Sec. 108.011.  DISSEMINATION OF PUBLIC USE DATA AND DEPARTMENT PUBLICATIONS.  (a)  The department shall promptly provide public use data and data collected in accordance with Section 108.009(o) to those requesting it.  The public use data does not include provider quality data prescribed by Section 108.010 or confidential data prescribed by Section 108.013.
(b)  Subject to the restrictions on access to department data prescribed by Sections 108.010 and 108.013, and using the public use data and other data, records, and matters of record available to it, the department shall prepare and issue reports to the governor, the legislature, and the public as provided by this section and Section 108.006(a).  The department must issue the reports at least annually.
(c)  Subject to the restrictions on access to department data prescribed by Sections 108.010 and 108.013, the department shall use public use data to prepare and issue reports that provide information relating to providers, such as the incidence rate of selected medical or surgical procedures.  The reports must provide the data in a manner that identifies individual providers, including individual physicians, and that identifies and compares data elements for all providers.  Individual physicians may not be identified by name, but shall be identified by uniform physician identifiers.  The executive commissioner by rule shall designate the characters to be used as uniform physician identifiers.
(c-1)  The department  shall use public use data to prepare and issue reports that provide information for review and analysis by the commission relating to services that are provided in a niche hospital, as defined by Section 105.002, Occupations Code, and that are provided by a physician with an ownership interest in the niche hospital.
(c-2)  Subsection (c-1) does not apply to an ownership interest in publicly available shares of a registered investment company, such as a mutual fund, that owns publicly traded equity securities or debt obligations issued by a niche hospital or an entity that owns the niche hospital.
(d)  The executive commissioner shall adopt procedures to establish the accuracy and consistency of the public use data before releasing the public use data to the public.  The department may adopt additional procedures as the department determines necessary. The procedures adopted under this subsection must meet available best practices and national standards for public research on and consumer use of health care data collected by governmental agencies.
(e)  If public use data is requested from the department about a specific provider, the department shall notify the provider about the release of the data.  This subsection does not authorize the provider to interfere with the release of that data.
(f)  A report issued by the department shall include a reasonable review and comment period for the affected providers before public release of the report.
(g)  The executive commissioner shall adopt rules allowing a provider to submit concise written comments regarding any specific public use data to be released concerning the provider.  The department shall make the comments available to the public at the office of the department and in an electronic form accessible through the Internet.  The comments shall be attached to any public release of the public use data.  Providers shall submit the comments to the department to be attached to the public release of public use data in the same format as the public use data that is to be released.
(h)  Tapes containing public use data and provider quality reports that are released to the public must include general consumer education material, including an explanation of the benefits and limitations of the information provided in the public use data and provider quality reports.
(i)  The department shall release public use data in an aggregate form without uniform physician identifiers when  the cell size of the data is below the minimum size established by department rule that would enable identification of an individual patient or physician.
Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 726, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995.  Amended by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 261, Sec. 11, eff. Sept. 1, 1997;  Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 802, Sec. 6, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.
Amended by: 
Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 836 (S.B. 872), Sec. 4, eff. September 1, 2005.
Acts 2015, 84th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1 (S.B. 219), Sec. 3.0355, eff. April 2, 2015.
Acts 2015, 84th Leg., R.S., Ch. 344 (H.B. 764), Sec. 3, eff. September 1, 2015.