Data Sharing Project

The Data Sharing Project is an ongoing accumulation of claims data collected from participating member companies of the PIAA. The information contained herein provides a description of the specific demographic, claims, and loss data requested of each reporting company. This manual is designed to provide instructions on how to report each field and code loss specific data. It will also provide you with instructions on how to report your submission to PIAA.

Every six months, each participating member submits this claims and loss data to the PIAA office in the format described in this manual. At the conclusion of each reporting period, the PIAA will produce reports based on the accumulation of this data, which is intended to identify claim trends in causes of malpractice.

To supplement the information in this manual, the PIAA is committed to provide all participating and prospectively participating companies with an annual training enhancement session. This will solidify the coding process and create consistency in order to maintain the most accurate reporting system possible. If you have any questions, please contact P. Divya Parikh at the PIAA office by phone (301) 947-9000 or by fax (301) 947-9090.

Member companies first reported data to the Data Sharing Project in 1985. This data has been reported by over 20 PIAA companies ranging in size from the smallest to the largest and located across the nation. By the end of 1987, over 10,000 paid claims had been reported representing over $1 billion in indemnity payments. By the end of 2004, over 200,000 open and closed claims and suits were reported to the system, with indemnity of over $10.5 billion on over 51,000 paid claims.

The Data Sharing Project has gone through a period of evolution. With the help of member companies in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which both housed the database on their corporation system, the Data Sharing Project has been kept alive. Now maintained at the PIAA headquarters in Rockville, MD, there are dedicated resources to expand the scope of the processing and output. The original goal of the Project was to provide member companies with detailed and credited information for us in risk management programs aimed at reducing the incidence of patient injury and thereby reducing physician exposure to claims. In this evolutionary process, this goal can undoubtedly be attained.

The use of the data are being expanded. Over the last several years, a number of special studies have been a -by-product of the Data Sharing Project. The studies were performed because of the noticeably high frequency and severity of claims reported in each area. It is hoped that the continual production of special studies will enhance the value of the Project and provide valuable loss prevention information to both physicians and loss prevention professionals.

In the future, the data will provided in a number of different formats, including specialty-specific reports and annual trends of reported data. The output of the data will also be used in cooperation with specialty societies and requesting federal agencies for loss prevention research and publication to benefit the medical community at large. We have also just begun to capture information on office personnel and dental claims.

1.2.1 Submissions and Reporting Schedule

There are two reporting cycles per year:

Phase	Cycle 1	Cycle 2
Data Collection	January 1 - June 30	July 1 - December 31
Companies submit data to PIAA	July 1 - August 31	January 1 - February 28
Error correction, data processing and report generating	September 1 - September 30	March 1 - March 31
Table 1-A

1.2.2 Which Files Are Eligible for Submission?

Files will be submitted on physicians, dentists, paraprofessionals and corporations, which fit into the criteria described:

Closed claims and suits. A "claim" is defined as a file in which a demand for compensation has been made but no legal papers have been filed with the court. A "suit" is a file in which formal litigation has been instituted. Closed claims and suits are submitted in the cycle in which they close (e.g. a suit closed on March 1, 2005 is included in the first cycle 2005).

Suits that have been open for one year. This means that open suits are submitted one year after they are declared suits. For example, a suit opened on February 1, 2005 would be submitted in the first cycle of 2006. Suits are also resubmitted at the time of closure, thus capturing any additional information available or that may have changed since the initial report.

File NOT to be included in the submission:

Files involving premises or general liability.

Files in which an incident or event has been reported but no claim for compensation has been made.

Open files in which the misadventure, care rendered, or actual condition fields are unknown. These claims should be monitored and included in an upcoming submission cycle when this information becomes available.

1.2.3 Methods of Submission

The PIAA will accept three types of submissions:

Electronic
Floppy Disks created by an IBM compatible personal computer
Data Forms

1.2.4 Prescreening of Files and Error Correction

Records submitted to the PIAA will be checked in accordance with the system editing rules. General edits are found on section 1.5.1 and field-specific edits begin on Claim Administration section.

The PIAA will provide each reporting company a light version of the data sharing program which will perform the following operations:

Import File Format Check
Import File Content Type Check
Import File Error Corrections

We require you to run this program to check your file format and content type before submitting your data to PIAA. This program can also help you correct those invalid entries after PIAA screens the submissions and return to you. You will need a Microsoft .NET framework 1.1 to run this program. A copy of the .NET framework 1.1 is also available for download at download section of this site or the software CD in cases you don't have it on your system.

