Florida Center for Health Information & Policy Analysis

The Florida Center for Health Information and Policy Analysis (Florida Center) performs several important functions to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of health care services in the state and to support consumers in health care decision making. The Florida Center is responsible for collecting, compiling, coordinating, analyzing, and disseminating health related data and statistics for the purpose of developing public policy and promoting the transparency of consumer health care information through www.FloridaHealthFinder.gov. These data provide accurate and timely health care information to consumers, policy analysts, administrators, and researchers in order to evaluate cost, quality, and access to care.

The Florida Center also promotes the exchange of secure, privacy-protected health care information, the adoption of electronic health records among providers, and the use of personal health records by all consumers. The Florida Center is actively promoting the adoption of electronic health record systems through health information exchange, electronic prescribing and personal health records software in partnership with health care stakeholders statewide.

The Florida Center is also responsible for collecting adverse incident reports from hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, health maintenance organizations, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities. The Florida Center works closely with facilities and regulatory agencies to assure that corrective actions have been implemented.

The Offices within the Florida Center are:

• Data Collection and Quality Assurance
• Risk Management and Patient Safety
• Data Dissemination and Communication
• Health Policy and Research
• Health Information Exchange

Contact Us or Order Data: We respond to requests for data from a variety of users, both inside the Agency and external stakeholders. If you cannot find what you need on these pages, or have suggestions for improvement, please use the contact information to let us know.

Office of Data Collection & Quality Assurance

The Office of Data Collection & Quality Assurance (DCQA) currently collects patient discharge data from all licensed acute care hospitals (including psychiatric and comprehensive rehabilitation units), comprehensive rehabilitation hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers and emergency departments. This data serves as the cornerstone of the state's health care transparency efforts whereby a patient can shop for high quality, low cost care. The data is also the primary source of information for the evaluation of health care utilization and the assessment of community health for the improvement of public health planning initiatives.

Researchers around the nation use AHCA's patient database to evaluate healthcare utilization patterns, community health status and quality of care issues. To learn more about how this data can be used, please visit www.FloridaHealthFinder.gov and click on the Researchers and Professionals.

AHCA collects patient discharge data in accordance with Section 408.061, Florida Statutes, and Chapters 59E-7 and 59B-9.

If you have any questions about your data submission, please reference the Agency's Guide to Patient Data Submission. This guide is the central source for information on current data collection rules, XML schemas, reporting calendars, forms, audit dictionaries, submission instructions and data element descriptions.

For information and current instructions on reporting data, please refer to AHCA Guide to Patient Data Reporting [3.44mb .pdf].

Office of Data Collection and Quality Assurance
Patrick Kennedy, Unit Administrator
(850) 412-3757
Patrick.Kennedy@ahca.myflorida.com

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Office of Data Dissemination and Communication

The Office of Data Dissemination is within the Florida Center for Health Information and Policy Analysis (Florida Center). The data dissemination team performs several major functions as follows:

• Maintaining the Agency website, www.FloridaHealthFinder.gov. This site provides an abundance of health care information for consumers, health care providers, and researchers. The Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) is mandated by 408.05, F.S. to offer Florida consumers web based information about health care services, costs, and quality of care. This 2004 legislative mandate includes, though is not limited to, pharmaceuticals, physicians, hospitals, nursing homes, ambulatory surgery centers, and health plans. The website allows consumers to make well-informed health care decisions and lead to improvements in quality of care and help reduce rising health care costs.

  FloridaHealthFinder.gov provides a list of licensed health care facilities, health insurance information and programs to help those without insurance, consumer publications and statistical health reports. Additional information found on FloridaHealthFinder.gov allows consumers to look up a disease/condition/procedure and find out information such as definitions, symptoms, tests, surgeries, nutrition, graphical presentations, high definition videos and much more.

  The website also provides performance data for over 150 selected medical conditions and procedures in Florida's short-term acute care hospitals and ambulatory (outpatient) surgery centers as well as information to compare health plans on member satisfaction, coverage areas, and quality of care. For facilities, this includes volume, pricing, mortality rates, readmission rates, infection rates, and complication rates with separate sections for adults and pediatric patients.

• Provides webinar training: The webinar is a FREE live virtual tour featuring the highlights of the FloridaHealthFinder.gov website. There will also be a question and answer period, at the end, to address your personal needs or questions about the site.

  If you are interested in signing up for a webinar, complete the Contact Us form. A webinar time and date will be formed and an invitation will be sent to you, by email, with instructions on how to log in. If the time or date does not work for your schedule, let us know by email and we will invite you to another webinar.

• Providing technical assistance to data users. Data users can contact the Data Dissemination team and request specialized reports for specific data needs that involve non-confidential data, special ad-hoc queries, and other reports. Data can be purchased from a variety of sources. The main sources of data requested are as follows:

  • Hospital Patient Data
  • Ambulatory Surgery Center Patient Data
  • Emergency Department Patient Data (starting in 2005)
  • Hospital Financial Data
  • Psychiatric Data

• Consumer brochures and other publications are produced by the Florida Center. This office creates the Consumer Awareness Series which can be viewed at http://www.floridahealthfinder.gov/reports-guides/reports-guides.aspx.

For a complete list of data available, and instructions for requesting specialized reports and technical assistance, click on the link for Data Catalog and Price List.

For questions concerning any of the functions of the Data Dissemination, please contact our office.

Office of Health Information Exchange

The Office of Health Information Exchange (HIE) promotes the development of secure health information exchange. The Office of HIE also supports the adoption and use of electronic health records by providers and personal health records by consumers for increased access to critical health information at the point of care. The Office of HIE monitors innovations in health information technology, informatics, and the exchange of health information and provides a clearinghouse of technical resources on health information exchange, electronic prescribing, privacy and security, as well as other relevant issues at www.fhin.net.

