DHS 120.21(3)(3) Report dissemination. The department shall distribute the paper version of the report at no charge to the governor, the legislature and a board-approved list of individuals and agencies. The department shall make the paper version of the report available for purchase by others. The department shall make available from the department’s website an electronic version of the report at no charge.

DHS 120.21(4)(4) Suggested uses of report. The guide may be used in a variety of ways. Examples of how to use the guide include all of the following:

DHS 120.21(4)(c)(c) In conjunction with other information, to determine patterns of hospital service availability statewide. Service availability patterns, in turn, can help policy-makers and others identify mechanisms that may enhance service accessibility and availability, such as targeting reimbursement incentives or establishing new or additional health service programs.

DHS 120.22(1)(1) Data sources. The utilization, charge and quality reports shall be based on four broad types of data:

DHS 120.22(1)(c)(c) Patient information derived from billing forms submitted by health care providers. Patient information may include any data element contained in billing forms except those that might allow a patient to be identified. Data elements include patient age, gender, county, diagnoses, procedures, charges and expected payer. Hospital data elements also include source and type of admission and discharge status.

DHS 120.22(1)(d)(d) Information collected from the department of safety and professional services regarding practices, specialties, education and licensing, certification and credential revocation and suspension information of individual health care providers licensed to practice in Wisconsin.

DHS 120.22(2)(2) Contents. The utilization, charge and quality reports summarize utilization, charge and quality data on patients treated by health care providers in Wisconsin during the most recent calendar year. The report contains information on services provided to hospital inpatients, the primary reasons for hospitalization, length of stay, expected pay source, discharge status, volume of procedures, charges for services received, and the most common diagnostic conditions. The report also contains selected utilization, charge and quality indicators for individual hospitals and makes comparisons to previous year data, thereby assisting readers in understanding where changes are occurring. The report devoted to outpatient data contains utilization and charge data for patients undergoing selected surgical procedures at hospitals, freestanding ambulatory surgery centers and physician’s offices. The section of the report devoted to emergency department data contains utilization and charge data for patients in emergency departments at hospitals. Some of the specific contents of the reports include the following topics: