1. The Department shall, by regulation:

(a) Prescribe the information that each hospital in this State must submit to the Department for the program established pursuant to NRS 439A.220.

(b) Prescribe the measures of quality for hospitals that are required pursuant to paragraph (b) of subsection 2 of NRS 439A.220. In adopting the regulations, the Department shall:

(1) Use the measures of quality endorsed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Quality Forum, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, a quality improvement organization of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Joint Commission;

(2) Prescribe a reasonable number of measures of quality which must not be unduly burdensome on the hospitals; and

(3) Take into consideration the financial burden placed on the hospitals to comply with the regulations.

The measures prescribed pursuant to this paragraph must report health outcomes of hospitals, which do not necessarily correlate with the inpatient diagnosis-related groups or the outpatient treatments that are posted on the Internet website pursuant to NRS 439A.270.

(c) Prescribe the manner in which a hospital must determine whether the readmission of a patient must be reported pursuant to NRS 439A.220 as a potentially preventable readmission and the form for submission of such information.

(d) Require each hospital to:

(1) Provide the information prescribed in paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) in the format required by the Department; and

(2) Report the information separately for inpatients and outpatients.

2. The information required pursuant to this section and NRS 439A.220 must be submitted to the Department not later than 45 days after the last day of each calendar month.

3. If a hospital fails to submit the information required pursuant to this section or NRS 439A.220 or submits information that is incomplete or inaccurate, the Department shall send a notice of such failure to the hospital and to the Division of Public and Behavioral Health of the Department.

(Added to NRS by 2007, 2350; A 2011, 1803)