March 29, 2020 / Modern Healthcare
The Trump administration on Sunday sent a letter to hospitals Sunday “requesting” that they report their COVID-19 testing data to HHS on a daily basis.
“We understand you may be reporting to your state, but the data is needed at the federal level to support FEMA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in their efforts to support states and localities in addressing and responding to the virus,” Vice President Mike Pence wrote. 
The request primarily applies to hospitals with in-house labs. “Academic, university and hospital ‘in-house’ labs are performing thousands of COVID-19 tests each day, but unlike private laboratories, the full results are not shared with government agencies working to track and analyze the virus,” Pence wrote.