N.R.S. § 439A-270

Internet website for information concerning hospitals and surgical centers for ambulatory patients: Establishment; information to be included on website; presentation of information on website; duties of Department

The Department of Health and Human Services must establish and maintain a website that contains information  on the charges for services and quality of care provided by hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. 

The website must include the following information for each hospital:

• The total number of patients discharged, average length of stay, and average billed charges reported for the diagnosis-related groups for inpatients and the 50 medical treatments the Department finds to be the most useful;
• The total number of potentially preventable readmissions, the rate of occurrence of potentially preventable readmissions,  and the average length of stay and average billed charges for the potentially preventable readmissions reported by the diagnosis-related group for the diagnosis the patient received;

• The name of the physician who performed a surgical procedure, and the total number of surgical procedures performed by the physician, reported by the most frequent surgical procedures the Department determines to be the most useful to consumers.

The website must include the following information for each ambulatory surgical center:

• The total number of discharged patients and average billed charges, reported for the 50 most useful medical treatments for outpatients;
• The name of the physician who performed a surgical procedure, and the total number of surgical procedures performed by each physician, reported by the most frequent surgical procedures deemed to be the most useful by the Department.

The information must be presented to allow the consumer to view and compare hospitals by geographic location of the hospital, type of diagnosis, and type of medical treatment.  The information for ambulatory surgical centers must be presented to allow the consumer the compare these facilities based on geographic location of the facility, medical diagnosis, and medical treatment.  There must also be a feature that allows a consumer to compare information separately for inpatients and outpatients of hospitals and outpatients of ambulatory surgical centers.

Other requirements of the information presented on the website include:

• Easy to understand;
• Include annual summary reports of sentinel events prepared for each facility;
• Include information reports prepared by the Health Division using information collected from medical facilities and skilled nursing facilities;
• Include an electronic link to all financial reports or summaries prepared;
• For each hospital with 100 or more beds, include an easy to understand summary of financial information that includes:
  • Capital improvement report;
  • Net income;
  • Net income of the  consolidated corporation;
  • Operating margin;
  • Ratio of cost of providing care to Medicare patients to the charges;
  • Ratio of the total costs to the charges;
  • Average daily occupancy of the hospital.

The website must also provide information on charges imposed and quality of care that the Department determines to be useful to consumers, nationally recognized, and reported in a standard and reliable form. 

The Department must:

• Publicize the website;
• Update the information posted at least quarterly;
• Ensure the information is accurate;
• Ensure that information reported by hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers is reported as a rate and a total number, and that the information is reported so as not to reveal and individual’s identity;
• Ensure that the website includes a disclaimer about the charge and quality of care information ;
• Provide a link to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services;
• Make the information available in print form upon request.