Hospitals that currently fail to report daily COVID-19 data have a few months to get in compliance. If they fail to do so, they will risk being thrown out of Medicare and Medicaid.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be sending notices to all hospitals about the requirements for reporting COVID-19 data to the Trump administration.
Hospitals not in compliance with the daily reporting requirements will get 14 weeks to get in line. Else they will risk their participation in Medicare and Medicaid.
The enforcement timeline gives hospitals ample opportunity to come into compliance, said Seema Verma, Administrator of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
The Trump administration expects hospitals to submit daily data including COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations along with patients currently in the intensive care unit with the virus.
Hospitals must submit data on the ages of patients who are admitted with suspected COVID-19 infections. Facilities have to report their inventory of the COVID-19 therapy Remdesivir, the number of ventilators, and any staffing shortages.
Each week hospitals have to report data on their personal protective equipment on hand and supply of critical medications. Facilities must also report on new data for influenza cases.
Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, M.D. said that new requirements will help gather critical information on influenza at hospitals across the U.S.
Verma said that a large majority of hospitals in CMS’ system already report this data. CMS plans to give hospitals that are not in compliance with a wide berth to get into compliance. Hospitals will get multiple notices over the 14-week timeline.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) believes that to tie Medicare and Medicaid participation to compliance is an overly heavy-handed approach. It can jeopardize access to hospital care for all Americans.