CHA News

California Certified to Submit COVID-19 Data to Federal Government

For COVID-19 tracker designees

This post has been archived and contains information that may be out of date.

On Oct. 6, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released guidance (with accompanying FAQs from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) on how it will enforce the interim final rule that requires hospitals to report COVID-19 data, in order to continue to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The FAQs noted that hospitals could be relieved from reporting directly to the federal government if they receive a written release from the state indicating that the state is certified and will collect the data from hospitals and take over the hospital’s federal reporting responsibilities. On Oct. 15, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) received that release. 

The letter from HHS Regional Administrator Mark D. Young to CDPH certifies that the state of California is reporting hospital capacity and utilization data for hospitals in the state using one of the approved options for reporting COVID-19 information to the federal government. California has been certified as reporting all the required fields on behalf of hospitals.

The letter authorizes the state to relieve individual hospitals of reporting the required COVID-19 data directly to the federal government.  

CDPH is also expected to link to this letter in revisions to All Facilities Letter 20-31.2. Please send any questions to COVIDTracker@calhospital.org