Important: County Positivity Data for NF Staff Testing Now Available

On August 27, 2020, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the first set of county positivity data, covering August 13 – 19, 2020, to be utilized in determining the frequency of routine nursing facility staff testing required by QSO 20-38 and the Interim Final Rule.  To read IHCA/INCAL’s summary on QSO 20-38 and its routine staff testing requirements, please click here.

The county positivity data can be found at the following CMS website and accessed by clicking the rates of county positivity hyperlink within the “COVID-19 Testing” paragraph, as shown below.

Nursing facilities should utilize this data to determine the amount of routine testing that is required of facility staff and continue to check the county positivity data on a weekly basis to adjust the amount of testing as needed.

For those nursing facilities needing to develop or update their laboratory relationship, AHCA/NCAL’s testing vendors list can be found here.