Accessibility and cost of reports

The committee shall make certain information available to the public, providers, data suppliers, researchers, and state agencies. 1. The committee shall direct and the department shall produce an annual report comparing the cost of hospitalization by hospital and for those diagnosis-related groups selected by the committee by diagnosis-related group. 2. The committee shall direct and the department shall produce an annual report comparing the fees of health professionals providing services identified by the committee. 3. Any person, organization, governmental agency, or other entity may request special tabulations of the UB-92 data or HCFA-1500 data or data from other forms as specified by the committee that are reported to the department, or direct access to a machine-readable, final data set prepared and maintained by the department. The final data set must include the exact list of data elements specified by the committee. All requests must be made in writing to the department. The written request must include the name, address, telephone number, employer, or organizational affiliation, and a detailed description of the data or tabulations being requested. 4. With the exception of those analyses, reports, and projects undertaken pursuant to section 33-03-23-08, no special tabulations may be produced by the department until all editing and updating of the data for the year to be included in the tabulations have been completed, and the data set is determined to be the final corrected data set. 5. When a request for special tabulations or computer tapes is received by the department that would include identification of a specific provider or facility in the special tabulations or on the requested computer tapes, the provider or facility must be notified by the department thatdata including the provider identification are being released. The notification must consist of a copy of the completed request form filed with the department and a cover letter indicating the anticipated date that the data shall be provided. If a request for special tabulations is received requesting statewide information or information on multiple providers or facilities, then notice as specified in this subsection must be provided to the organization representing that type of provider or facility. As used in this subsection, "facility" means a clinic, hospital, freestanding surgical center, or any other type of health care facility. 6. All direct and indirect costs associated with the fulfillment of special requests including staff time, computer time, copying costs, and supplies must be borne by the requester.