(a) Definitions of words and terms defined in article two-d of this chapter are incorporated in this section unless this section has different definitions.

(b) As used in this article, unless a different meaning clearly appears from the context:

(1) “Authority” means the Health Care Authority created pursuant to the provisions of this article;

(2) "Board" means the five-member board of directors of the West Virginia Health Care Authority;

(3) "Charges" means the economic value established for accounting purposes of the goods and services a hospital provides for all classes of purchasers;

(4) "Class of purchaser" means a group of potential hospital patients with common characteristics affecting the way in which their hospital care is financed. Examples of classes of purchasers are Medicare beneficiaries, welfare recipients, subscribers of corporations established and operated pursuant to article twenty-four, chapter thirty-three of this code, members of health maintenance organizations and other groups as defined by the authority;

(5) "Covered facility" means a hospital, behavioral health facility, kidney disease treatment center, including a free-standing hemodialysis unit; ambulatory health care facility; ambulatory surgical facility; home health agency; rehabilitation facility; or community mental health or intellectual disability facility, whether under public or private ownership or as a profit or nonprofit organization and whether or not licensed or required to be licensed, in whole or in part, by the state: Provided, That nonprofit, community-based primary care centers providing primary care services without regard to ability to pay which provide the Secretary with a year-end audited financial statement prepared in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and with governmental auditing standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States shall be deemed to have complied with the disclosure requirements of this section.

(6) “Executive Director” or “Director” means the administrative head of the Health Care Authority as set forth in section five-a of this article;

(7) "Health care provider" means a person, partnership, corporation, facility, hospital or institution licensed, certified or authorized by law to provide professional health care service in this state to an individual during this individual's medical, remedial, or behavioral health care, treatment or confinement. For purposes of this article, "health care provider" shall not include the private office practice of one or more health care professionals licensed to practice in this state pursuant to the provisions of chapter thirty of this code;

(8) "Hospital" means a facility subject to licensure as such under the provisions of article five-b of this chapter, and any acute care facility operated by the state government which is primarily engaged in providing to inpatients, by or under the supervision of physicians, diagnostic and therapeutic services for medical diagnosis, treatment and care of injured, disabled or sick persons, and does not include state mental health facilities or state long-term care facilities;

(9) "Person" means an individual, trust, estate, partnership, committee, corporation, association or other organization such as a joint stock company, a state or political subdivision or instrumentality thereof or any legal entity recognized by the state;

(10) "Purchaser" means a consumer of patient care services, a natural person who is directly or indirectly responsible for payment for such patient care services rendered by a health care provider, but does not include third-party payers;

(11) "Rates" means all value given or money payable to health care providers for health care services, including fees, charges and cost reimbursements;

(12) "Records" means accounts, books and other data related to health care costs at health care facilities subject to the provisions of this article which do not include privileged medical information, individual personal data, confidential information, the disclosure of which is prohibited by other provisions of this code and the laws enacted by the federal government, and information, the disclosure of which would be an invasion of privacy;

(13) "Related organization" means an organization, whether publicly owned, nonprofit, tax-exempt or for profit, related to a health care provider through common membership, governing bodies, trustees, officers, stock ownership, family members, partners or limited partners including, but not limited to, subsidiaries, foundations, related corporations and joint ventures. For the purposes of this subsection family members means brothers and sisters, whether by the whole or half blood, spouse, ancestors and lineal descendants;

(14) “Secretary” means the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources; and

(15) "Third-party payor" means any natural person, person, corporation or government entity responsible for payment for patient care services rendered by health care providers.