COVID–19 Data Accuracy Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8811 To initiate an inquiry and report on COVID–19 data quality, sharing, trans- parency, access, and analysis and develop a process to correct inaccurate information reported with respect to the COVID–19 public health emer- gency, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NOVEMBER 24, 2020 Ms. FINKENAUER (for herself, Mr. LOEBSACK, and Mrs. AXNE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To initiate an inquiry and report on COVID–19 data quality, sharing, transparency, access, and analysis and develop a process to correct inaccurate information reported with respect to the COVID–19 public health emergency, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘COVID–19 Data Accu- 4 racy Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:20 Dec 02, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8811.IH H8811 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8811 IH SEC. 2. PROTECTING DATA QUALITY, SHARING, TRANS- 1 PARENCY, ACCESS, AND ANALYSIS. 2 (a) INQUIRY AND SUBMISSION.— 3 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 7 days after 4 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comp- 5 troller General shall initiate an inquiry into any 6 changes or interruptions in data quality, sharing, 7 transparency, access, and analysis or access to rel- 8 evant analytics resulting from the changes to 9 COVID–19 hospital data reporting requirements ini- 10 tiated by the White House Coronavirus Task Force 11 and the Department of Health and Human Services 12 on July 13, 2020. 13 (2) SUBMISSION OF FINDINGS.—Not later than 14 45 days after initiation of an inquiry under para- 15 graph (1), the Comptroller General shall submit 16 findings with respect to such inquiry to the Com- 17 mittee on Energy and Commerce of the House of 18 Representatives, the Committee on Health, Edu- 19 cation, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate, and the 20 Department of Health and Human Services, in oral 21 briefings, which shall address— 22 (A) any changes or interruptions described 23 in paragraph (1), including whether such 24 changes increased, decreased, expedited, or de- 25 layed the data quality, sharing, transparency, 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:38 Dec 02, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8811.IH H8811 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8811 IH access, and analysis or access to relevant ana- 1 lytics, with respect to— 2 (i) the public; 3 (ii) State, local, Tribal, and territorial 4 health departments; 5 (iii) hospitals; and 6 (iv) Federal agency officials, including 7 officials in the Department of Health and 8 Human Services and Centers for Disease 9 Control and Prevention; and 10 (B) any impact to, or interruptions in, de- 11 livery of supplies, including personal protective 12 equipment, ventilators, and COVID–19 thera- 13 peutics, to States or other entities resulting 14 from any changes or interruptions described in 15 paragraph (1). 16 (b) ACCESS TO REPORTING SYSTEM.—The Secretary 17 shall, not later than 7 days after the date of enactment 18 of this Act, provide the Comptroller General with access 19 to the information technology systems maintained by the 20 Department of Health and Human Services to enable the 21 Comptroller General to independently access, view, 22 download, and retrieve data from such systems for the 23 purpose of carrying out this section. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:20 Dec 02, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8811.IH H8811 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8811 IH (c) ADDRESSING ISSUES.—Not later than 7 days 1 after the Comptroller General submits the findings to Con- 2 gress pursuant to subsection (a)(2), the Secretary shall— 3 (1) correct any decreases or delays identified by 4 the Comptroller General in the findings; 5 (2) address issues with respect to data quality, 6 sharing, transparency, access, and analysis and ac- 7 cess to relevant analytics; and 8 (3) ensure that such data quality, sharing, 9 transparency, access, and analysis and access to rel- 10 evant analytics are equal to or better than they were 11 as of July 12, 2020. 12 (d) REPORT.—Not later than 18 months after the 13 date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 14 shall submit to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 15 of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 16 Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate a 17 report on the impact of changes or interruptions to 18 COVID–19 hospital data reporting requirements described 19 in subsection (a). In preparing such report, the Comp- 20 troller General shall collect information from relevant 21 stakeholders, as appropriate. Such report shall— 22 (1) detail any such changes or interruptions to 23 data quality, sharing, transparency, access, and 24 analysis, or access to relevant analytics, for the enti- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:38 Dec 02, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8811.IH H8811 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 8811 IH ties described in subsection (a)(2)(A), including 1 whether such changes or interruptions increased, de- 2 creased, expedited, or delayed such data or access to 3 relevant analytics; 4 (2) describe challenges faced by hospitals, 5 States, localities, Indian Tribes (as defined in sec- 6 tion 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Edu- 7 cation Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304)), Urban In- 8 dian organizations (as defined in section 4 of the In- 9 dian Health Care Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 10 1603)), territories, Federal agencies, and the public 11 resulting from such changes or interruptions; 12 (3) describe the extent to which such changes 13 or interruptions may allow for manipulation of such 14 data in a manner that results in the entities de- 15 scribed in paragraph (2) receiving information that 16 is different from information provided to the Depart- 17 ment of Health and Human Services; 18 (4) assess the extent to which such changes or 19 interruptions increased or decreased the number of 20 hospitals reporting data and the completeness and 21 quality of data reported by hospitals; 22 (5) determine whether any States deployed the 23 National Guard to assist in hospital data reporting 24 (as suggested in communications from the White 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:20 Dec 02, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8811.IH H8811 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 8811 IH House Coronavirus Task Force and the Department 1 of Health and Human Services on July 13, 2020) 2 and whether any such deployment had a measurable 3 effect on the speed, content, or quality of such re- 4 porting; 5 (6) describe the decision-making process within 6 the Department of Health and Human Services that 7 led to the changes initiated on July 13, 2020, in- 8 cluding— 9 (A) the role of the Centers for Disease 10 Control and Prevention in such process; 11 (B) any analysis conducted by the Depart- 12 ment