HHS says COVID-19 data reporting system won't go back to CDC

 Michael Caputo, HHS assistant secretary, told Texas-based News West 9 that the hospital COVID-19 data reporting system will not be transitioning back to the CDC, despite statements made by White House coronavirus official Deborah Birx, MD, earlier this week.

On Aug. 17, Dr. Birx said the current COVID-19 reporting system, which requires hospitals to report data directly to HHS, is an "interim system" and that the CDC is working with the task force to build a "revolutionary new data system" so the data reporting can move back to the CDC. After the federal government transitioned the data reporting process to HHS in July, public health officials raised concerns about data integrity with the new collection system.

However, Mr. Caputo refuted the change and said the data collection process will stay with HHS after all. An HHS spokesperson clarified that the "interim system" Dr. Birx referred to in her statement was the manual data collection process and that the CDC is working on an automated process that will send the data to the HHS data platform, HHS Protect.

In a statement to NPR, Mr. Caputo said "The process for COVID-19 data reporting has not and is not changing. He told NPR that Dr. Birx's comments did not reflect a policy shift.