Authorizing Legislation

ATTACHMENT 1
LEGISLATIVE MANDATE

42 USC § 242k - National Center for Health Statistics
(a) Establishment; appointment of Director; statistical and epidemiological activities
There is established in the Department of Health and Human Services the National Center for Health Statistics
(hereinafter in this section referred to as the “Center”) which shall be under the direction of a Director who shall
be appointed by the Secretary. The Secretary, acting through the Center, shall conduct and support statistical
and epidemiological activities for the purpose of improving the effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of health
services in the United States.
(b) Duties
In carrying out subsection (a) of this section, the Secretary, acting through the Center,
(1)shall collect statistics on—
(A)the extent and nature of illness and disability of the population of the United States (or of any groupings of
the people included in the population), including life expectancy, the incidence of various acute and chronic
illnesses, and infant and maternal morbidity and mortality,
(B)the impact of illness and disability of the population on the economy of the United States and on other
aspects of the well-being of its population (or of such groupings),
(C)environmental, social, and other health hazards,
(D)determinants of health,
(E)health resources, including physicians, dentists, nurses, and other health professionals by specialty and type
of practice and the supply of services by hospitals, extended care facilities, home health agencies, and other
health institutions,
(F)utilization of health care, including utilization of
(i) ambulatory health services by specialties and types of practice of the health professionals providing such
services, and
(ii) services of hospitals, extended care facilities, home health agencies, and other institutions,
(G)health care costs and financing, including the trends in health care prices and cost, the sources of payments
for health care services, and Federal, State, and local governmental expenditures for health care services, and
(H)family formation, growth, and dissolution;
(2)shall undertake and support (by grant or contract) research, demonstrations, and evaluations respecting new
or improved methods for obtaining current data on the matters referred to in paragraph (1);

(3)may undertake and support (by grant or contract) epidemiological research, demonstrations, and evaluations
on the matters referred to in paragraph (1); and

(4)may collect, furnish, tabulate, and analyze statistics, and prepare studies, on matters referred to in paragraph
(1) upon request of public and nonprofit private entities under arrangements under which the entities will pay
the cost of the service provided.
Amounts appropriated to the Secretary from payments made under arrangements made under paragraph (4)
shall be available to the Secretary for obligation until expended.
(c) Statistical and epidemiological compilations and surveys
The Center shall furnish such special statistical and epidemiological compilations and surveys as the Committee
on Labor and Human Resources and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on
Energy and Commerce and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives may request.
Such statistical and epidemiological compilations and surveys shall not be made subject to the payment of the
actual or estimated cost of the preparation of such compilations and surveys.