Public comment period for WA-APCD data request

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Public comment period for WA-APCD data request

Through September 22, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. (Pacific), the Health Care Authority (HCA) is seeking public comment for a recent data request.

Under WAC 182-70-230, the lead organization must establish a transparent process for the review of data requests, which includes a process for public review for specific requests. …The process must also include the ability for the public to comment on requests that include the release of protected health information or proprietary financial information or both. …The time frame for public comment should not be less than fourteen calendar days. The lead organization must post the final decision for the request within seven days after the decision is made.

Public comment

Public comment is open to anyone who would like to share feedback. We encourage health care and social service providers, managed care organizations, hospitals and health systems, medical associations, Tribes, Accountable Communities of Health, and the public to provide input.

The data request

Use case submitted: May 2021

Data Requestor: NORC at the University of Chicago

Data type: Protected Health Information

E-mail public comments to: apcd@hca.wa.gov

Public comment schedule: September 7 - September 22, 2021

Title: AHRQ Innovations in Physician, Physician Practice, and Social Determinants of Health Data

Summary: The Physician and Physician Practice Research Database (3P-RD) is intended to be a prototype database that captures information on physician and physician practice characteristics to help address current data gaps within health services research. NORC will be using available administrative data and provider databases to capture the universe of active physicians and physician practices to develop the 3P-RD database. This prototype will be for AHRQ's internal research purposes, and will also include a design that can be potentially used to create public release research databases. The 3P-RD prototype will contain data for 13 states and include data elements related to physicians and physician practices' characteristics pertinent to analyzing health services research and policy questions.

WA APCD data will be linked with other national datasets (e.g. NPPES and PECOS), as well as State Medical Board (SMB) data to: 1) Identify active physicians, 2) provide value-added data elements describing the patient population or physician characteristics, and 3) determine the associations between physicians and their practices. We will also be able to determine the number of physicians who actively provide services to the commercial, Medicaid, and/or Medicare populations. In particular, this database will bolster health service researchers' and decision-makers' ability to examine and ultimately improve the organization and delivery of care, such as help inform physician workforce and resource allocation.

This request includes the following Protected Health Information data elements: member city, member ZIP and dates of service. Study protocol has been reviewed and determined that the activities do not meet the definition of human subject research by the NORC Institutional Review board and is currently under final evaluation by the WA-APCD program.