Title: To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to establish a standardized procedure for all States to submit weekly reports on hospital policies and metrics related to the response to COVID-19, and for other purposes.
Policy area: Health

Summary:
This bill requires state, territorial, and tribal health departments to report weekly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the surge capacity and availability of personal protective equipment for hospitals in their jurisdictions to respond to increased COVID-19 cases. It also requires hospitals, as a condition of receiving COVID-19 funding, to provide specified data to their respective health departments every two weeks and post online their COVID-19 testing, infection control, and related policies.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8938 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 8938

 To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through 
  the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to 
  establish a standardized procedure for all States to submit weekly 
  reports on hospital policies and metrics related to the response to 
                   COVID-19, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 10, 2020

 Ms. Gabbard introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through 
  the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to 
  establish a standardized procedure for all States to submit weekly 
  reports on hospital policies and metrics related to the response to 
                   COVID-19, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. STANDARDIZING COVID-19 DATA REPORTING.

    (a) In General.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 30 days after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human 
        Services, acting through the Director of the Centers for 
        Disease Control and Prevention and in collaboration with the 
        Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, shall 
        establish a standardized procedure for all States, acting 
        through the State departments of health (or other State 
        agencies that administer public health programs), to submit in 
        an electronic format, on a weekly basis, to the Secretary 
        reports that include the information specified in paragraphs 
        (3) and (4).
    (a) Hospital Reports.--Beginning on the date that is 2 weeks after 
the date of the enactment of this Act, and every 2 weeks thereafter 
until the date that is 6 months after the date on which the emergency 
period ends, each hospital (or affiliated facility or site thereof) 
that received COVID-19 response funding shall, as a condition on 
receipt of such funding, submit to the relevant State department of 
health the following information regarding COVID-19:
            (1) With respect to the hospital's (or affiliated facility 
        or site thereof) COVID-19 caseload--
                    (A) the total number (if greater than zero) of 
                COVID-19 cases during the emergency period;
                    (B) the number of such cases to date;
                    (C) how many patients infected with COVID-19--
                            (i) have been discharged; and
                            (ii) have died (and the underlying cause, 
                        other than COVID-19, for such deaths); and
                    (D) how many staff members of the hospital (or 
                affiliated facility or site thereof) have been infected 
                with COVID-19 and the outcomes from those cases.
            (2) With respect to testing for COVID-19 conducted by the 
        hospital (or affiliated facility or site thereof)--
                    (A) the type of tests conducted;
                    (B) the location where the tests are being sent for 
                analysis;
                    (C) the turnaround time on results of such tests;
                    (D) the total tests performed to date; and
                    (E) the results of such tests, disaggregated by 
                positive, negative, or antibodies present.
            (3) With respect to the hospital's (or affiliated facility 
        or site thereof) COVID-19 surge capacity--
                    (A) the current bed availability in the hospital 
                (or affiliated facility or site thereof) under non-
                surge conditions and the availability of intensive care 
                unit beds;
                    (B) whether the hospital (or affiliated facility or 
                site thereof) has established or retrofitted new COVID-
                19 wards;
                    (C) the current ventilator capacity; and
                    (D) any other relevant statistics are determined by 
                the Secretary.
            (4) With respect to personal protective equipment, the 
        current availability of all relevant personal protective 
        equipment at the hospital (or affiliated facility or site 
        thereof), including whether there are shortages of such 
        equipment or other necessary treatment equipment for COVID-19.
    (e) Hospital Policy Reports.--
            (1) In general.--Beginning on the date that is 2 weeks 
        after the date of the enactment of this Act, and every 2 weeks 
        thereafter until the date that is 6 months after the date on 
        which the emergency period ends, each hospital (or affiliated 
        facility or site thereof) that received COVID-19 response 
        funding shall, as a condition on receipt of such funding, 
        maintain a standardized, comprehensive, publicly available 
        website detailing the hospital's (or affiliated facility or 
        site thereof) COVID-19-related policies and procedures that--
                    (A) is available in multiple languages;
                    (B) is published in an accessible manner;
                    (C) is updated on a weekly basis; and
                    (D) contains the information described in paragraph 
                (2).
            (2) Information described.--The information described in 
        this section is the following:
                    (A) COVID-19 testing standards, policies, 
                requirements, and criteria for patients, visitors, and 
                staff (medical and non-medical).
                    (B) COVID-19 infection control and prevention, 
                including personal protective equipment usage and 
                disinfection, visitor guidance, patient placement and 
                triage (such as procedures to isolate patients infected 
                with COVID-19), best practices for staff, patients, and 
                visitors, and whether staff are working both within and 
                outside of COVID-19 units or wards.
                    (C) Protocols for staff to leave from and return to 
                work after being in contact with a COVID-19 positive 
                case or testing positive for COVID-19.
                    (D) The availability of telehealth, access to 
                services (including the rate of payment for such 
                services).
                    (E) Policies and procedures for surgeries unrelated 
                to COVID-19.
                    (F) Internal contact tracing policies, if any.
                    (G) Any other policy the Secretary, acting through 
                the Director, determines is applicable.
    (f) Data Requirements.--
            (1) Disaggregation.--All data reported under this section 
        with respect to COVID-19 patients shall be disaggregated by 
        age, sex, race, ethnicity, and other demographic factors as may 
        be specified by the Secretary.
            (2) Privacy.--Any information collected pursuant to this 
        section with respect to COVID-19 patients shall be de-
        identified and otherwise subject to all applicable Federal and 
        State privacy laws.
    (g) Funding.--The Secretary shall use to carry out this section 
funding made available under the third paragraph under the heading 
``Department of Health and Human Services--Office of the Secretary--
Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund'' of the CARES Act 
(Public Law 116-136; 134 Stat. 563).
    (h) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) The term ``appropriate committees of Congress'' means--
                    (A) the Committee on Appropriations of the House of 
                Representatives;
                    (B) the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the 
                House of Representatives;
                    (C) the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of 
                Representatives;
                    (D) the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate;
                    (E) the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
                Pensions of the Senate; and
                    (F) the Committee on Finance of the Senate.
            (2) The term ``COVID-19 response funding'' means Federal 
        funding received under--
                    (A) the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response 
                Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020 (Public Law 116-
                123), or an amendment made by that Act;
                    (B) the Families First Coronavirus Response Act 
                (Public Law 116-127), or an amendment made by that Act;
                    (C) the CARES Act (Public Law 116-136), or an 
                amendment made by that Act;
                    (D) the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care 
                Enhancement Act (Public Law 116-139), or an amendment 
                made by that Act; or
                    (E) any other Federal law under which Federal 
                assistance is provided to States and other non-Federal 
                entities for purposes of responding to COVID-19.
            (3) The term ``emergency period'' has the meaning given 
        such term in section 1135(g)(1)(B) of the Social Security Act 
        (42 U.S.C. 1320b-5(g)(1)(B)).
            (4) The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of Health 
        and Human Services, acting through the Director of the Centers 
        for Disease Control and Prevention.
            (5) The term ``State'' means each of the several States, 
        the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 
        American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
        Islands, the Virgin Islands, the Trust Territory of the Pacific 
        Islands, and each federally recognized Indian Tribe.
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