CMS Allegedly Considering the Sunsetting of COVID-19 Data-Reporting Requirements for Certain Long-Term Care Facilities

September 29, 2026

By: Kaydeen M. Maitland, Gabriel S. Oberfield, Esq., M.S.J., and Hope Newkirk*

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reportedly intend to end pandemic-era requirements that certain CMS regulated long term care providers report COVID-19 and other respiratory illness data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) on a weekly basis.[1]

Under the current regulation, covered long-term care facilities must electronically report the following information each week: facility census; residents’ vaccination status for COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV); confirmed resident cases of each illness; and hospitalizations among residents with confirmed cases of those illnesses.[2] These reporting obligations were made permanent under the 2025 Home Health Prospective Payment System Final Rule, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.[3]

If adopted, the relevant CMS-regulated facilities (including skilled nursing facilities and assisted living providers) no longer would report data to the CDC on acute respiratory illness. The rationale is threefold: to allow providers to devote more time and resources to care delivery; to streamline public health reporting by eliminating duplicative requirements; and to reflect the federal government’s changed role in coordinating large-scale support for long-term care facilities relative to the worst of the pandemic.[4] CMS, per reporting, would retain the authority to reinstate weekly reporting requirements in the event of another public health emergency.[5]

CMS also is allegedly considering whether to sunset a requirement that nursing home staffs be educated about and offered COVID-19 vaccines.[6] However, it is likely to remain mandated that facilities offer such vaccines to residents.[7]

What’s Next

Although the draft summary of the proposed rule has not yet been made publicly available, Bond will monitor the Federal Register for any formal announcement of agency intent. If the proposed changes are ultimately published, a public comment period of at least sixty (60) days would follow, during which CMS will collect public feedback.[8] Following review of these comments, CMS then would publish a final rule, which would include a date upon which any change would take effect.[9]

What Providers Should Do Now

Until formal revision of the existing rules takes effect, long-term care facilities should continue entering data weekly through the NHSN in accordance with the existing regulations concerning acute respiratory reporting. Should you have questions about how CMS’s potential rollback of data reporting requirements affects your organization, please contact attorneys Kaydeen M. Maitland, Gabriel S. Oberfield or the Bond attorney with whom you work regularly.

*Special thanks to associate trainee Hope Newkirk, J.D., for her assistance in the preparation of this memo. Ms. Newkirk is not yet admitted to practice law.