The NH Comprehensive Health Care Information System (CHIS) was created by state statute (RSA 420-G:11-a) to make health care data:

Available as a resource for insurers, employers, providers, purchasers of health care, and state agencies to continuously review health care utilization, expenditures, and performance in New Hampshire and to enhance the ability of New Hampshire consumers and employers to make informed and cost-effective health care choices.

The statute also mandated that the New Hampshire Insurance Department (NHID) and the NH Department of Health and Human Services (NH DHHS) partner on the project by entering into a Memorandum of Understanding about the CHIS.

The same legislation that created the CHIS also enacted statutes (RSA 420-G:11, II(a) and RSA 420-G:11, II-a) that mandated that health insurance carriers submit their health care claims data and Health Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) data to the state.

In August 2004 the NH DHHS and NHID signed the Memorandum of Understanding and agreed to partner in the collection, use, and distribution of data and information from the CHIS.  The memorandum specified that:

• NH DHHS shall maintain the CHIS and bear all expenses associated with the collection of healthcare data and its maintenance in the CHIS and develop procedures for the submission and storage of data;

• NHID shall adopt administrative rules relative to the submission of commercial health care claims data and the HEDIS data set;

• NH DHHS and NHID should work collaboratively to develop policies for dissemination of data from the CHIS; and

• In addition to commercial claims and HEDIS data, the CHIS shall also maintain Medicaid claims and NH hospital discharge data for use by the two departments.

In 2004, administrative rules (Ins 4000) for data collection were drafted by NHID in conjunction with a panel of insurers, providers, policy makers, researchers and the NH DHHS.  The rules were formally adopted January 2005.  Data release rules (scroll down at this link He-W 950) were implemented by NH DHHS to meet the intent of the CHIS RSA.  The rules were developed in part by the same panel that worked on the development of administrative rules and were formally adopted April 2006.

NH DHHS, after a competitive bid process, contracted with the Maine Health Information Center (MHIC) July 2005.  Under the contract, MHIC is acting as DHHS’s agent for the collection of claims and HEDIS data and is also providing a series of reports and studies for DHHS that examine the NH Medicaid program in concert with using the commercial data for normative benchmarking.  Beginning in October 2005, commercial carriers began submitting to the CHIS, and in June of 2006, the first reports from the project were completed and released.