CMS Changes COVID-19 Reporting Mandates, Again. Hospitals Howl!

For the sixth time in as many months, the federal government has changed reporting mandates for COVID-19, and hospitals are not happy about it.

Hospital stakeholders are calling on the federal government to toss out new "emergency regulations" for COVID-19 reporting issued this week.

The sixth reporting mandate change since the pandemic began was announced suddenly on Tuesday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

It requires hospitals and critical access hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid – under threat of "possible termination" – to include the number of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 positive patients, ICU beds occupied, and availability of essential supplies and equipment such as ventilators and PPE.

CMS says that while "many hospitals are voluntarily reporting this information now, not all are."

"These new rules represent a dramatic acceleration of our efforts to track and control the spread of COVID-19," CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a media release.

"Reporting of test results and other data are vitally important tools for controlling the spread of the virus and give providers on the front lines what they need to fight it."   

The interim rule skirted the normal comment period because of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, which runs through the end of October.

Rick Pollack, President and CEO of the American Hospital Association, said the rule was a "heavy-handed regulatory approach put forward by the Administration (that) threatens to expel hospitals from the Medicare program."

Pollack noted that since February CMS has made at least six changes to data reporting mandates, even as "94% (of hospitals) are reporting information, according to the federal government."  

"It’s beyond perplexing why CMS would use a regulatory sledgehammer--threatening Medicare participation--to the very organizations that are on the frontlines in the fight against COVID-19," Pollack said.

"This disturbing move, announced in final form without consultation, or the opportunity to provide feedback through appropriate administrative procedures prior to it becoming effective, could jeopardize access to care and leave patients and communities without vital health services from their local hospital during a pandemic," he said.

That sentiment was shared by Chip Kahn, president of the Federation of American Hospitals, who complained in a Tweet that CMS "blindsides industry with mandatory reporting rules. Not only r rules not vetted but sudden change could jeopardize patient care. CMS action should be reversed."