The Office of HIE monitors innovations in health information technology, informatics, and the exchange of health information. The Office's Web site, www.fhin.net provides a clearinghouse of technical resources on health information exchange, electronic prescribing, and privacy and security. The Office of HIE promotes the security of health information exchange through the Privacy and Security Resource Center located on www.fhin.net. This includes an interactive Web page where providers can compare federal HIPAA regulations with Florida statutes for handling protected health information.

The Office of HIE is responsible for administering and coordinating new federally funded programs created by the HITECH Act of 2009. These include the State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program, Florida Regional Extension Centers, Health Information Technology Workforce Programs, and the Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Program. The Office is responsible for administering the Florida Medicaid Health Information Network which enables authorized providers to access Medicaid claims for their patients.

The Office of HIE provides staff support for the Health Information Exchange Coordinating Committee and the Health Information Exchange Legal Work Group.

Health Information Exchange Advisors:

• Health Information Exchange Coordinating Committee - The HIECC was organized by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration during the fall of 2007 to advise and support the Agency in developing and implementing a strategy to establish a privacy-protected, secure, and integrated statewide network for the exchange of electronic health records among authorized physicians. In July 2009, Governor Crist designated the Health Information Exchange Coordinating Committee (HIECC) to lead the stimulus-funded health information technology initiatives.
• Health Information Exchange Legal Work Group - The Health Information Exchange Legal Work Group advises the Agency on legal matters such as policy issues and review of materials.

If you have any questions concerning the Office of Health Information Exchange, cannot find what you need, or have suggestions for improvements, please Contact Us or visit the links on this page.

Order Data: We respond to requests for data from a variety of users, both inside the Agency and external stakeholders.  For a complete list of data available, and instructions for requesting specialized reports and technical assistance, click on the link for Data Catalog and Price List.

Office of Health Policy and Research

The Office of Health Policy and Research ("Office") within the Florida Center conducts research and analysis of health care data from facilities, such as hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, health maintenance organizations, and nursing homes. Based on this research and analysis, the Office develops policy recommendations aimed at improving the delivery of health care services in Florida. Examples of research reports provided include: The Florida Center Annual Report; the Florida Health Care Expenditures Report, and the Emergency Department Utilization Report. The Office provides bill analysis and legislative support, and assists in policy development for Florida Center and Agency initiatives. The Office also provides staff support for the Health Information Exchange Coordinating Committee and the Data Standards and Transparency Committee.

This Office is charged with numerous responsibilities relating to Section 408.05 and 408.061, Florida Statutes. For the full text, please visit http://www.leg.state.fl.us/. Below is a list of health care initiatives being implemented by this Office.

Health Care Initiatives:

• Florida Center Annual Report - Includes the Long-Range Plan and Facility Performance Data Status Report
• Health Plan Quality Indicator Data - Health plan quality performance data are collected, analyzed, and published annually on the Agency website. Data come from the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) and compare the quality of services provided by health plans, across all health plan product lines.
• Health Plan Member Satisfaction Data - Data from current enrollees of health plans on their satisfaction with their health care are collected annually from the Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey. The Agency contracts with a vendor to survey members of Medicaid and Healthy Kids HMOs; while commercial plans contract with third parties for survey administration. Results compare satisfaction on getting needed care quickly, on communication with providers, and on getting help from health plan customer service. Results are then posted on the Agency website.
• Emergency Department Report - This report provides patient demographic information and other characteristics on visits to hospital Emergency Departments, as well as information on visits to the Emergency Department that resulted in an inpatient hospital admission.
• Health Care Expenditures Report - This report details annual spending by health care service providers (hospital, physician, pharmacy, and others) and payers (commercial, Medicare, Medicaid, and others). The report also compares Florida data to national trends.
• Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) - The Florida Center submits facility discharge and visit data to this national project as maintained by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The database rolls up discharge data from 38 states, creating the largest national database of health care facility information, which also allows for comparisons among those states.
• Florida Prescription Drug Price Website - This website (MyFloridaRx.com) was developed by the Florida Attorney General and the Agency to help consumers shop for the lowest price in their area for prescription drugs. The website provides retail pricing information ("usual and customary charge") for the most commonly used prescription drugs in Florida.
• Confidential Data Review Committee - The Security Administrator within the Office reviews requests for confidential data and Committee reviews requests as appropriate.

If you have any questions concerning the Office of Health Policy and Research, please contact our office or visit the links on this page.

Contact Us or Order Data: We respond to requests for data from a variety of users, both inside the Agency and external stakeholders. If you cannot find what you need on these pages, or have suggestions for improvement, please use the contact information to let us know.

Office of Health Policy and Research
Heidi Fox, Unit Administrator
(850) 412-3749
Heidi.Fox@ahca.myflorida.com

Office of Risk Management and Patient Safety

Risk Management and Patient Safety staff conduct in-depth analyses of reported incidents to determine what happened and how the facility responded to the incident. Program staff work closely with risk managers to identify best practices implemented in response to an incident and actions taken to prevent incidences from re-occurring.

Additional information is available at the following Web sites:

Reporting and general information for Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgical Centers, and HMOs

Quarterly Report Data - Incidents by Outcome and Facility Type

Annual Report Data by Calendar Year

Assisted Living and Long Term Care information

Nursing Home and Assisted Living Facility Annual Report on Adverse Incidents - July 2008

Contact Us

Florida Center for Health Information and Policy Analysis - Main Number: (850) 412-3730

• Office of Director
• Office of Data Collection, Data Quality and Patient Safety
• Office of Data Dissemination and Communication
• Office of Health Information Exchange and Policy Analysis
• Office of Certificate of Need

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