HHSC No Longer Requires COVID-19 Case Reporting

HHSC Long-term Care Regulation has retired Provider Letter (PL) 2022-16 COVID-19 Reporting Guidance for Nursing Facility Providers.

Effective March 13, 2024, HHSC no longer requires nursing facility (NF) providers to report COVID-19 cases to HHSC’s Complaint Incident and Intake (CII), Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), or to Local Health Departments.

NFs are still required to report COVID-19 data, including COVID-19 vaccine data for staff and residents, to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via the National Healthcare Safety Network.

NFs must still report all deaths to HHSC via the Texas Unified Licensure Information Portal, including deaths related to COVID-19, and deaths that occur within 24 hours after transferring a resident to a hospital from the NF, within 10 working days after the last day of the month in which the death occurred. Read Provider Letter 2020-08 for more information.

NFs must report communicable diseases in accordance with Texas Administrative Code Title 25, Chapter 97, and the Notifiable Conditions specified by the DSHS. Please note that the reference to “novel coronavirus” as a notifiable condition does not refer to COVID-19. Novel coronavirus includes communicable diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). NFs should communicate with the medical provider, hospital or laboratory who confirmed the coronavirus diagnosis to ensure they reported the diagnosis to DSHS or the local health department.

For questions related to DSHS COVID-19 reporting requirements, please contact your Local Health Department (LHD), or if you do not have an LHA, please email DSHS directly at RLHO@dshs.texas.gov.

Email LTCRpolicy@hhs.texas.gov with questions about this alert or about HHSC COVID-19 reporting requirements.