of Health and Human Services or the 13 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 14 that assessed the quality and completeness of 15 different data streams (including the National 16 Healthcare Safety Network, TeleTracking, and 17 data reported by States to the Protect System 18 of the Department of Health and Human Serv- 19 ices), prior to July 13, 2020; 20 (C) any external input into the decision- 21 making process, including from other Federal 22 agencies, States, localities, Indian Tribes (as 23 defined in section 4 of the Indian Self-Deter- 24 mination and Education Assistance Act (25 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:20 Dec 02, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8811.IH H8811 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 8811 IH U.S.C. 5304)), Urban Indian organizations (as 1 defined in section 4 of the Indian Health Care 2 Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 1603)), terri- 3 tories, or hospitals; 4 (D) the public health justification for the 5 changes; and 6 (E) any other justification for such 7 changes; and 8 (7) assess the process used to address— 9 (A) decreases or delays identified under 10 subsection (c)(1); and 11 (B) issues described in subsection (c)(2). 12 (e) INTERIM REPORT.—Not later than 6 months 13 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comp- 14 troller General shall submit to the Committee on Energy 15 and Commerce of the House of Representatives and the 16 Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of 17 the Senate an interim report on the initial findings with 18 respect to information required to be in the report under 19 subsection (d). 20 SEC. 3. CORRECTING INACCURACIES. 21 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after the 22 date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall, in 23 coordination with the Director of the Centers for Disease 24 Control and Prevention and reporting entities, develop a 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:38 Dec 02, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8811.IH H8811 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 8811 IH process to correct inaccurate information collected, re- 1 ported, or distributed with respect to the COVID–19 pub- 2 lic health emergency declared pursuant to section 319 of 3 the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 247d). 4 (b) REQUIREMENTS.—The process under subsection 5 (a) shall— 6 (1) identify and correct inaccurate information 7 in a timely manner; 8 (2) consider data made available by— 9 (A) the Department of Health and Human 10 Services and the Centers for Disease Control 11 and Prevention; and 12 (B) reporting entities (including data pro- 13 vided to the Secretary in accordance with the 14 State plans referred to in subsection (e)); 15 (3) permit the public to report on inaccurate in- 16 formation described in subsection (a); and 17 (4) include technical assistance, as necessary, 18 for reporting entities. 19 (c) PUBLIC NOTIFICATION.—The Secretary shall, in 20 a manner that protects personally identifiable information 21 from disclosure and complies with applicable Federal law 22 on privacy— 23 (1) in a timely manner, notify the public of— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:20 Dec 02, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8811.IH H8811 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 8811 IH (A) inaccurate information identified pur- 1 suant to the process developed under subsection 2 (a); and 3 (B) the steps used to correct the inac- 4 curate information; and 5 (2) after notifying the public under paragraph 6 (1), in a reasonable period of time, make a public 7 certification that such inaccurate information has 8 been corrected. 9 (d) GUIDANCE.—Not later than 30 days after the 10 date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall issue 11 guidance to reporting entities with respect to identifying 12 and correcting inaccurate information described in sub- 13 section (a) in the data collected, reported, or distributed 14 by such agencies. Such guidance shall include a method— 15 (1) to notify the Secretary when such inac- 16 curate information is identified; and 17 (2) to collaborate with the Secretary to correct 18 and notify the public of such inaccurate information 19 in accordance with subsection (c). 20 (e) STATE PLANS.—Not later than 60 days after the 21 date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall re- 22 quire each State that submitted to the Secretary a 23 COVID–19 testing plan under the heading ‘‘Public Health 24 and Social Services Emergency Fund’’ in title I of division 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:20 Dec 02, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8811.IH H8811 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 8811 IH B of the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care 1 Enhancement Act (Public Law 116–139) to update the 2 plan to include a process for correcting inaccurate infor- 3 mation described in subsection (a) based on the guidance 4 issued under subsection (d). 5 (f) REPORTS.— 6 (1) PRELIMINARY REPORTS.—Not later than 90 7 days after the date of the enactment this Act, and 8 every 30 days thereafter, the Secretary shall submit 9 to the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the 10 House of Representatives and the Committee on 11 Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Sen- 12 ate a preliminary report on— 13 (A) the inaccurate information that is cor- 14 rected the most through the process developed 15 under subsection (a); and 16 (B) best practices for identifying, cor- 17 recting, and notifying the public of such inac- 18 curate information. 19 (2) FINAL REPORT.—Not later than 3 months 20 after the end of the public health emergency de- 21 scribed in subsection (a), the Secretary shall submit 22 to the committees referred to in paragraph (1) a 23 final report on— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:38 Dec 02, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8811.IH H8811 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 8811 IH (A) the inaccurate information described in 1 paragraph (1)(A); and 2 (B) the effectiveness of the process devel- 3 oped under subsection (a) to address such inac- 4 curate information. 5 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 6 In this Act: 7 (1) COMPTROLLER GENERAL.—The term 8 ‘‘Comptroller General’’ means the Comptroller Gen- 9 eral of the United States. 10 (2) REPORTING ENTITIES.—The term ‘‘report- 11 ing entities’’ means State, territorial, and local 12 health departments, hospitals, and any other entity 13 that either directly or indirectly reports information 14 to the Secretary with respect to the COVID–19 pub- 15 lic health emergency declared pursuant to section 16 319 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 17 247d). 18 (3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 19 the Secretary of Health and Human Services. 20 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:38 Dec 02, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8811.IH H8811 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS