Collection of health care information

Under current law, the entity is required to release data, after verification, comment, and review, in formats including custom-designed reports containing parts of public use data files of information submitted by hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. Those custom-designed reports currently may include a patient's zip code only if another requirement to protect patient identity is satisfied. The bill also allows the custom-designed reports to contain census tract or block groups of the U.S. Bureau of the Census if one of those same requirements to protect patient identity is satisfied.

Under current law, the Department of Health Services or the entity may not require a health care provider to submit a patient's street address. The bill requires a hospital or ambulatory surgery center to submit a patient's street address as directed by the entity. The entity, however, may only use the street address to create a calculated variable or to convert to the corresponding census tract and block group and then must destroy the street address information.

The bill allows the entity to fulfill requirements to distribute reports by providing an electronic copy, unless a paper copy is specifically requested. The bill requires the entity to notify Wisconsin-licensed physicians who appear in submitted data that they have the opportunity to review that submitted data. The bill also exempts from the definition of "patient-identifiable data" the patient's race or ethnicity.