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2004 SESSION

045430748
SENATE BILL NO. 565
Offered January 14, 2004
A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Chapter 20.1 of Title 2.2 an article numbered 7, consisting of a section numbered 2.2-2033, relating to the establishment of the Virginia Health and Human Services Metadata Clearinghouse.
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Patron-- Lambert
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Referred to Committee on General Laws
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding in Chapter 20.1 of Title 2.2 an article numbered 7, consisting of a section numbered 2.2-2033, as follows:

Article 7.
Virginia Health and Human Services Metadata Clearinghouse.

§ 2.2-2033. Virginia Health and Human Services Metadata Clearinghouse established; purpose.

A. In the execution of its responsibilities and that of its chief information officer (CIO) to conduct major information technology projects that are mission-critical and have statewide application, to provide an information clearinghouse of best practices and new developments, to conduct studies and surveys of organizational structures and best management practices, and to facilitate the efficient exchange of information among the Commonwealth's agencies, the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) shall conduct an inventory of the databases or data repositories within the Secretariat of Health and Human Resources. The inventory shall be conducted under the direction of the Secretary of Health and Human Resources. The inventory shall be revised every three years or at such shorter intervals as the CIO and the Secretary shall determine appropriate.

B. The purpose of the inventory shall be (i) to facilitate the implementation of a consistent, reliable, and secure information technology infrastructure for the data-sharing partnership established pursuant to § 32.1-127.1:04 relating to the use and disclosure between the departments within the Secretariat of Health and Human Services of protected health information and (ii) to increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the services reflected in the databases and data repositories within the Secretariat.

C. The inventory shall identify all existing technical and general systems within the departments of the Secretariat of Health and Human Resources that include statewide health information on Virginia's citizens, for example, health status, specific medical conditions, and potential risk of morbidity and mortality; the delivery of state health and human services; third-party reimbursement systems for health and human services; revenues for delivery of health and human services; the exchange of data with federal data systems or repositories; and the costs of such health and human services.

D. The inventory shall be developed in the manner of a metadata clearinghouse for health and human services delivered in and around the Commonwealth that is comprised of technical and general system documentation and aggregate descriptions of the data, including, but not necessarily limited to: hardware platforms, software environments, and general system documentation, such as date of creation, date of last update, data fields, field level descriptors, and samples. The metadata clearinghouse shall be developed and implemented in three, interrelated and interdependent phases, as follows: Phase I shall consist of a survey of the agencies in the Secretariat of Health and Human Resources to identify the presently used systems that contain protected health information and development of a browser-based database that will facilitate queries of such information by such agencies; Phase II shall consist of a survey of the agencies in the Secretariat of Health and Human Resources to determine the technical and high level data architectures supporting the systems identified in Phase I, including, but not limited to, hardware, operating systems, database management systems, and database structures, such as tables, and populating the browser-based database developed in Phase I with the Phase II information; and Phase III shall consist of compiling information on the systems of each of the agencies in the Secretariat of Health and Human Resources relating to data structures, e.g., data element name, description, and type and incorporating this information into the browser-based database developed in Phase I and enhanced in Phase II.

E. The Secretary of Health and Human Resources shall appoint an agency liaison for each of the agencies within the Secretariat that are data-sharing partners to work with and assist VITA in conducting and compiling the inventory or metadata clearinghouse.

F. Upon completion of Phases I and II, the Secretary of Health and Human Resources shall be provided by VITA an estimate of the costs of completing the next phase and shall determine whether the development of the metadata clearinghouse shall be continued with such next phase.