“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday afternoon that it would begin requiring hospitals to include data elements about influenza patients to their daily COVID-19 reporting.”
“Starting Wednesday, hospitals will have 14 weeks to come into compliance with the requirements, said Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma on a call with reporters.”
“‘Noncompliance could result in termination for both Medicare and Medicaid, meaning the hospital would not receive reimbursement from these programs,’ said Verma, who said that termination is the only sanction the agency has available for hospitals.”
“Officials did not specify on the call which new elements were going to be added, how many hospitals were currently in 100% compliance or what exactly hospitals would be required to report. Some of that information was later clarified in an interim final rule published on the CMS website, which stated influenza data should be optionally reported starting October 19 and that doing so would be ‘mandatory in the coming weeks.’”
“‘Tying data reporting to participation in the Medicare program remains an overly heavy-handed approach that could jeopardize access to hospital care for all Americans,’ said American Hospital Association President and CEO Rick Pollack in a statement…” Read the full article here.
Source: HHS will require hospitals to report flu information, in addition to COVID-19 – By Kat Jercich, October 7, 2020. Healthcare IT News.
