Patient Medical Records Already Collected by the Minnesota Department of Health
Data received from the Minnesota Department of Health.
For more information, click here
From Minnesota Hospitals:
Year Inpatient Records Outpatient Records
| 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 |
399,228 447,434 465,240 485,826 507,059 518,848 |
548,989 813,290 1,096,616 1,281,710 1,438,127 1,540,046 |
Total: 2,823,635 6,718,778
From Health Plans:
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota
Year Medical Records
| 1995 1996 1997 1998-1999 2000 |
10,019,934 12,469,346 8,450,656 34,358,746 14,200,258 |
Total: 79,498,940
Medica Health Plan
Year Medical Records
| 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 |
6,796,978 8,423,877 8,689,283 7,645,528 7,996,404 8,878,196 |
Total: 48,430,266
Identifiability of Patient Data Collected by the Health Department
The hospital records do not include patient name, Social Security Number or full address. However, they include the medical record number, gender, date of birth, and zip code. The health plan records do not have names or street addresses, but do have zip codes and ID numbers assigned by the health plans. Therefore the records are de-identified, but not unidentifiable. The proposed rule had required names, identification numbers and other data (and annual linking of data) that would have made the information identifiable.
* Data received from the Minnesota Department of Health.
CCHC is an independent non-profit free-market health care policy organization located in St. Paul, Minnesota















