Most notably, there are a series of proposed changes to CMS’ Promoting Interoperability Program – the successor to meaningful use – designed to bolster the response to public health emergencies such as COVID-19.
The agency plans to amend program stipulations for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals – broadening requirements focused on public health and clinical data exchange.
The proposed rule would make it mandatory for hospitals to report on four measures, rather than allowing a pick-and-choose approach, as had been the case before:
- Syndromic Surveillance Reporting.
- Immunization Registry Reporting.
- Electronic Case Reporting.
- Electronic Reportable Laboratory Result Reporting.
The new requirements would enable nationwide syndromic surveillance that could help provide early notices of emerging disease outbreaks, according to CMS.
Additionally, automated case and lab reporting would speed response times for public health agencies, while broader and more granular visibility into immunization uptake patterns would help these agencies tailor their vaccine distribution plans.
In other changes, CMS is proposing an extension for the New COVID-19 Treatments Add-on Payment it established this past November. The proposed rule would extend the NCTAP for “certain eligible technologies through the end of the fiscal year” in which the public health emergency ends.
The agency also wants to improve public health response by “leveraging meaningful measures for quality programs.”
CMS wants to require hospitals to report COVID-19 vaccinations of workers in their facilities via the COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage among Healthcare Personnel (HCP) Measure.