As hospitals are focusing on COVID-19 patient care, they are also providing data to state and local governments, but a new regulatory approach could remove hospitals from the Medicare program by the administration, Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association (AHA) wrote in a press release from the AHA.
"This disturbing move, announced in final form without consultation, or the opportunity to provide feedback through appropriate administrative procedures prior to it becoming effective, could jeopardize access to care and leave patients and communities without vital health services from their local hospital during a pandemic," Pollack said in the press release.
As hospitals are working to help people, they have also been putting their faith in governments when they report coronavirus data. But as time goes on, local and state governments have been constantly changing the requirements for hospitals to report data, which can make things difficult for hospitals.
There have been six changes made to reporting data since February of this year and many hospitals are doing their best to keep up with the information changes as they report back coronavirus data.
"To close the gap in participation, the AHA has been working in partnership with HHS to help hospitals understand the changing data collection requirements," Pollack said in the press release. "Among other actions, we have: Provided HHS with updated contact information for some hospitals; identified closed or merged hospitals in HHS’s outdated data that would adversely affect its efforts; and formed teams at the state level to reach out to hospitals to help understand any barriers to participation. In some cases, we also found hospitals were submitting data, but the data was not making it through the HHS-approved data pipeline."
With all the changes and complications to data submissions, hospitals continue to stay committed to providing the most accurate information to the federal government as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
