Texas Health Care Information Collection
Center for Health Statistics
Who needs to report
All hospitals in the State of Texas, except most rural providers and other specifically exempted hospitals are required to submit claims on all discharged inpatients.
- Hospital/ Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASC) Listing (Excel format, 267 KB), with names and addresses, county, CEO, primary and alternate THCIC liaisons, reporting status, and facility type, as of May 14, 2012. See the Texas Association of Counties website for a map (PDF format, 3 MB) of hospital locations.
- Contact update form (PDF format, 313 KB) and return the form to THCIC.
- No quarterly data to report (Word format, 93 KB), form for notifying THCIC there were no claims for a specific reporting period.
What, how and when to report
Hospitals are required to submit claims on all discharged inpatients attended or treated by physicians. Discharge data reports follow the national uniform billing data element specifications and additional state-required data elements. Required data elements are specified in the Hospital Discharge Data Rules. After data files are received by THCIC, they are reviewed to determine if they conform to data specifications. The data are then checked using editing criteria established by the agency.
For help with data submission or various help topics visit THCIC Help or you can contact THCIC help desk at 1-888-308-4953.
Reporting Procedures
- Hospital (Inpatient) Reporting Schedule includes dates for the reporting, correction and certification of hospital data through second quarter 2012.
- Audit List, containing audits and messages used by THCIC for auditing inpatient and outpatient data. (Excel format, 82 KB)
Data Submission
- Claim data submission procedures, including applying for your submitter ID, submitting test claims, submitting production claims.
- Providers and their submitting agents must enroll as submitters. See the Enrollment Manual for more information. (Word Document, 217 KB)
- Submitter, Uploading files via 837 format via THCIC system (PDF Format, 763 KB), updated January 28, 2010
- THCIC 837 Electronic File Processing – Tests and Production Information (PDF Format, 22 KB), updated March 23, 2010
- WebClaim, Manual data entry via THCIC system (PDF Format, 2.62 MB), updated January 28, 2010
- Inpatient Reports, reports available on data that is currently entered in the THCIC system (PDF Format, 1.64 MB), updated January 28, 2010
- Payer Source Coding Guide, a guide to coding the expected source of primary and secondary payment (PDF format, 104 K)
- Hospital (Inpatient) Reporting Schedule includes dates for the reporting, correction and certification of hospital data through Forth Quarter 2011.
Data Correction
Hospitals are notified of errors found in data files submitted to THCIC and are responsible for correcting the errors.
- WebCorrect, Data Correction via THCIC system (PDF Format, 2.57 MB), updated January 28, 2011
- Audit List, containing audits and messages used by THCIC for auditing inpatient and outpatient data. (Excel format, 87 KB)
Data Certification
A corrected data file, with one discharge encounter for each patient discharged during the reporting quarter, is returned to the hospital to allow physicians and other health professionals the opportunity to review, request additional correction on, and comment on the data.
- Inpatient WebCert, Data Certification for inpatient facilities via THCIC system (PDF Format, 4.53 MB), updated January 28, 2011
Technical Specifications
Technical Specifications, the current specifications for reporting and correcting data. The manual is intended for the hospital's IT staff or software vendor that will create the electronic data submission. The Appendices include information that may be useful in the submission of inpatient data.
- THCIC 837 Technical Specifications for Hospital (Inpatient) (PDF, 941 KB)
- Appendices (PDF, 671 KB)
- Creating Data in the THCIC 837 Format (PowerPoint format), a training session for IT staff on submitting data in the THCIC 837 format held October 5, 2004, revised April 13, 2005. The discussion notes (Word document) are also available.
- THCIC Inpatient 837 5010 Technical Specifications Version 7, revised May 16, 2012 (PDF, 1.23 MB)
- 5010 Appendices (PDF, 459 KB)
Go to Top
Inpatient and Outpatient Numbered Letters
A regular publication to keep all inpatient and outpatient facilities informed of the discharge data collection process. (PDF format)
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If you have suggestions or comments, please submit them to THCIC.
External links to other sites are intended to be informational and do not have the endorsement of the Texas Department of State Health Services. These sites may also not be accessible to people with disabilities.