On December 11, 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) posted an update to the inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) quality reporting spotlight & announcements page of their website, regarding an extension of the IRF quality reporting program data submission. CMS made the decision to extend the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) data submission deadline for IRF providers until Monday, February 15, 2016. The extension also applies to the submission deadline to the calendar year 2015 quarters 1 and 2, fiscal year 2017 payment determination. In addition, the extension applies to the submission deadlines for assessment data for the quality reporting program.

Members are encouraged to run the applicable CMS output reports within their facility prior to each quarterly reporting deadline. Detailed guidance on how to run and interpret these reports, and additional information, are posted on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website. Additionally, once these reporting deadlines have passed, members should run the advanced analysis reports within NHSN to view when each data element was first entered and last modified, to determine whether all data were complete at the time of the reporting deadline.

Additional information on how to run and interpret these reports is provided by the CDC/NHSN. Questions on the reports within NHSN should be directed to the NHSN help desk. Additional questions can be directed to the CMS help desk.