Texas Administrative Code
Title 25 - HEALTH SERVICES
Part 1 - DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES
Chapter 421 - HEALTH CARE INFORMATION
Subchapter D - COLLECTION AND RELEASE OF OUTPATIENT SURGICAL AND RADIOLOGICAL PROCEDURES AT HOSPITALS AND AMBULATORY SURGICAL CENTERS
Section 421.61 - Definitions

(1) Accurate and Consistent Data--Data that has been edited by DSHS and subjected to provider validation and certification.

(2) Ambulatory Surgical Care Data--Data for events associated with facility services, which require surgery to be performed in an operating room on an anesthetized patient.

(3) Ambulatory surgical center--An establishment licensed as an ambulatory surgical center under the Texas Health and Safety Code, Chapter 243.

(4) Anesthetized patient--For the purposes of this subchapter, an outpatient who receives an anesthetic (a substance that reduces sensitivity, feeling, or awareness to pain or bodily sensations or renders the patient unconscious) prior to surgical services from a hospital or ambulatory surgical center.

(5) ANSI 837 Institutional Guide--American National Standards Institute, Accredited Standards Committee X12N, 837 Health Care Institutional Claim Implementation Guide.

(6) ANSI 837 Professional Guide--American National Standards Institute, Accredited Standards Committee X12N, 837 Health Care Professional Claim Implementation Guide.

(7) APC--Ambulatory Payment Classification.

(8) APG--Enhanced Ambulatory Patient Grouper --A prospective payment system (PPS) for ambulatory patient care developed by 3MT. The APGs provide information regarding the kinds and amounts of resources utilized in an outpatient visit and classify patients with similar clinical characteristics.

(9) Audit--An electronic standardized process developed and implemented by DSHS to identify potential errors and mistakes in file structure format or data element content by reviewing data fields for the presence or absence of data and the accuracy and appropriateness of data.

(10) Certification File--One or more electronic files (may include reports concerning the data and its compilation process) compiled by DSHS that contain one record for each patient event which has at least one procedure covered in the revenue codes or surgical and radiological categories specified in § 421.67(f) or § 421.67(g) of this title (relating to Event Files--Records, Data Fields and Codes) submitted for each facility under this subchapter during the reporting quarter and may contain one record for any patient event occurring during one prior reporting quarter for whom additional event claims have been received.

(11) Certification Process--The process by which a provider confirms the accuracy and completeness of the certification file required to produce the public use data file as specified in § 421.66 of this title (relating to Certification of Compiled Event Data).

(12) Charge--The amount billed by a provider for specific procedures or services provided to a patient before any adjustment for contractual allowances, government mandated fee schedules or write offs for charity care, bad debt or administrative courtesy. The term does not include co-payments charged to health maintenance organization enrollees by providers paid by capitation or salary in a health maintenance organization.

(13) Clinical Classifications Software--A classification system that groups diagnoses and procedures into a limited number of clinically meaningful categories developed at the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

(14) Comments--The notes or explanations submitted by the facilities, physicians or other health professionals concerning the provider quality reports or the encounter data for public use as described in the Texas Health and Safety Code, § 108.010(c) and (e) and §108.011(g) respectively.

(15) Data format--The sequence or location of data elements in an electronic record according to prescribed specifications.

(16) DSHS--Department of State Health Services.

(17) EDI--Electronic Data Interchange--A method of sending data electronically from one computer to another. EDI helps providers and payers maintain a flow of vital information by enabling the transmission of claims and managed care transactions.

(18) Electronic Filing--The submission of computer records in machine readable form by modem transfer from one computer to another (EDI) or by recording the records on a nine-track magnetic tape, computer diskette, magnetic, or portable data storage media acceptable to DSHS.

(19) Emergency Department--Department or room within a hospital as determined by federal or state law for the provision of emergency health care.

(20) Emergency Department Data--Events associated with hospital services in an emergency department or emergency room.

