GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2011

SESSION LAW 2011-253

HOUSE BILL 618

AN ACT to streamline duplicate oversight of certain DHHS Service Providers.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.(a)  In order to minimize the creation of unfunded mandates, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) shall direct a rate-setting memorandum be prepared for every change or adjustment made by DHHS in service definition, policy, rule, or provider requirements that impacts services provided in accordance with this act.

SECTION 1.(b)  The Secretary shall dissolve North Carolina Treatment Outcomes Program Performance System (NC-TOPPS) Advisory Committee and establish a task force made up of division staff, Behavioral Health Managed Care Organizations, consumers, and providers to objectively evaluate the North Carolina Treatment Outcomes Program Performance System (NC-TOPPS) to improve the way data is accessible across services rather than site-specific to reflect valid comparisons of program outcomes by August 1, 2011.

SECTION 1.(c)  The Secretary shall allow private sector development and implementation of an Internet-based, secure, and consolidated data warehouse and archive for maintaining corporate, fiscal, and administrative records of providers by September 1, 2011. This data warehouse shall not be used to store consumer records.  Use of the consolidated data warehouse by the service provider agency is optional.  Providers that choose to utilize the data warehouse shall ensure that the data is up to date and accessible to the regulatory body. A provider shall submit any revised, updated information to the data warehouse within 10 business days after receiving the request. The regulatory body that conducts administrative monitoring must use the data warehouse for document requests. If the information provided to the regulatory body is not current or is unavailable from the data warehouse and archive, the regulatory body may contact the provider directly. A provider that fails to comply with the regulatory body's requested documents may be subject to an on-site visit to ensure compliance. Access to the data warehouse must be provided without charge to the regulatory body under this section.

SECTION 2.  The Secretary shall review on an annual basis updates to policy made by the following national accrediting bodies:  Council on Accreditation (COA), CARF International, Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL), the Joint Commission, NCQA, and URAC and shall take actions necessary to ensure that DHHS policy or procedural requirements do not duplicate the updated accreditation standards.

SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 16^th day of June, 2011.

                                                                    s/  Walter H. Dalton

                                                                         President of the Senate

                                                                    s/  Thom Tillis

                                                                         Speaker of the House of Representatives

                                                                    s/  Beverly E. Perdue

                                                                         Governor

Approved 1:42 p.m. this 23^rd day of June, 2011