CMS is requiring facilities to report COVID-19 cases in their facility to the CDC National Health Safety Network (NHSN) on a weekly basis. CDC and CMS will use information collected through the new NHSN Long-term Care COVID-19 Module to strengthen COVID-19 surveillance locally and nationally; monitor trends in infection rates; and help local, state, and federal health authorities get help to nursing homes faster. Nursing home reporting to the CDC is a critical component of the national COVID-19 surveillance system and to efforts to reopen America.
Skilled Nursing Facilities
Deadlines:
May 17, 2020: facilities must submit first set of data.
CMS will provide facilities with an initial two-week grace period to begin reporting cases in the NHSN system (which ends at 11:59 p.m. on May 24, 2020). Facilities that fail to begin reporting after the third week (by 11:59 p.m. on May 31st) will receive a warning letter reminding them to begin reporting the required information to CDC.
Frequency:
Facilities must submit the data through the NHSN at least once every seven days. Facilities may choose to submit multiple times a week. CMS is not prescribing which day of the week the data must be submitted, although reporting should remain consistent with data being submitted on the same day(s) each week. The collection period should also remain consistent (e.g., Monday through Sunday). Each Monday, CMS will review the data submitted to assess if each facility submitted data at least once in the previous seven days. The data pulled each Monday will also be used to update the data that is publicly reported.
CDC National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) LTCF COVID-19 Module
For CMS enforcement-related questions, please email: DNH_Enforcement@cms.hhs.gov. For other questions or concerns regarding CMS memo QSO-20-29-NH, please email: DNH_TriageTeam@cms.hhs.gov.
F884: COVID-19 Reporting to CDC as required at §483.80(g)(1)-(2)
Review for F884 will be conducted offsite by CMS Federal surveyors (state surveyors should not cite this F-tag). Following an initial reporting grace period granted to facilities, CMS will receive the CDC NHSN COVID-19 reported data and review for timely and complete reporting of all data elements. Facilities identified as not reporting will receive a deficiency citation at F884 on the CMS-2567 with a scope and severity level at an F (no actual harm with a potential for more than minimal harm that is not an Immediate Jeopardy [IJ] and that is widespread; this is a systemic failure with the potential to affect a large portion or all of the residents or employees), and be subject to an enforcement remedy imposed as described below.
