Pub. L. 93-353, tit. I, sec. 105

Sec. 105. The following new section is inserted in part A of title III after section 305: “national center for health statistics “Sec. 306. (a) There is established in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare the National Center for Health Statistics (hereinafter in this section referred to as the ‘Center’) which shall be under the direction of a Director who shall be appointed by the Secretary and supervised by the Assistant Secretary for Health (or such other officer of the Department as may be designated by the Secretary as the principal adviser to him for health programs). “(b) In carrying out section 304(a), the Secretary, acting through the Center, may— “(1) collect statistics on— “(A) the extent and nature of illness and disability of the population of the United States (or of any groupings of the people included in the population), including life expectancy, the incidence of various acute and chronic illnesses, and infant and maternal morbidity and mortality, “(B) the impact of illness and disability of the population on the economy of the United States and on other aspects of the well-being of its population (or of such groupings), “(C) environmental, social, and other health hazards, “(D) determinants of health, “(E) health resources, including physicians, dentists, nurses, and other health professionals by specialty and type of practice and the supply of services by hospitals, extended care facilities, home health agencies, and other health institutions, “(F) utilization of health care, including utilization of (i) ambulatory health services by specialties and types of practice of the health professionals providing such services, and (ii) services of hospitals, extended care facilities, home health agencies, and other institutions, “(G) health care costs and financing, including the trends in health care prices and cost, the sources of payments for health care services, and Federal, State, and local governmental expenditures for health care services, and “(H) family formation, growth, and dissolution; and “(2) undertake and support (by grant or contract) research, demonstrations, and evaluations respecting new or improved methods for obtaining current data on the matters referred to in paragraph (1). “(c) The Center shall furnish such special statistical compilations and surveys as the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives may request. Such statistical compilations and surveys shall not be made subject to the payment of the actual or estimated cost of the preparation of such compilations and surveys. “(d) To insure comparability and reliability of health statistics. the Secretary shall, through the Center, provide adequate technical88 Stat. 366 assistance to assist State and local jurisdictions in the development of model laws dealing with issues of confidentiality and comparability of data. “(e) The Secretary shall (1) assist State and local health agencies, and Federal agencies involved in matters relating to health, in the design and implementation of a cooperative system for producing comparable and uniform health information and statistics at the Federal, State, and local levels; (2) coordinate the activities of such Federal agencies respecting the design and implementation of such cooperative system; (3) undertake and support (by grant or contract) research, development, demonstrations, and evaluations respecting such cooperative system; (4) provide the Federal share of the data collection costs under such system; and (5) review statistical activities of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to assure that they are consistent with such cooperative system. “(f) To assist, in carrying out this section, the Secretary shall cooperate and consult with the Departments of Commerce and Labor and any other interested Federal departments or agencies and with State and local health departments and agencies. For such purpose he shall utilize insofar as possible the services or facilities of any agency of the Federal Government and, without regard to section 3709 of the Revised Statutes (41 U.S.C. 5), of any appropriate State or other public agency, and may, without regard to such section, utilize the services or facilities of any private agency, organization, group, or individual, in accordance with written agreements between the head of such agency, organization, or group and the Secretary or between such individual and the Secretary. Payment, if any, for such services or facilities shall be made in such amounts as may be provided in such agreement. “(g) To secure uniformity in the registration and collection of mortality, morbidity, and other health data, the Secretary shall prepare and distribute suitable and necessary forms for the collection and compilation of such data which shall be published as a part of the health reports published by the Secretary. “(h) There shall be an annual collection of data from the records of births, deaths, marriages, and divorces in registration areas. The data shall be obtained only from and restricted to such records of the States and municipalities which the Secretary, in his discretion, determines possess records affording satisfactory data in necessary detail and form. Each State or registration area shall be paid by the Secretary the Federal share of its reasonable costs (as determined by the Secretary) for collecting and transcribing (at the request of the Secretary and by whatever method authorized by him) its records for such data. “(i) (1) There is established in the Office of the Secretary a committee to be known as the United States National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (hereinafter in this subsection referred to as the ‘Committee’) which shall consist of fifteen members. “(2) (A) The members of the Committee shall be appointed by the Secretary from among persons who have distinguished themselves in the fields of health statistics, epidemiology, and the provision of health services. Except as provided in subparagraph (B) , members of the Committee shall be appointed for terms of three years. “(B) Of the members first appointed— “(i) five shall be appointed for terms of one year, “(ii) five shall be appointed for terms of two years, and “(iii) five shall be appointed for terms of three years, as designated by the Secretary at the time of appointment. Any member appointed to fill a vacancy occurring prior to the expiration88 Stat. 367 of the term for which his predecessor was appointed shall be appointed only for the remainder of such term. A member may serve after the expiration of his term until his successor has taken office. “(3) Members of the Committee shall be compensated in accordance with section 208 (c). “(4) It shall be the function of the Committee to assist and advise the Secretary— “(A) to delineate statistical problems bearing on health and health services which are of national or international interest; “(B) to stimulate studies of such problems by other organizations and agencies whenever possible or to make investigations of such problems through subcommittees; “(C) to determine, approve, and revise the terms, definitions, classifications, and guidelines for assessing health status and health services, their distribution and costs, for use (i) within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, (ii) by all programs administered or funded by the Secretary, including the Federal-State-local cooperative health statistics system referred to in subsection (e), and (iii) to the extent possible as determined by the head of the agency involved, by the Veterans’ Administration, the Department of Defense, and other Federal agencies concerned with health and, health services; “(D) with respect to the design of and approval of health statistical and health information systems concerned with the collection, processing, and tribulation of health statistics within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; “(E) to review and comment on findings and proposals developed by other organizations and agencies and to make recommendations for their adoption or implementation by local, State, national, or international agencies; “(F) to cooperate with national committees of other countries and with the World Health Organization and other national agencies in the studies of problems of mutual interest; and “(G) to issue an annual report on the state of the Nation’s health, its health services, their costs and distributions, and to make proposals for improvement of the Nation’s health Statistics and health information systems. “(5) In carrying out health statistical activities under this part, the Secretary shall consult with, and seek the advice of, the Committee and other appropriate professional advisory groups.”