Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CDC's Hospital Data Disappears, Reappears And Vexes Many
The Washington Post: Disappearance Of Covid-19 Data From CDC Website Spurs Outcry
On the eve of a new coronavirus reporting system this week, data disappeared from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website as hospitals began filing information to a private contractor or their states instead. A day later, an outcry — including from other federal health officials — prompted the Trump administration to reinstate that dashboard and another daily CDC report on the pandemic. And on Thursday, the nation’s governors joined the chorus of objections over the abruptness of the change to the reporting protocols for hospitals, asking the administration to delay the shift for 30 days. In a statement, the National Governors Association said hospitals need the time to learn a new system, as they continue to deal with this pandemic. (Sun and Goldstein, 7/16)
Politico: Who Took Down The CDC’s Coronavirus Data? The Agency Itself.
After the Trump administration ordered hospitals to change how they report coronavirus data to the government, effectively bypassing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, officials at the CDC made a decision of their own: Take our data and go home. The sudden disappearance of the CDC’s coronavirus dashboards on Wednesday — which drew considerable scrutiny before the agency restored them on Thursday afternoon — has become the latest flashpoint in the extraordinary breakdown between the Washington, D.C.-based federal health department and the nation’s premier public health agency, located in Atlanta. (Diamond, Cancryn, Roubein and Tahir, 7/16)
The Hill: Governors Urge Trump To Delay Changes To Hospital COVID-19 Reporting
The National Governors Association (NGA) on Thursday called on the Trump administration to postpone planned alterations to hospital reporting requirements for 30 days. “The administration has stated that they plan to utilize this data to better allocate supplies and drugs to states,” the NGA said in a statement. (Budryk, 7/16)
Bangor Daily News: Maine Health Officials Raise Concerns About New Federal COVID-19 Reporting Requirements
Maine’s top epidemiologist said Thursday he is concerned about the rollout of a controversial new federal requirement that hospitals send their data on the coronavirus response straight to a database in Washington rather than first directing it to the state. Before Wednesday, Maine hospitals were able to submit that data to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which would then send it to its federal counterparts, said Nirav Shah, director of the Maine CDC. (Eichacker, 7/16)
Stat: How New Hospital Data Reporting Rules Will Affect U.S. Covid-19 Response
It’s a fight over something as seemingly mundane as government data collection. But with precious hospital supplies and patient outcomes at stake, it sparked a scandal. The Department of Health and Human Services changed the rules, quietly, earlier this week: Hospitals would be required to report data on Covid-19 patients and deaths directly to their agency, rather than to both HHS and the CDC, as they had been doing. (Florko and Boodman, 7/16)
Kaiser Health News: Listen: A Bureaucratic Shuffle For Hospital COVID Data
Julie Rovner, KHN’s chief Washington correspondent, on Wednesday joined Rob Ferrett, host of “Central Time” on Wisconsin Public Radio, to discuss the Trump administration’s announcement that hospital data on coronavirus cases will no longer be routed to the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention and instead will go to the Department of Health and Human Services. (Rovner, 7/16)
