Hospitals; emergency department CPT code data reporting, quarterly reports.

Hospital emergency department severity codedata reporting. Requires every hospital in the Commonwealth withan emergency department to report monthly to the Department of Health(the Department) the total number of visits to the hospital's emergencydepartment and the total number of visits to the hospital's emergencydepartment by severity cod. The bill directs the Department to (i)determine the average number of hospital emergency department visitsfor each severity code statewide and by region for each month, (ii)identify hospitals that report a number of hospital emergency departmentvisits for the highest severity code that is greater than the regionalaverage for such severity code for each month, and (iii) work withsuch hospitals to determine why the hospital is reporting a numberof emergency department visits coded at the highest severity codethat exceed the regional average. The bill also requires the Departmentto develop guidelines for the use of severity codes in emergencydepartments to facilitate accurate coding of emergency departmentvisits by severity.