Nursing home data on COVID-19 to go public
Nursing homes across the U.S. will now have to report COVID-19 cases to the federal government.
New regulatory requirements will mean nursing homes across the U.S. will have to report COVID-19 cases to the federal government, which plans to make the information public.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced that nursing homes will now be required to inform residents, their families and representatives of coronavirus cases in their facilities. Nursing homes must also report that information to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The data will be made publicly available, officials from CMS said.
“Nursing homes have been ground zero for COVID-19,” Seema Verma, CMS administrator, said in a statement released Sunday. “Today’s action supports CMS’ longstanding commitment to providing transparent and timely information to residents and their families. Nursing home reporting to the CDC is a critical component of the go-forward national COVID-19 surveillance system and to efforts to reopen America.”
Dr. Robert Redfield, CDC director, said collecting scientific data such as COVID-19 cases in individual nursing homes is a key element to protecting Americans from the deadly disease.
“This coordinated effort with CMS will allow CDC to provide even more detailed information to state and local health departments about how COVID-19 is affecting nursing home residents in order to develop additional recommendations to keep them safe,” he said.
It is unclear when coronavirus data on individual nursing homes will be publicly available.
In a statement released jointly with Sen. Ron Wyden, a fellow Democrat from Oregon, on Tuesday, Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, the ranking member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, lauded the new reporting requirements. “We are pleased that the Trump administration heeded our calls to increase transparency of nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the senators’ statement said. “Now we want them to put these requirements in place as quickly as possible. Once in place, this critical step will ensure that families have necessary information about their loved ones amid this public health crisis and help direct resources to facilities being ravaged by outbreaks.”