) participate with federal, State and local government agencies in the design and implementation of a cooperative system of producing comparable and uniform health data at the federal, State and local levels;

(2) undertake and support research, development, demonstrations and evaluations concerning such a cooperative system; and

(3) assume its fair share of the data costs associated with implementing and maintaining such a system.

L.2001, c.192, s.5; amended 2010, c.87, s.13.