On January 21, communications from health agencies, including the FDA, HHS, CMS, CDC, and NIH, were halted. According to a report from The Washington Post, the Trump administration instructed federal health agencies to “pause all external communications,” including health advisories, weekly scientific reports, updates to websites, and social media posts. According to reports, the pause is in effect until February 1.
When visiting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Newsroom website, all posts were removed except for one from January 10. The CMS newsroom serves as a crucial source for fact sheets on federal rules and policy decisions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) also appeared to be immediately affected, with error messages replacing charts on the COVID-19 nursing home dashboard. The NHSN data has been a key tool for tracking cases among residents and staff over time. While external communications may be impacted, there is no indication that the reporting requirements for nursing homes, such as submitting data to various platforms, have been relaxed. LeadingAge has been advocating for relief from NHSN reporting due to concerns about duplicative and time-consuming reporting. LeadingAge will continue to stay abreast of the communications halt and engage with CMS and CDC to answer questions regarding requirements and data.
If you need assistance finding information or have questions, please reach out to Justin Hinker at justin.hinker@sdaho.org.
