A bill to require the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study and report on data quality, sharing, transparency, access, and analysis.

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 4328 To require the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study and report on data quality, sharing, transparency, access, and analysis. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JULY 27, 2020 Mr. SCHUMER (for himself, Mrs. MURRAY, Mr. BROWN, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. CASEY, Ms. ROSEN, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. REED, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Ms. SMITH, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. KAINE, Ms. WARREN, Mr. HEIN- RICH, Ms. HARRIS, Mr. UDALL, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. MERKLEY, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. CARDIN, Ms. STABENOW, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. WYDEN, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Mrs. SHAHEEN, and Mr. BEN- NET) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To require the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study and report on data quality, sharing, transparency, access, and analysis. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. PROTECTING DATA QUALITY, SHARING, TRANS- 3 PARENCY, ACCESS, AND ANALYSIS. 4 (a) INQUIRY AND SUBMISSION OF FINDINGS.— 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Aug 09, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4328.IS S4328 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 4328 IS (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 7 days after 1 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comp- 2 troller General of the United States (referred to in 3 this section as the ‘‘Comptroller General’’) shall ini- 4 tiate an inquiry into any changes or interruptions in 5 data quality, sharing, transparency, access, and 6 analysis resulting from the changes to COVID–19 7 hospital data reporting requirements initiated by the 8 White House Coronavirus Task Force and the De- 9 partment of Health and Human Services on July 10 13, 2020. 11 (2) SUBMISSION OF FINDINGS.—Not later than 12 45 days after initiation of such inquiry, the Comp- 13 troller General shall present its findings to the Com- 14 mittee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 15 of the Senate, the Committee on Energy and Com- 16 merce of the House of Representatives, and the De- 17 partment of Health and Human Services, in oral 18 briefings, which shall detail— 19 (A) what is known about any changes or 20 interruptions in data quality, sharing, trans- 21 parency, access to data, and analysis or access 22 to relevant analytics, including whether such 23 changes increased, decreased, expedited, or de- 24 layed such quality, sharing, transparency, ac- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Aug 09, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4328.IS S4328 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 4328 IS cess, and analysis or access to relevant ana- 1 lytics, for— 2 (i) the public; 3 (ii) State, local, Tribal, and territorial 4 health departments; 5 (iii) hospitals; or 6 (iv) Federal agency officials, including 7 officials within the Department of Health 8 and Human Services and Centers for Dis- 9 ease Control and Prevention; and 10 (B) what is known about whether there 11 was any impact to, or interruptions in, delivery 12 of supplies, including personal protective equip- 13 ment, ventilators, and COVID–19 therapeutics, 14 to States or other entities resulting from 15 changes to COVID–19 hospital data reporting 16 requirements described in paragraph (1). 17 (b) ACCESS TO REPORTING SYSTEM.—For purposes 18 of the review required under this section or any other 19 audit, evaluation, or investigation authorized by law, the 20 Secretary shall, within 7 days of the date of enactment 21 of this Act, provide the Comptroller General with direct 22 access to the systems used for the reporting of information 23 referred to in this section, including to all information col- 24 lected, stored, analyzed, processed, or produced in or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Aug 09, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4328.IS S4328 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 4328 IS through such systems used for such purposes. For pur- 1 poses of this subsection, the term ‘‘direct access’’ means 2 secured access to the information technology systems 3 maintained by the Department of Health and Human 4 Services that enables the Comptroller General to inde- 5 pendently access, view, download and retrieve data from 6 such systems. 7 (c) ADDRESSING ISSUES.—Not later than 7 days 8 after the Comptroller General submits the findings to Con- 9 gress under subsection (a)(2), the Secretary of Health and 10 Human Services shall address data quality, sharing, trans- 11 parency, access, and analysis, and access to relevant ana- 12 lytics for the public; State, local, Tribal, and territorial 13 health departments; hospitals; and Federal agency offi- 14 cials, including officials within the Department of Health 15 and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and 16 Prevention, to fully correct any decreases or delays re- 17 ported under subsection (a)(2) by the Comptroller General 18 and ensure that data quality, sharing, transparency, ac- 19 cess, and analysis or access to relevant analytics are equal 20 to or better than they were as of July 12, 2020. 