Section 31.01. Evaluation of services for the mentally disabled

(a)  The  commissioner shall ensure that all services for the mentally
  disabled, whether provided by the department, by  a  local  governmental
  unit  or  by a provider of services, are periodically evaluated and that
  departmental budget requests reflect such evaluations.
    (b) In order to ensure that such evaluations and the resulting reports
  and data generated are comparable  for  all  services  to  the  mentally
  disabled  throughout  the state, the commissioner shall promulgate rules
  and regulations requiring the development  of  evaluation  criteria  and
  methods which shall include, but not be limited to:
    (1) uniform definitions of services for the mentally disabled;
    (2) uniform financial and clinical reporting procedures;
    (3)  requirements  for  the generation and maintenance of uniform data
  for all individuals receiving services from any provider of services;
    (4) uniform criteria for evaluating categories of need; and
    (5) uniform standards for all comparable services and programs.
    (c) A timetable  for  development  and  implementation  of  evaluation
  criteria  and methods shall be included in such rules and regulations to
  ensure the orderly and adequate compliance by  the  department  and  its
  facilities,  local  governmental  units  and providers of services. Such
  timetable shall also include specific dates  by  which  such  evaluation
  criteria and methods, and the evaluation reports and data developed with
  such  criteria  and  methods  shall  be  included  in the budget request
  submitted  to  the  department  by  the  department  facilities,   local
  governmental units and providers of services.
    (d)  (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
  disabled individuals  who  receive  services,  or  had  prior  to  death
  received  services,  in  a  facility  as defined in section 1.03 of this
  chapter, 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 his 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.