(a) Establishment; appointment of Director; statistical and epidemiological activities
There is established in the Department of Health and Human Services the National Center for Health Statistics (hereinafter in this section referred to as the "Center") which shall be under the direction of a Director who shall be appointed by the Secretary. The Secretary, acting through the Center, shall conduct and support statistical and epidemiological activities for the purpose of improving the effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of health services in the United States.

(b) Duties
In carrying out subsection (a), the Secretary, acting through the Center,

(1) shall collect statistics on—

(A) the extent and nature of illness and disability of the population of the United States (or of any groupings of the people included in the population), including life expectancy, the incidence of various acute and chronic illnesses, and infant and maternal morbidity and mortality,

(B) the impact of illness and disability of the population on the economy of the United States and on other aspects of the well-being of its population (or of such groupings),

(C) environmental, social, and other health hazards,

(D) determinants of health,

(E) health resources, including physicians, dentists, nurses, and other health professionals by specialty and type of practice and the supply of services by hospitals, extended care facilities, home health agencies, and other health institutions,

(F) utilization of health care, including utilization of (i) ambulatory health services by specialties and types of practice of the health professionals providing such services, and (ii) services of hospitals, extended care facilities, home health agencies, and other institutions,

(G) health care costs and financing, including the trends in health care prices and cost, the sources of payments for health care services, and Federal, State, and local governmental expenditures for health care services, and

(H) family formation, growth, and dissolution;

(2) shall undertake and support (by grant or contract) research, demonstrations, and evaluations respecting new or improved methods for obtaining current data on the matters referred to in paragraph (1);

(3) may undertake and support (by grant or contract) epidemiological research, demonstrations, and evaluations on the matters referred to in paragraph (1); and

(4) may collect, furnish, tabulate, and analyze statistics, and prepare studies, on matters referred to in paragraph (1) upon request of public and nonprofit private entities under arrangements under which the entities will pay the cost of the service provided.

Amounts appropriated to the Secretary from payments made under arrangements made under paragraph (4) shall be available to the Secretary for obligation until expended.

(c) Statistical and epidemiological compilations and surveys
The Center shall furnish such special statistical and epidemiological compilations and surveys as the Committee on Labor and Human Resources and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives may request. Such statistical and epidemiological compilations and surveys shall not be made subject to the payment of the actual or estimated cost of the preparation of such compilations and surveys.

(d) Technical aid to States and localities
To insure comparability and reliability of health statistics, the Secretary shall, through the Center, provide adequate technical assistance to assist State and local jurisdictions in the development of model laws dealing with issues of confidentiality and comparability of data.

(e) Cooperative Health Statistics System
For the purpose of producing comparable and uniform health information and statistics, there is established the Cooperative Health Statistics System. The Secretary, acting through the Center, shall—

(1) coordinate the activities of Federal agencies involved in the design and implementation of the System;

(2) undertake and support (by grant or contract) research, development, demonstrations, and evaluations respecting the System;

(3) make grants to and enter into contracts with State and local health agencies to assist them in meeting the costs of data collection and other activities carried out under the System; and

(4) review the statistical activities of the Department of Health and Human Services to assure that they are consistent with the System.

States participating in the System shall designate a State agency to administer or be responsible for the administration of the statistical activities within the State under the System. The Secretary, acting through the Center, shall prescribe guidelines to assure that statistical activities within States participating in the system ¹ produce uniform and timely data and assure appropriate access to such data.

(f) Federal-State cooperation
To assist in carrying out this section, the Secretary, acting through the Center, shall cooperate and consult with the Departments of Commerce and Labor and any other interested Federal departments or agencies and with State and local health departments and agencies. For such purpose he shall utilize insofar as possible the services or facilities of any agency of the Federal Government and, without regard to section 6101 of title 41, of any appropriate State or other public agency, and may, without regard to such section, utilize the services or facilities of any private agency, organization, group, or individual, in accordance with written agreements between the head of such agency, organization, or group and the Secretary or between such individual and the Secretary. Payment, if any, for such services or facilities shall be made in such amounts as may be provided in such agreement.

(g) Collection of health data; data collection forms
To secure uniformity in the registration and collection of mortality, morbidity, and other health data, the Secretary shall prepare and distribute suitable and necessary forms for the collection and compilation of such data.

(h) Registration area records

(1) There shall be an annual collection of data from the records of births, deaths, marriages, and divorces in registration areas. The data shall be obtained only from and restricted to such records of the States and municipalities which the Secretary, in his discretion, determines possess records affording satisfactory data in necessary detail and form. The Secretary shall encourage States and registration areas to obtain detailed data on ethnic and racial populations, including subpopulations of Hispanics, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders with significant representation in the State or registration area. Each State or registration area shall be paid by the Secretary the Federal share of its reasonable costs (as determined by the Secretary) for collecting and transcribing (at the request of the Secretary and by whatever method authorized by him) its records for such data.

(2) There shall be an annual collection of data from a statistically valid sample concerning the general health, illness, and disability status of the civilian noninstitutionalized population. Specific topics to be addressed under this paragraph, on an annual or periodic basis, shall include the incidence of illness and accidental injuries, prevalence of chronic diseases and impairments, disability, physician visits, hospitalizations, and the relationship between demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and health characteristics.

(i) Technical assistance in effective use of statistics
The Center may provide to public and nonprofit private entities technical assistance in the effective use in such activities of statistics collected or compiled by the Center.

(j) Coordination of health statistical and epidemiological activities
In carrying out the requirements of section 242b(c) of this title and paragraph (1) of subsection (e) of this section, the Secretary shall coordinate health statistical and epidemiological activities of the Department of Health and Human Services by—

(1) establishing standardized means for the collection of health information and statistics under laws administered by the Secretary;

(2) developing, in consultation with the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, and maintaining the minimum sets of data needed on a continuing basis to fulfill the collection requirements of subsection (b)(1);

(3) after consultation with the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, establishing standards to assure the quality of health statistical and epidemiological data collection, processing, and analysis;

(4) in the case of proposed health data collections of the Department which are required to be reviewed by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under section 3509 ² of title 44, reviewing such proposed collections to determine whether they conform with the minimum sets of data and the standards promulgated pursuant to paragraphs (2) and (3), and if any such proposed collection is found not to be in conformance, by taking such action as may be necessary to assure that it will conform to such sets of data and standards, and

(5) periodically reviewing ongoing health data collections of the Department, subject to review under such section 3509,² to determine if the collections are being conducted in accordance with the minimum sets of data and the standards promulgated pursuant to paragraphs (2) and (3) and, if any such collection is found not to be in conformance, by taking such action as may be necessary to assure that the collection will conform to such sets of data and standards not later than the ninetieth day after the date of the completion of the review of the collection.

(k) National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics; establishment; membership; term of office; compensation; functions; consultations of Secretary with Committee and professional advisory groups

(1) There is established in the Office of the Secretary a committee to be known as the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (hereinafter in this subsection referred to as the "Committee") which shall consist of 18 members.

(2) The members of the Committee shall be appointed from among persons who have distinguished themselves in the fields of health statistics, electronic interchange of health care information, privacy and security of electronic information, population-based public health, purchasing or financing health care services, integrated computerized health information systems, health services research, consumer interests in health information, health data standards, epidemiology, and the provision of health services. Members of the Committee shall be appointed for terms of 4 years.

(3) Of the members of the Committee—

(A) 1 shall be appointed, not later than 60 days after August 21, 1996, by the Speaker of the House of Representatives after consultation with the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives;

(B) 1 shall be appointed, not later than 60 days after August 21, 1996, by the President pro tempore of the Senate after consultation with the Minority Leader of the Senate; and

(C) 16 shall be appointed by the Secretary.

(4) Members of the Committee shall be compensated in accordance with section 210(c) of this title.

(5) The Committee—

(A) shall assist and advise the Secretary—

(i) to delineate statistical problems bearing on health and health services which are of national or international interest;

(ii) to stimulate studies of such problems by other organizations and agencies whenever possible or to make investigations of such problems through subcommittees;

(iii) to determine, approve, and revise the terms, definitions, classifications, and guidelines for assessing health status and health services, their distribution and costs, for use (I) within the Department of Health and Human Services, (II) by all programs administered or funded by the Secretary, including the Federal-State-local cooperative health statistics system referred to in subsection (e), and (III) to the extent possible as determined by the head of the agency involved, by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, and other Federal agencies concerned with health and health services;

