Hospitals Get Short Timeline to Report Daily Covid, Flu Data

Some 6,200 U.S. hospitals will have 14 weeks beginning Wednesday to comply with federal Covid-19 data-reporting requirements or risk being excluded from the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

The aggressive timeline announced Tuesday allows the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to notify noncompliant hospitals, inform them of their violations, work with them to correct the problems— and if after 14 weeks that doesn’t work: “Termination from Medicare and Medicaid is the only sanction at our disposal,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said.

The hard line is the result of an interim final rule that took effect Sept. 2 that requires ...