savings of over $1,500,000. Mercy Health Center in 
Oklahoma has performed 400 surgeries without any 
infections by utilizing antibiotics and clean proce-
dures. 
(9) Uniform and accurate public reporting of 
health care-associated infections by hospitals and 
ambulatory surgical centers will allow health care 
providers to target their efforts to reduce the occur-
rence of health care-associated infections, enhance 
consumer choice of health care providers, reduce 
health care costs, and save lives. 
SEC. 
3. 
REQUIREMENT 
FOR 
PUBLIC 
REPORTING 
OF 
HEALTH 
CARE-ASSOCIATED 
INFECTIONS 
DATA BY HOSPITALS AND AMBULATORY SUR-
GICAL CENTERS. 
(a) REQUIRED REPORTING.— 
(1) HOSPITALS.—Subsection (a)(1) of section 
1866 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395cc) 
is amended— 
(A) in subparagraph (U), by striking 
‘‘and’’ at the end; 
(B) in subparagraph (V), by striking the 
period at the end and inserting ‘‘, and’’; and 
(C) by inserting after subparagraph (V) 
the following new subparagraph: 
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‘‘(W) in the case of a hospital or critical 
access hospital, to report to the Secretary data 
in accordance with subsection (k)(1).’’. 
(2) AMBULATORY SURGICAL CENTERS.—Section 
1832(a)(2)(F)(i) 
of 
such 
Act 
(42 
U.S.C. 
1395k(a)(2)(F)(i)) is amended by inserting after 
‘‘other standards’’ the following: ‘‘, including the re-
porting to the Secretary of data in accordance with 
section 1866(k)(1),’’. 
(b) DATA REPORTING
AND PUBLIC POSTING
OF 
HEALTH CARE-ASSOCIATED INFECTIONS BY HOSPITALS 
AND AMBULATORY SURGICAL CENTERS.—Section 1866 of 
such Act (42 U.S.C. 1395cc) is further amended by add-
ing at the end the following new subsection: 
‘‘(k) DATA REPORTING AND PUBLIC AVAILABILITY 
OF HEALTH CARE-ASSOCIATED INFECTIONS
BY HOS-
PITALS AND AMBULATORY SURGICAL CENTERS.— 
‘‘(1) QUARTERLY REPORTING REQUIREMENT.— 
Not later than 45 days after the end of a calendar 
quarter (beginning more than one year after the 
date of the enactment of this subsection), a hospital 
or ambulatory surgical center shall report to the 
Secretary the rate of each health care-associated in-
fection selected under paragraph (2) occurring in the 
hospital or center, respectively, during the calendar 
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quarter and information on relevant risk factors (re-
lating to susceptibility of patients to each such infec-
tion) that may affect such rate. 
‘‘(2) SELECTION OF HEALTH CARE-ASSOCIATED 
INFECTIONS.—For purposes of this subsection, the 
Secretary shall select one or more health care-associ-
ated infections. 
‘‘(3) PUBLIC
POSTING
OF
DATA.—The Sec-
retary shall promptly post, on the official public 
Internet site of the Department of Health and 
Human Services, the data reported under paragraph 
(1). Such data shall be set forth in a manner that 
promotes the comparison of the relative rate of oc-
currence of each health care-associated infection se-
lected under paragraph (2), taking into account the 
relevant risk factors reported under such paragraph, 
among hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. 
‘‘(4) ANNUAL
REPORT
TO
CONGRESS.—For 
each year for which data is reported under para-
graph (1) for any calendar quarter in the year, the 
Secretary shall submit to Congress a report that 
summarizes each of the following: 
‘‘(A) The rates of occurrence of each 
health care-associated infection selected under 
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paragraph (2) in hospitals and ambulatory sur-
gical centers during such year. 
‘‘(B) Factors that contribute to the occur-
rence of each such infection. 
‘‘(C) The measures applied by hospitals 
and ambulatory surgical centers to reduce each 
such infection and the effect of such measures 
during such year. 
‘‘(D) The total increases or decreases in 
health care costs that resulted from increases or 
decreases in the rates of occurrence of each 
such infection during such year. 
‘‘(E) Recommendations for best practices 
to eliminate the rates of occurrence of each 
such infection in hospitals and ambulatory sur-
gical centers. 
‘‘(5) CIVIL
MONEY
PENALTY.—The Secretary 
may impose a civil money penalty of not more than 
$10,000 for each knowing violation of paragraph (1) 
by a hospital or ambulatory surgical center. A civil 
money penalty under this paragraph shall be im-
posed and collected in the same manner as a civil 
money penalty under subsection (a) of section 
1128A is imposed and collected under that section, 
except that, notwithstanding subsection (f) of such 
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section, if the Secretary designs and implements a 
pilot program under section 4(a) of the Healthy 
Hospitals Act of 2007 (relating to the health care- 
associated infections pilot program), amounts recov-
ered under this paragraph shall be paid to the Sec-
retary and shall be available to carry out such pilot 
program. 
‘‘(6) NON-PREEMPTION
OF
STATE
LAWS.— 
Nothing in this subsection shall be construed as pre-
empting or otherwise affecting any provision of 
State law relating to the disclosure of additional in-
formation on health care-associated infections or pa-
tient safety procedures for a hospital or ambulatory 
surgical center. 
‘‘(7) HEALTH
CARE-ASSOCIATED
INFECTION 
DEFINED.—For purposes of this subsection, the 
term ‘health care-associated infection’— 
‘‘(A) means, as defined by the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention, an infection 
caused from bacteria or a virus that— 
‘‘(i) is a localized or systemic condi-
tion that results from an adverse reaction 
to the presence of an infectious agent or 
its toxin and that was not present or incu-
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