§ 295k — Health Professions Data

(a) The Secretary shall establish a program, including a uniform health professions data reporting system, to collect, compile, and analyze data on health professions personnel which program shall initially include data respecting all physicians and dentists in the States. The Secretary is authorized to expand the program to include, whenever he determines it necessary, the collection, compilation, and analysis of data respecting pharmacists, optometrists, podiatrists, veterinarians, public health personnel, audiologists, speech pathologists, health care administration personnel, nurses, allied health personnel, medical technologists, chiropractors, clinical psychologists, professional counselors, and any other health personnel in States designated by the Secretary to be included in the program. Such data shall include data respecting the training, licensure status (including permanent, temporary, partial, limited, or institutional), place or places of practice, professional specialty, practice characteristics, place and date of birth, sex, and socioeconomic background of health professions personnel and such other demographic information regarding health professions personnel as the Secretary may require. (1) In carrying out subsection (a), the Secretary shall collect available information from appropriate local, State, and Federal agencies and other appropriate sources. (2) The Secretary shall conduct or enter into contracts for the conduct of analytic and descriptive studies of the health professions, including evaluations and projections of the supply of, and requirements for, the health professions by specialty and geographic location. Such studies shall include studies determining by specialty and geographic location the number of health professionals (including allied health professionals and health care administration personnel) who are members of minority groups, including Hispanics, and studies providing by specialty and geographic location evaluations and projections of the supply of, and requirements for, health professionals (including allied health professionals and health care administration personnel) to serve minority groups, including Hispanics. (3) The Secretary is authorized to make grants and to enter into contracts with States (or an appropriate nonprofit private entity in any State) for the purpose of participating in the program established under subsection (a). The Secretary shall determine the amount and scope of any such grant or contract. To be eligible for a grant or contract under this paragraph a State or entity shall submit an application in such form and manner and containing such information as the Secretary shall require. Such application shall include reasonable assurance, satisfactory to the Secretary, that— (A) such State (or nonprofit entity within a State) will establish a program of mandatory annual registration of the health professions personnel described in subsection (a) who reside or practice in such State and of health institutions licensed by such State, which registration shall include such information as the Secretary shall determine to be appropriate; (B) such State or entity shall collect such information and report it to the Secretary in such form and manner as the Secretary shall prescribe; and (C) such State or entity shall comply with the requirements of subsection (e). (d) The Secretary shall submit to the Congress on October 1, 1993, and biennially thereafter, the following reports: (1) A comprehensive report regarding the status of health personnel according to profession, including a report regarding the analytic and descriptive studies conducted under this section. (2) A comprehensive report regarding applicants to, and students enrolled in, programs and institutions for the training of health personnel, including descriptions and analyses of student indebtedness, student need for financial assistance, financial resources to meet the needs of students, student career choices such as practice specialty and geographic location and the relationship, if any, between student indebtedness and career choices. (1) The Secretary and each program entity shall in securing and maintaining any record of individually identifiable personal data (hereinafter in this subsection referred to as “personal data”) for purposes of this section— (A) inform any individual who is asked to supply personal data whether he is legally required, or may refuse, to supply such data and inform him of any specific consequences, known to the Secretary or program entity, as the case may be, of providing or not providing such data; (B) upon request, inform any individual if he is the subject of personal data secured or maintained by the Secretary or program entity, as the case may be, and make the data available to him in a form comprehensible to him; (C) assure that no use is made of personal data which use is not within the purposes of this section unless an informed consent has been obtained from the individual who is the subject of such data; and (D) upon request, inform any individual of the use being made of personal data respecting such individual and of the identity of the individuals and entities which will use the data and their relationship to the programs under this section. (2) Any entity which maintains a record of personal data and which receives a request from the Secretary or a program entity for such data for purposes of this section shall not transfer any such data to the Secretary or to a program entity unless the individual whose personal data is to be so transferred gives an informed consent for such transfer. (A) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, personal data collected by the Secretary or any program entity under this section may not be made available or disclosed by the Secretary or any program entity to any person other than the individual who is the subject of such data unless (i) such person requires such data for purposes of this section, or (ii) in response to a demand for such data made by means of compulsory legal process. Any individual who is the subject of personal data made available or disclosed under clause (ii) shall be notified of the demand for such data. (B) Subject to all applicable laws regarding confidentiality, only the data collected by the Secretary under this section which is not personal data shall be made available to bona fide researchers and policy analysts (including the Congress) for the purposes of assisting in the conduct of studies respecting health professions personnel. (4) For purposes of this subsection, the term “program entity” means any public or private entity which collects, compiles, or analyzes health professions data under a grant, contract, or other arrangement with the Secretary under this section. (g) The Secretary shall provide technical assistance to the States and political subdivisions thereof in the development of systems (including model laws) concerning confidentiality and comparability of data collected pursuant to this section. (1) In carrying out subsection (a), the Secretary may make grants, or enter into contracts and cooperative agreements with, and provide technical assistance to, any nonprofit entity in order to establish a uniform allied health professions data reporting system to collect, compile, and analyze data on the allied health professions personnel. (2) With respect to reports required in subsection (d), each such report made on or after October 1, 1991, shall include a description and analysis of data collected pursuant to paragraph (1).