What’s happening: Hospitals are no longer required to report COVID-19 data mandated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the National Healthcare Safety Network, effective April 30.
What else to know: CMS is proposing a new standard — currently under public comment — requiring hospitals and critical access hospitals to electronically report information about COVID-19, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, and hospital bed capacity in a standardized format and frequency. CMS anticipates that this reporting will begin in October.
Reporting COVID-19 data is still strongly encouraged given the value of the data for public health. Several health jurisdictions have locally mandated requirements to report these data, and facilities should continue to follow all local health jurisdiction requirements for reporting.
Additionally, discharge reporting of hospitalized COVID-19 cases (All Facilities Letter 21-25) to the California Department of Public Health has been discontinued.
For more information, contact COVIDTracker@calhospital.org.
