What to know
- On April 30, 2024, some federal reporting requirements for hospitals and critical access hospitals expired as specified in the regulations at that time. This resulted in voluntary data reporting, which led to reduced visibility.
- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a new rule requiring hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) to report information about COVID-19, influenza, and RSV starting November 1, 2024.
- Through the National Healthcare Safety Network, CDC will work with hospitals to provide training and technical assistance to ensure they are ready and able to meet these updated reporting requirements this fall.
Summary
What CDC knows
Beginning November 1, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will require hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) to electronically report information, like confirmed infections and bed capacity, related to flu, COVID-19 and RSV, on a schedule specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
What CDC is doing
These data will complement data that CDC collects and disseminates from other sources, such as wastewater, laboratory, and emergency department data. These data sources support robust systems that detect and monitor threats, keep the public informed about threats in their communities, and inform respiratory disease forecasting efforts. Through the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), CDC will work with hospitals to provide training and technical assistance to ensure they are ready and able to meet these updated reporting requirements this fall.
Respiratory virus data are important for patient safety and public health
The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) underscored the critical role of hospital data in providing situational awareness around the impact of respiratory disease on the nation's hospitals, their patients, and workers. Considering this, CMS' new rule will require respiratory illness reporting in a modified form similar to previous reporting requirements. CDC, CMS, and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) worked together on these requirements, which were also informed by public comment. The requirements create a minimum set of data elements necessary to maintain situational awareness and address current patient health and safety needs while also informing CDC's public health response.
Hospital data were collected through previous reporting requirements during the COVID-19 PHE and through the first respiratory virus season after the PHE declaration expired. This hospital data helped CDC provide weekly reports on severe health consequences of flu, COVID-19, and RSV and also monitor hospital capacity.
Before the previous reporting requirements ended, NHSN data also informed local jurisdictions, hospitals, and nursing homes about local respiratory virus spread. Additionally, this data helped guide infection prevention strategies, such as source control, to protect patients, residents, and healthcare workers. While CDC continued sharing voluntary data after the mandatory reporting requirements ended in April, the change in reporting requirements impacted completeness, and information would fluctuate from week to week. The number of hospitals regularly reporting data decreased by nearly two thirds.
These data are critical to help with public health coordination and keeping patients safe by:
- Informing strategic planning and coordination of public health responses.
- Enhancing disease surveillance and early warning systems by helping identify trends and patterns of disease spread.
- Improving healthcare delivery and patient outcomes through patient-centered care.
Reporting requirements for hospitals
CMS is requiring that, beginning on November 1, 2024, hospitals and CAHs electronically report information about flu, COVID-19, and RSV on a schedule specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). These include:
- Confirmed infections for a limited set of respiratory illnesses, including but not limited to flu, COVID-19, and RSV, among newly admitted and hospitalized patients.
- Total bed census and capacity, both overall and by critical hospital units and age groups.
- Limited patient demographic information, including age.
In the event of a declared national, state, or local Public Health Emergency (PHE) for an acute infectious illness, the Secretary of HHS may also require reporting on the following additional data elements:
- Facility structure and infrastructure operational status.
- Emergency department diversion status.
- Staffing shortages.
- Supply inventory shortages (e.g., equipment, blood products, gases).
- Relevant medical countermeasures and therapeutics inventories, usage, or both.
HHS will provide additional details on the specific data elements hospitals will be required to report in the coming weeks. CDC's NHSN will work closely with hospitals to provide training and technical assistance to ensure they are ready and able to meet these updated reporting requirements.
For more information on the CMS requirements, visit: FY 2025 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System (LTCH PPS) Final Rule –- CMS-1808-F | CMS.