Washington, D.C. — The federal government is preparing to stop asking nursing homes how many of their residents are sick with COVID-19, influenza, or RSV.
A draft plan circulating inside the Trump administration would end the weekly reporting requirement that roughly 15,000 Medicare-certified nursing homes have lived with since the pandemic began, according to a summary obtained by The New York Times. The memo, written by CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., would also scrap a rule requiring facilities to educate staff about COVID vaccines and offer them. Nursing homes would still have to offer the shots to residents.
Nothing changes yet. The plan has not been formally proposed, and any official rule would go through public comment first. CMS declined to discuss the timing. But the draft lands at a delicate moment: respiratory virus season is starting, and cases are already climbing.
The Numbers Behind the Debate
Federal data shows resident COVID cases fell to 13.8 per 100,000 residents in June. By September 17, that figure had jumped to 171.7 — still well below the peak of 717.6 recorded in January 2025, but a reminder of how fast illness moves through congregate care. The same weekly submissions show vaccination coverage is thin: 56.9 percent of residents have gotten a flu shot this season, 35.3 percent are up to date on COVID vaccines, and 23.2 percent have an RSV vaccine. Among staff, COVID vaccination sits at just 19.6 percent.
Industry groups have pushed for the change for years, arguing the reports eat up staff time and duplicate information already flowing to state and federal health officials. “It would be reasonable and prudent of CMS to eliminate this requirement,” said Holly Harmon of the American Health Care Association, who noted the public health emergency ended more than three years ago.
Resident advocates see it differently. “I don’t think there is any reason to believe they have beefed up what they are supposed to be doing,” said Toby Edelman of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, pointing to persistently low staffing and high turnover. The weekly dashboard is the only national, facility-by-facility window into infections inside nursing homes — the kind of early warning families can’t get anywhere else.
The rulemaking trail matters here. The requirement became permanent under a rule finalized in late 2024, with flu and RSV reporting taking effect on January 1, 2025. The draft memo reportedly includes one safeguard: CMS could reinstate weekly reporting if another public health emergency is declared.
The proposal follows weeks after CMS handed providers a win on resident assessments and state auditors, part of a broader push to peel back rules the administration considers outdated. Whether the trade-off — lighter paperwork versus a blinder on outbreaks — survives public comment is the next fight.
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