(21) Error--Data submitted on a event file which are not consistent with the format and data standards contained in this subchapter or with auditing criteria established by DSHS.

(22) Ethnicity--The status of patients relative to Hispanic background. Facilities shall report this data element according to the following ethnic types: Hispanic or Non-Hispanic.

(23) Event--The medical screening examination, triage, observation, diagnosis or treatment of a patient within the authority of a facility.

(24) Event claim--A set of computer records as specified in § 421.67 of this title relating to a specific patient. "Event claim" corresponds to the ANSI 837 Institutional Guide and ANSI 837 Professional Guide term, "Transaction set."

(25) Event file--A computer file as defined in § 421.67 of this title periodically submitted on or on behalf of a facility in compliance with the provisions of this subchapter. "Event File" corresponds to the ANSI 837 Institutional Guide and ANSI 837 Professional Guide terms, "Communication Envelope" or "Interchange Envelope."

(26) Facility--For the purposes of this subchapter, a facility is a hospital or ambulatory surgical center, required to report under the Texas Health and Safety Code, Chapter 108 and this subchapter.

(27) Facility Type Indicators--An indicator that provides information to the data user as to the type of facility or the primary health services delivered at that hospital (e.g., Hospital based ambulatory surgical unit and hospitals with an emergency department or emergency room) and ambulatory surgical centers. A facility may have more than one indicator.

(28) Geographic identifiers--A set of codes indicating the health service region and county in which the patient resides.

(29) HCPCS--Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This includes the "Current Procedural Terminology" (CPT) codes (maintained by the "American Medical Association" (AMA)), which are "Level 1" HCPCS codes.

(30) HIPPS--Health Insurance Prospective Payment System.

(31) Hospital--A public, for-profit or nonprofit institution licensed as a general or special hospital (25 TAC § 133.2(21)) of this title, or a hospital owned by the state.

(32) ICD--International Classification of Disease.

(33) IRB--Institutional Review Board composed of DSHS' appointees or agents who have experience and expertise in ethics, patient confidentiality, and health care data who review and approve or disapprove requests for data or information other than the outpatient event public use data.

(34) Operating or Other Physician--The "physician" licensed by the Texas Medical Board or "other health professional" licensed by the State of Texas who performed the surgical or radiological procedure most closely related to the principal diagnosis.

(35) Other health professional--A person licensed to provide health care services other than a physician. An individual other than a physician who provides diagnostic or therapeutic procedures to patients. The term encompasses persons licensed under various Texas practice statutes, such as psychologists, chiropractors, dentists, nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and podiatrists who are authorized by the facilities to examine, observe or treat patients.

(36) Other Provider--For the purposes of reporting on the modified ANSI 837 Institutional Guide, the physician, other health professional or facility as reported on a claim, who performed a secondary surgical or a primary or secondary radiological procedure on the patient for the event if they are not reported as the operating or other physician or the facility. In the case where a substitute provider (locum tenens) is used, that physician or other health professional shall be submitted as specified in this subchapter.

(37) Outpatient or patient--For the purposes of this subchapter, a patient who receives surgical or radiological services from an ambulatory surgical center, or a patient who receives surgical or radiological services from a hospital and is not admitted to a hospital for inpatient services. Outpatients include patients who receive one or more services covered by the revenue codes or surgical and radiological categories that are specified in § 421.67(f) or § 421.67(g) of this title, which may occur in the emergency department, ambulatory care, radiological, imaging or other types of hospital units. Outpatient includes a patient who is transferred from an ambulatory surgical center to another facility or a hospital patient who is under observation and not admitted to the hospital.

(38) Patient account number--A number assigned to each patient by the facility which appears on each computer record in a patient event claim. This number is not consistent for a given patient from one facility to the next, or from one admission to the next in the same facility. DSHS will delete or encrypt this number to protect patient confidentiality prior to release of data.

