Florida Statutes § 408.05

“Florida center for health information and policy analysis under the public health law”

The Agency of Health Care Administration must establish a Florida Center for Health Information and Policy Analysis. The center must establish a comprehensive health information system to provide for the collection of health-related data and statistics. The center must collect data on:

• The extent and nature of illness and disability of the state population, including life expectancy, the incidence of various acute and chronic illnesses, and infant and maternal morbidity and mortality.
• The impact of illness and disability of the state population on the state economy and on other aspects of the well-being of the people in this state.
• Environmental, social, and other health hazards.
• Health knowledge and practices of the people in this state and determinants of health and nutritional practices and status.
• Health resources, including physicians, dentists, nurses, and other health professionals, by specialty and type of practice and acute, long-term care and other institutional care facility supplies and specific services provided by hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, and other health care facilities.
• Utilization of health care by type of provider.
• Health care costs and financing, including trends in health care prices and costs, the sources of payment for health care services, and federal, state, and local expenditures for health care.
• Family formation, growth, and dissolution.
• The extent of public and private health insurance coverage in this state.
• The quality of care provided by various health care providers.

The center must provide technical assistance to persons or organizations engaged in health planning activities in the effective use of statistics collected and compiled by the center. The center must provide for the widespread dissemination of data which it collects and analyzes.

The State Consumer Health Information and Policy Advisory Council is established within the Agency of Health Care Administration to assist the center in reviewing the comprehensive health information system, including the identification, collection, standardization, sharing and coordination of health-related data, fraud and abuse data, and professional and facility licensing data among federal, state, local and private entities and to recommend improvements for purposes of public health, policy analysis and transparency of consumer health care information.

The Agency of Health Care Administration must develop a long-range plan for making available health care quality measures that allow consumers to compare healthcare services.