21 (d) REPORT.—Not later than 18 months after the 22 date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 23 shall submit to the Committee on Health, Education, 24 Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and the Committee on 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Aug 09, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4328.IS S4328 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 4328 IS Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives, 1 a report regarding the impact of changes to COVID–19 2 hospital data reporting requirements initiated by the 3 White House Coronavirus Task Force and the Depart- 4 ment of Health and Human Services on July 13, 2020. 5 In preparing such report, the Comptroller General shall 6 collect information from relevant stakeholders, as appro- 7 priate. Such report shall— 8 (1) detail any known changes or interruptions 9 in data quality, sharing, transparency, access, and 10 analysis or access to relevant analytics for the enti- 11 ties described in subsection (a)(2)(A), including 12 whether such changes ultimately increased, de- 13 creased, expedited, or delayed data quality, sharing, 14 transparency, access, and analysis or access to rel- 15 evant analytics; 16 (2) describe challenges faced by hospitals, 17 States, localities, Indian Tribes (as defined in sec- 18 tion 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Edu- 19 cation Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304)), urban In- 20 dian organizations (as defined in section 4 of the In- 21 dian Health Care Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 22 1603)), territories, Federal agencies, and the public 23 resulting from such changes; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Aug 09, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4328.IS S4328 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 4328 IS (3) describe the extent to which such changes 1 may allow for manipulation of the data in a manner 2 that results in hospitals, States, localities, Indian 3 Tribes (as defined in section 4 of the Indian Self- 4 Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 5 U.S.C. 5304)), urban Indian organizations (as de- 6 fined in section 4 of the Indian Health Care Im- 7 provement Act (25 U.S.C. 1603)), territories, Fed- 8 eral agencies, and the public receiving different in- 9 formation than what was provided to the Depart- 10 ment of Health and Human Services; 11 (4) assess the extent to which such changes in- 12 creased or decreased the number of hospitals report- 13 ing data and the completeness and quality of data 14 reported by hospitals; 15 (5) determine whether any States deployed the 16 National Guard to assist in hospital data reporting, 17 as suggested in communications from the White 18 House Coronavirus Task Force and the Department 19 of Health and Human Services on July 13, 2020, 20 and whether any such deployment had a measurable 21 effect on the speed, content, or quality of such re- 22 porting; 23 (6) describe the decision-making process within 24 the Department of Health and Human Services that 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Aug 09, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4328.IS S4328 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 4328 IS led to the changes initiated on July 13, 2020, in- 1 cluding— 2 (A) the role of the Centers for Disease 3 Control and Prevention in such decision-mak- 4 ing; 5 (B) any analysis conducted by the Depart- 6 ment of Health and Human Services or the 7 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 8 that assessed the quality and completeness of 9 different data streams (including the National 10 Healthcare Safety Network, TeleTracking, data 11 reported by States to the Protect System of the 12 Department of Health and Human Services), 13 prior to July 13, 2020; 14 (C) any external input into the decision- 15 making process, including from other Federal 16 agencies, States, localities, Indian Tribes (as 17 defined in section 4 of the Indian Self-Deter- 18 mination and Education Assistance Act (25 19 U.S.C. 5304)), urban Indian organizations (as 20 defined in section 4 of the Indian Health Care 21 Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 1603)), terri- 22 tories, or hospitals; 23 (D) the public health justification for the 24 changes; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Aug 09, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4328.IS S4328 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •S 4328 IS (E) any other justification for such 1 changes; and 2 (7) assess the process used to address any de- 3 creases or delays in data quality, sharing, trans- 4 parency, access to data, and analysis and access to 5 relevant analytics as required under subsection (c). 6 (e) INTERIM REPORT.—Not later than 6 months 7 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller 8 General shall submit to the Committee on Health, Edu- 9 cation, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and the Com- 10 mittee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Rep- 11 resentatives an interim report providing information on 12 initial findings under subsection (d). 13 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:06 Aug 09, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S4328.IS S4328 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS