States vary in their administrative data collection practices, in terms of data elements collected, and in laws governing collection. The majority of state wide health care data systems are governed by legislation that defines the authority, scope and restrictions for collecting and releasing the data. In states without legislation, the data are collected on a voluntary basis by a private, non-governmental entity.

The majority of states collecting discharge data follow the Uniform Billing (UB) specifications, maintained by the National Uniform Billing Committee (NUBC). For APCDs ,work is underway to develop a core standard, the tempoaray file and other information on this effort can be viewed on the APCD council webaite.

The following resources in this section have been compiled by NAHDO and are intended to facilitate planning implementation and management decisions of statewide health care data systems. For state specific data specifications (e.g. data dictionaries and data edits) go to the state data agency profiles map.

Options for a Statewide Health Data Reporting System in Mississippi
Prepared by the National Association of Health Data Organization for the Center for Mississippi Health Policy
November 2007

Implementing a Statewide Emergency Department Data System
Prepared by the National Association of Health Data Organizations
2008
 
Validating the Underlying Data: A Measurement Building Block"
Barbara Rudolph, Ph.D., MSSW
Consultant to NAHDO

The Collection and Release Practices of Physician Idenitfers in Statewide Hospital Discharge Data Reporting.

Prepared by NAHDO for the California Health Care Foundation 2010

The Business Case for Collecting Address Information in Hospital Discharge Databases

Prepared by NAHDO, September 2009