(iv) with respect to the design of and approval of health statistical and health information systems concerned with the collection, processing, and tabulation of health statistics within the Department of Health and Human Services, with respect to the Cooperative Health Statistics System established under subsection (e), and with respect to the standardized means for the collection of health information and statistics to be established by the Secretary under subsection (j)(1);

(v) to review and comment on findings and proposals developed by other organizations and agencies and to make recommendations for their adoption or implementation by local, State, national, or international agencies;

(vi) to cooperate with national committees of other countries and with the World Health Organization and other national agencies in the studies of problems of mutual interest;

(vii) to issue an annual report on the state of the Nation's health, its health services, their costs and distributions, and to make proposals for improvement of the Nation's health statistics and health information systems; and

(viii) in complying with the requirements imposed on the Secretary under part C of title XI of the Social Security Act [42 U.S.C. 1320d et seq.];

(B) shall study the issues related to the adoption of uniform data standards for patient medical record information and the electronic exchange of such information;

(C) shall report to the Secretary not later than 4 years after August 21, 1996, recommendations and legislative proposals for such standards and electronic exchange; and

(D) shall be responsible generally for advising the Secretary and the Congress on the status of the implementation of part C of title XI of the Social Security Act [42 U.S.C. 1320d et seq.].

(6) In carrying out health statistical activities under this part, the Secretary shall consult with, and seek the advice of, the Committee and other appropriate professional advisory groups.

(7) Not later than 1 year after August 21, 1996, and annually thereafter, the Committee shall submit to the Congress, and make public, a report regarding the implementation of part C of title XI of the Social Security Act [42 U.S.C. 1320d et seq.]. Such report shall address the following subjects, to the extent that the Committee determines appropriate:

(A) The extent to which persons required to comply with part C of title XI of the Social Security Act are cooperating in implementing the standards adopted under such part.

(B) The extent to which such entities are meeting the security standards adopted under such part and the types of penalties assessed for noncompliance with such standards.

(C) Whether the Federal and State Governments are receiving information of sufficient quality to meet their responsibilities under such part.

(D) Any problems that exist with respect to implementation of such part.

(E) The extent to which timetables under such part are being met.

(l) Data specific to particular ethnic and racial populations
In carrying out this section, the Secretary, acting through the Center, shall collect and analyze adequate health data that is specific to particular ethnic and racial populations, including data collected under national health surveys. Activities carried out under this subsection shall be in addition to any activities carried out under subsection (m).

(m) Grants for assembly and analysis of data on ethnic and racial populations

(1) The Secretary, acting through the Center, may make grants to public and nonprofit private entities for—

(A) the conduct of special surveys or studies on the health of ethnic and racial populations or subpopulations;

(B) analysis of data on ethnic and racial populations and subpopulations; and

(C) research on improving methods for developing statistics on ethnic and racial populations and subpopulations.

(2) The Secretary, acting through the Center, may provide technical assistance, standards, and methodologies to grantees supported by this subsection in order to maximize the data quality and comparability with other studies.

(3) Provisions of section 242m(d) of this title do not apply to surveys or studies conducted by grantees under this subsection unless the Secretary, in accordance with regulations the Secretary may issue, determines that such provisions are necessary for the conduct of the survey or study and receives adequate assurance that the grantee will enforce such provisions.

(4)

(A) Subject to subparagraph (B), the Secretary, acting through the Center, shall collect data on Hispanics and major Hispanic subpopulation groups and American Indians, and for developing special area population studies on major Asian American and Pacific Islander populations.

(B) The provisions of subparagraph (A) shall be effective with respect to a fiscal year only to the extent that funds are appropriated pursuant to paragraph (3) of subsection (n), and only if the amounts appropriated for such fiscal year pursuant to each of paragraphs (1) and (2) of subsection (n) equal or exceed the amounts so appropriated for fiscal year 1997.

(n) Authorization of appropriations

(1) For health statistical and epidemiological activities undertaken or supported under subsections (a) through (l), there are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal years 1991 through 2003.

(2) For activities authorized in paragraphs (1) through (3) of subsection (m), there are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal years 1999 through 2003. Of such amounts, the Secretary shall use not more than 10 percent for administration and for activities described in subsection (m)(2).

(3) For activities authorized in subsection (m)(4), there are authorized to be appropriated $1,000,000 for fiscal year 1998, and such sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal years 1999 through 2002.