(a)  This section shall apply to any risk-adjusted outcome report under Section 128745.

(b) This subdivision applies to risk-adjusted outcome reports under subdivision (c) of Section 128745.

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(1)  The department shall obtain data necessary to complete a risk-adjusted outcome report from hospitals. If necessary data for an outcome report is available only from the department of a physician and not the hospital where the patient received treatment, then the hospital shall make a reasonable effort to obtain the data from the physician’s office and provide the data to the department. In the event that the department finds any errors, omissions, discrepancies, or other problems with submitted data, the department shall contact either the hospital or physician’s office that maintains the data to resolve the problems.

(2) The department shall collect the minimum data necessary for purposes of testing or validating a risk-adjusted model. Except for data collected for purposes of testing or validating a risk-adjusted model, the department shall not collect data for an outcome report nor issue an outcome report until the clinical panel established pursuant to this section has approved the risk-adjusted model.

(c)  For each risk-adjusted outcome report on a medical, surgical, or obstetric condition or procedure that includes reporting of data by an individual physician or an individual medical group authorized by subdivision (b) of Section 128745, the department director shall appoint a clinical panel, which shall have nine members. Three members shall be appointed from a list of three or more names submitted by the physician specialty society that most represents physicians performing the medical, surgical, and obstetric procedure for which data is collected. Three members shall be appointed from a list of three or more names submitted by the California Medical Association. Three members shall be appointed from lists of names submitted by consumer organizations. At least one-half of the appointees from the lists submitted by the physician specialty society and the California Medical Association, and at least one appointee from the lists submitted by consumer organizations, shall be experts in collecting and reporting outcome measurements for physicians, medical groups, or hospitals. The panel may include physicians from another state. The panel shall review and approve the development of the risk-adjustment model to be used in preparation of the outcome report.

(d)  For risk-adjusted outcome reports authorized by subdivision (c) of Section 128745 the following shall apply:

(1) The California Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Outcomes Reporting Program Clinical Advisory Panel shall become the clinical panel for those outcome reports and this panel shall be renamed by the department.

(2) This clinical panel shall be comprised of at least 9 and no more than 13 members. The department director shall have the authority to appoint the members of the clinical panel. Three members shall be appointed from a list of three or more names submitted by the California Chapter of the American College of Cardiology. Three members shall be appointed from a list of three or more names submitted by the California Medical Association. Three members shall be appointed from lists of names submitted by consumer organizations. Any additional members shall be appointed at the discretion of the department director. If, at the time the department decides to report on a procedure, the panel does not have members with expertise in that procedure, the department shall seek to appoint two new members with expertise in that procedure from a list submitted by the California Chapter of the American College of Cardiology. At least one-half of the appointees from the lists submitted by the California Chapter of the American College of Cardiology, and the California Medical Association, and at least one appointee from the lists submitted by consumer organizations, shall be experts in collecting and reporting outcome measurements. The panel may include physicians from another state.

(3) The panel shall review and approve the development of the risk-adjustment model to be used in preparation of the outcome report.

(e)  Any report that includes reporting by an individual physician shall include, at a minimum, the risk-adjusted outcome data for each physician. The department may also include in the report, after consultation with the clinical panel, any explanatory material, comparisons, groupings, and other information to facilitate consumer comprehension of the data.

(f)  Members of a clinical panel shall serve without compensation, but shall be reimbursed for any actual and necessary expenses incurred in connection with their duties as members of the clinical panel.

(Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 143, Sec. 207. (AB 133) Effective July 27, 2021.)