On Friday, May 3, 2024, the Massachusetts Public Health Council (PHC) approved an emergency amendment to 105 CMR 130,000 that would require hospitals to report occupancy data to the Department of Public Health. This requirement expands on data reporting that began during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began collecting daily data to understand health care system stress, capacity, and hospitalizations due to COVID-19. On September 2, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services made reporting part of the conditions of participation. To streamline data reporting requirements for hospitals, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health has been certified to collect and report federal data on behalf of hospitals. By doing so, the Department was able to make one request per day that met both state data needs and federal reporting requirements.
These data were used to inform the department's response to COVID-19 and also provided the department with data used for planning and coordination within the Massachusetts health system. . The department claims this data will help monitor capacity trends across hospitals, identify and designate appropriate hospital capacity tiers for each region, and address emergency capacity needs within the hospital system. are doing.
The federal government ended reporting requirements for hospitals on April 30, 2024. The federal government is promulgating new provisions in hospital accreditation regulations that will mandate ongoing state reporting requirements to assist departments in monitoring hospital capacity in the commonwealth.
The COVID-19 reporting requirements included more than 100 data elements. The new regulations remove most of the required data elements and focus on data related to hospital bed capacity in Massachusetts.
This regulation requires hospitals to report:
- Manned beds by approved bed type.
- Number of occupied beds by licensed bed type.and
- Patient demographics for patients in these beds.
Through guidance, the department identified specific elements and how hospitals must report the data. The regulations require acute care hospitals, defined as “hospitals with a majority of medical, surgical, pediatric, obstetric, or obstetrical beds,” to submit daily data at least weekly. This definition of acute hospital also includes rehabilitation hospitals. Non-acute hospitals (all licensed hospitals that are not acute care hospitals) are required to submit data at least once a year (November). For acute hospitals, the first data submission is scheduled for Tuesday, May 7, 2024, and will include capacity data from Sunday, April 28, 2024 through Saturday, May 4, 2024.
As an emergency amendment, this regulation will become effective immediately upon filing with the Secretary of State. The regulations will be in effect for three months while the Department completes its regulatory process. During that time, there will be a public hearing and comment period. The public hearing will be held on June 10, 2024 at 1:00 p.m. via presided over teleconference. If you would like to comment or observe the hearing, please call 800-369-1170 and enter passcode 6410428. Comments can also be sent to: [email protected] The subject line is “105 CMR 130.000: Hospital License – Data Reporting”. Written comments must be submitted by him no later than 5:00 pm on June 10, 2024. The Department may make changes based on comments received and must finalize the regulations no later than three months from the date of initial publication.
inquiry
If you have any questions regarding these new amendments, please contact Crystal Bloom, Rebecca Rodman, or your Husch Blackwell attorney.