(39) Physician--An individual licensed under the laws of this state to practice medicine under the Medical Practice Act, Occupations Code, Chapter 151 et seq.

(40) Provider--For the purposes of this subchapter, a physician or facility.

(41) Public use data file--For the purposes of this subchapter, a data file composed of event claims which have been altered by the deletion, encryption or other modification of data fields to protect patient and physician confidentiality and to satisfy other restrictions on the release of data imposed by statute.

(42) Race--A division of patients according to traits that are transmissible by descent and sufficient to characterize them as distinctly human types. Facilities shall report this data element according to the following racial types: American Indian, Eskimo, or Aleut; Asian or Pacific Islander; Black; White; or Other.

(43) Radiological procedures--For the purposes of this subchapter, diagnostic procedures performed on a patient using radiant energy devices (Projection Radiology (for example - X-ray), Computed Tomography, or other ionizing radiation) or diagnostic radioactive material or other non-ionizing imaging devices (e.g., Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Nuclear Medicine devices (for example Positron Emission Tomography), Sound Imaging devices (for example Ultrasound or Echocardiography), Thermal imaging devices, Diagnostic Light imaging devices (for example - diagnostic photography, endoscopy, and fundoscopy) and other diagnostic imaging devices.

(44) Rendering provider or rendering other health professional--For the purposes of reporting on the modified ANSI 837 Professional Guide, the physician or other health professional who performed the surgical or radiological procedure on the patient for the event. In the case where a substitute provider (locum tenans) is used, that physician or other health professional shall be submitted as specified in this subchapter. For purposes of this definition, the term "provider" is not limited to only a physician or facility as defined in paragraphs (26), (36), and (40) of this subsection.

(45) Required minimum data set--The list of data elements for which facilities may submit an event claim for each patient event occurring in the facility. The required minimum data sets are specified in § 421.67(d) and (e) of this title. This list does not include all the data elements that are required by the modified ANSI 837 Institutional Guide or modified ANSI 837 Professional Guide to submit an acceptable event file. For example: Interchange Control Headers and Trailers, Functional Group Headers and Trailers, Transaction Set Headers and Trailers and Qualifying Codes (which identify or qualify subsequent data elements).

(46) Research data file--A customized data file, which may include the data elements in the public use file and may include data elements other than the required minimum data set submitted to DSHS, except those data elements that could reasonably identify a patient or physician.

(47) Submission--The transfer of a set of computer records as specified in § 421.67 of this title that constitutes the event file for one or more reporting hospitals under this subchapter.

(48) Submitter--The person or organization which physically prepares an event file for one or more facilities and submits them under this subchapter. A submitter may be a facility or an agent designated by a facility or its owner.

(49) Surgical procedure--For the purposes of this subchapter, an invasive procedure that penetrates or breaks the skin or other patient tissue (in vivo) for the purpose diagnosing, evaluating, analyzing, monitoring or treating a patient.

(50) THCIC Identification Number--A string of 6 characters assigned by DSHS to identify facilities for reporting and tracking purposes. For a facility operating multiple facility locations under one license number and duplicating services at those locations, DSHS will assign a distinguishable identifier for each separate facility location under one license number. The relationship of the identifier to the name and license number of the facility is public information.

(51) Uniform patient identifier--A unique identifier assigned by DSHS to an individual patient and composed of numeric, alpha, or alphanumeric characters, which remains constant across facilities and patient events. The relationship of the identifier to the patient-specific data elements used to assign it is confidential.

(52) Uniform physician identifier--A unique identifier assigned by DSHS to a physician or other health professional who is reported as operating, rendering or other provider providing health care services or treating a patient in a facility and which remains constant across facilities. The relationship of the identifier to the physician-specific data elements used to assign it is confidential. The uniform physician identifier shall consist of alphanumeric characters.

(53) Validation--The process by which a provider verifies the accuracy and completeness of data and corrects any errors identified before certification.