On June 10, 2020, the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) published two final rules in the Indiana Register, which are effective thirty (30) days following their publication. The final rules address the following topics:
- Health facility data reported to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN); and
- Indiana’s Certificate of Need process.
NHSN Data
The first rule published states that any health care facility, including those licensed under IC 16-28, that participates in a CMS program that requires data to be reported to NHSN shall confer to ISDH the NHSN access rights to its facility specific data reported to NHSN. Accordingly, ISDH will be able to access the COVID-19 data reported by nursing facilities to NHSN, as required by CMS. The entirety of the final rule can be found here.
The IHCA/INCAL is working with ISDH to understand if anything will be required of nursing facilities to provide access to ISDH and how this data will be utilized.
Certificate of Need
The second rule published makes permanent the emergency rules that were originally enacted to implement Indiana’s Certificate of Need process. ISDH did not change anything from the emergency rules, including maintaining the $5,000 fee. The entirety of the final rule can be found here.
As a reminder, as a part of the state’s Certificate of Need process, ISDH publishes a bed need analysis by July 1st of each year. The July 2020 bed need analysis can be found here.