1.2.5 Correcting or Updating Previous Submissions

A correction or update to a previous submission may be necessary in cases where a claim was reported as open initially and has closed during the current reporting cycle, or the amount of indemnity or payment has changed. Whether submitting the correction via forms, diskette or electronic media, it is important that the company number and the incident and insured numbers are the same as previously reported. This will ensure that the record is updated. For cases in which an error was made in making the initial submission, the correction can be made at any time during the cycle; it is not necessary to wait until the cycle has ended.

Please read the following section that applies to your company's method of submission for other specific instructions.

1.2.5.1 Magnetic Media

When you want to make changes to records submitted on floppy disk, you must resubmit the entire record. The system will overwrite the old record with the new record.

When previously reported open files close, take care to review the submission and update information.

1.2.5.2 Electronic Submission

Prepare your submission file in the same manner you would to submit it on diskette then attach this file to an e-mail message.

In the body of the message, include the company id and name; the contact's name, phone number and fax number; and the number of claims, total indemnity and total expenses.

Send the e-mail message to P. Divya Parikh at dparikh@piaa.us.

1.2.6 Cost

The results of the Data Sharing Project are published semi-annually in a set of report books. Each book contains a report of twelve summaries, which provide cumulative data from the inception of the Data Sharing Project through the current reporting cycle.

Member companies that participating in the data Sharing Project receive one free semi-annual report book that contains cumulative data through the end of the reporting cycle during which the company submitted data. These companies may also receive a report book of their individual company's data at the cost of $250. These individual reports will contain data from the original date of the company's participation in the Data Sharing Project through the end of the current reporting cycle.

An annual subscription to the Data Sharing Project is available to participating PIAA member companies that would like to receive additional copies of the report books, PIAA member companies that do not participate in the Data Sharing Project and companies that are not members of PIAA. This subscription consists of two-semi annual report books and may be purchased for $475. One semi-annual report is also available at the cost of $300.

General system costs will be borne by PIAA.

In this section are your entry instructions for filling out the fields required for reporting your claims data to the Project. (A sample form can be found at the end of this section.) The fields have been numbered so you can refer to them in the descriptions that follow. Fields without asterisks on the form indicate REQUIRED fields, which MUST be entered!

Most of the medical causation data elements reported require codification. The description of the data fields identify the appropriate reference table. Also included in this manual are the major chapter headings of the ICD-9 tables for conditions and procedures and the PIAA augmentations to the ICD-9 manuals.

Many of the codes assigned (such as misadventures) are subjective, so in order to provide consistency, we have included a case study section which will take you through the logical sequences of assigning these codes. This study section also include case examples that will help you understand the general information requested.

A separate section in this manual gives specific instructions for data processing personnel on preparation for submission on magnetic media.

Below id a summary of edits to allow for successful reporting into the PIAA Data Sharing System. The general edits apply to all companies whether submission is via magnetic media or forms. The magnetic media specific edits apply to diskette submissions. The field specific edits are located in the field description section beginning on section Claim Administration. Descriptions of the edits appear in the fields that correspond to the edit. For example, under the Accident Date field, en edit descriptor states that the accident date cannot be later than the report date for an acceptable entry into the system.

1.4.1 General Edits

Make sure that all required field are completed.
Required field having table references must always contain a valid table value.
Optional fields having table references must always contain a valid table value.
The numbers you are reporting for each file must add up to what you report on your Transmittal Form (total records submitted, total indemnity, total ALAE).
All codes you enter must be valid. Make sure that the PIAA has the specialty codes for your company and that they are updated regularly.

1.4.2 Magnetic Media and Electronic Submission Edits

Fields with no entry must NOT be filled with any spaces.
The reporting date in the header record must be correct for the period being processed.
All date fields are of the format YYYY/MM/DD (e.g. 2005/01/01). The month must be less than 13, and all date must be earlier than or the same as the process date.
The accumulated amounts of indemnity and expenses being reported must equal the amounts declared in the trailer record.
All records, including updates to previously submitted records, must be completed. If you submit an update to a record, the system overwrites the old record with the new record.
All money fields should be rounded to the nearest dollar and reported in whole dollars. Omit dollar signs, commas, and decimal points (e,g. indemnity payment of $152,619.53 is reported in the format 152620).