The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:45 p.m. on Wednesday, October 7.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: Updated Hospital Data Reporting Requirements
CMS has issued guidance in support of an interim final regulation presenting its COVID-19 data reporting requirements for hospitals as a condition for continued participation in Medicare and Medicaid. The daily reporting requirements apply to all types of hospitals except for the following, for which reporting is required weekly:
- psychiatric hospitals
- distinct part psych hospitals
- Medicaid only psychiatric hospitals
- Medicaid only children’s hospitals
- rehabilitation hospitals
- Medicaid only rehabilitation hospitals
The highlights of those requirements are:
- Hospitals are required to report selected data elements daily, including but not limited to ventilators in use, previous day’s COVID-19 deaths, and confirmed or suspected patients with COVID-19. Some current daily reporting requirements will become weekly reporting requirements.
- Hospitals are required to report selected data for flu patients as well.
- CMS has established an enforcement process that begins with letters hospitals will receive beginning today telling them whether they currently comply with these requirements. An estimated 86 percent of hospitals are thought to already be in compliance.
- CMS has created a compliance process that includes warning letters for non-compliance and specific time parameters for improvement.
- Hospitals that still are not in compliance after 14 weeks will be considered to be in violation of their conditions of participation in Medicare and Medicaid.
Key resources for hospitals seeking more information about these new requirements and the implications of failing to comply with them are:
- the interim final rule with the requirements
- CMS’s updated guidance and an FAQ on the requirements
- a CMS memo describing the interim final rule
- a workflow illustrating CMS’s enforcement process
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
CMS has updated its COVID-19 public reporting tip sheets for skilled nursing facilities and long-term-care hospitals.- CMS has updated its FAQ on nursing home visitation during the COVID-19 emergency.
- CMS has posted a letter to nursing home residents about their right to vote, including their right to get assistance from their nursing home to make voting possible.
- CMS has sent similar information to state Medicaid agencies to inform them of these same rights.
CMS has updated its COVID-19 public reporting tip sheets for Food and Drug Administration
- The FDA has published guidance for sponsors of requests for emergency use authorization (EUA) for COVID-19 vaccines with recommendations regarding the data and information needed to support the issuance of an EUA for an investigational vaccine to prevent COVID-19 for the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
