Section 16.01. Evaluation of services for the mentally retarded and developmentally disabled

(a) The commissioner shall ensure that  all  services  provided  under
  this  chapter for the mentally retarded and developmentally disabled are
  periodically evaluated.
    (b) The commissioner shall, by  regulations,  establish  and  maintain
  evaluation  criteria  and  methods  which  assure  the  utility  of data
  generated in the evaluation of services in different areas of the  state
  provided   under   this   chapter   for   the   mentally   retarded  and
  developmentally disabled, including, but not limited to:
    (1) Uniform definitions of  services  to  the  mentally  retarded  and
  developmentally disabled;
    (2) Uniform standards for all comparable services and programs;
    (3) Uniform financial reporting procedures for comparable providers;
    (4) Uniform clinical reporting procedures; and
    (5)  Requirements  for  the generation and maintenance of uniform data
  for all individuals receiving services from any provider of services.
    (c)(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law,  the  commissioner,
  or his designee, may require from any hospital, as defined under article
  twenty-eight  of  the  public  health  law,  any information, report, or
  record necessary for the purpose of carrying out the  functions,  powers
  and  duties  of  the commissioner related to the investigation of deaths
  and complaints of abuse, mistreatment, or  neglect  concerning  mentally
  retarded  or  developmentally disabled individuals who receive services,
  or had prior to death received services, in a  facility  as  defined  in
  section  1.03 of this chapter, or are receiving medicaid waiver services
  from the office of mental retardation and developmental disabilities  in
  a non-certified setting, and have been treated at such hospitals.
    (2)  Any  information, report, or record requested by the commissioner
  or his designee pursuant to this subdivision shall be  limited  to  that
  information   that   the   commissioner  determines  necessary  for  the
  completion of this investigation.
    (3) The information, report or record received by the commissioner  or
  his  designee  pursuant  to this subdivision shall be subject to section
  two thousand eight hundred five-m, section eighteen, as added by chapter
  four hundred ninety-seven of the laws of  nineteen  hundred  eighty-six,
  and  article  twenty-seven-F  of the public health law, section 33.13 of
  this chapter, and any applicable federal statute or regulation.