August 26, 2024
The Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medical Association (PALTmed) recently submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on its Calendar Year (CY) 2025 Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) proposed rule.
In the rule, CMS is proposing to replace the current COVID-19 reporting standards for LTC facilities that sunset in December 2024 with a new standard that will address a broader range of acute respiratory illnesses. This new standard would require that, beginning on January 1, 2025, facilities electronically report information about COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). CMS is proposing that the data elements for which reporting would be required include facility census; resident vaccination status for COVID-19, influenza, and RSV; confirmed resident cases of COVID-19, influenza, and RSV (overall and by vaccination status); and hospitalized residents with confirmed cases of COVID-19, influenza, and RSV (overall and by vaccination status).
PALTmed noted that while we support the reporting of important data to help support the rapid detection of emerging and evolving respiratory illnesses, inform outbreak response and control activities, and keep at-risk LTC residents safe, “We are concerned however that these new reporting requirements add to an already exhaustive list of required information, far more than other sectors of health care.”
Nursing homes are currently the only setting required to report COVID-19 data to CMS through NHSN. Hospital reporting requirements were recently terminated, ending on May 1, 2024, and dialysis center reporting requirements ended with the Public Health Emergency in May 2023.