All reports, analytics or other information drawn from the WA-APCD that an approved WA-APCD data recipient under WAC 182-70-250 shares with any third party must comply with the following restrictions and best practices to protect patient privacy and ensure data integrity.

1. (1) Aggregate health care and cost data may be made available for public use.

2. (2) Absolute or relative allowed cost, utilization, or outcome information must be communicated in ways that mitigate the potential to mislead data users including, but not limited to:

   1. (a) Use of median cost or utilization rates to mitigate the impact of outlier cases;
   2. (b) Reporting of cost variation statistics, such as ranges, confidence intervals, or standard deviations, to illustrate the typical distribution around a point estimate;
   3. (c) Application of categorization, stratification or risk-adjustment techniques to enable like-comparisons of patient populations;
   4. (d) Minimum case volume rules and/or reporting of volume alerts to inform users to the underlying sample size and potential instability; and
   5. (e) Compliance with cell size suppression rules for proportions, rates, and aggregates, ensuring no percentages, ratios, or derivations reveal suppressed cells.

[Statutory Authority: RCW 41.05.021, 41.05.160, 43.371.070, and 2025 c 305. WSR 26-11-002, s 182-70-520, filed 5/7/26, effective 7/1/26. Statutory Authority: RCW 41.05.021, 41.05.160, and 43.371.020. WSR 20-08-059, § 182-70-520, filed 3/25/20, effective 4/25/20. WSR 19-24-090, recodified as § 182-70-520, filed 12/3/19, effective 1/1/20. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.371.050(6) and chapter 43.371 RCW. WSR 17-22-121, § 82-75-520, filed 10/31/17, effective 12/1/17.]