Tools and Resources for the Health IT and Clinical Community
To support HHS’s ongoing response efforts to the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), ONC has partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to share various resources for reporting and tracking COVID-19, as well as general clinical guidance to the health IT community and healthcare providers. Health IT now plays a crucial role in the collecting and reporting of COVID-19 data. Additionally, electronic health information exchange can facilitate effective strategies to combat COVID-19, including:
- Surveillance
- Public health reporting
- Laboratory testing
- Clinical data collection
- Case investigation and management
- Reporting outcomes
- Workforce Safety and Health (please visit https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/index.htm)
Below are resources created by CDC, ONC, and other partners, which the health IT community and healthcare providers can reference as HHS works to respond to this emerging disease. Please note that edits/additions will be made to the resources below when new information becomes available.
GENERAL GUIDANCE | ONC RESOURCES | CMS GUIDANCE | HHS GUIDANCE | SUPPORTING INFORMATION
GENERAL GUIDANCE | |
Coronavirus Disease 2019—Federal government main website | |
Coronavirus Disease 2019—CDC main website | |
Coronavirus Disease 2019—Government response website | |
Coronavirus Disease Technical Guidance—WHO guidance
| https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance |
CDC’s Health Alert Network (HAN)—CDC’s primary method for sharing cleared information about urgent public health incidents, including updates on any COVID-19 guidance documents (sign up is available). | https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/index.asp?deliveryName=USCDC_511-DM22106 |
Evaluating and Testing Persons for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)—CDC guidance for healthcare professionals | https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/hcp/clinical-criteria.html |
Interim Clinical Guidance for Management of Patients with Confirmed Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)—(CDC) | https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/clinical-guidance-management-patients.html |
Information for Healthcare Professionals—CDC offers specific guidance for many different setting | https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/hcp/index.html
|
Interim Guidelines for Collecting, Handling, and Testing Clinical Specimens from Persons for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)—CDC guidelines for laboratory testing | https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/lab/guidelines-clinical-specimens.html |
IMMUNIZATION RESOURCES | |
CDC Immunization Information Systems (IIS) Code Sets - provides a preview of the vaccine codes that will be activated if FDA authorizes use of the candidate vaccines currently being studied in clinical trials | |
AMA CPT Vaccine and Immunization Codes - provides the new approved Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) codes that have been created to help streamline the reporting of immunizations for SARS-CoV-2 | https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/cpt/covid-19-cpt-vaccine-and-immunization-codes |
COVID-19 Vaccination Provider Support – provides details on data and reporting requirements and specifications for vaccine administration | https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/vaccination-provider-support.html |
ONC RESOURCES | |
Interoperability Standards Advisory — ONC’s resource for industry to reference standards and implementation specifications | |
Interoperability for COVID-19 — ONC’s resource for industry to reference standards and implementation specifications related to COVID-19 | |
Interoperability Proving Ground — an open community platform developed by ONC to share COVID-19 interoperability projects | |
Health Information Technology Advisory Committee — Special COVID-19 Response Meeting | https://www.healthit.gov/hitac/events/health-it-advisory-committee-29 |
CMS GUIDANCE | |
CMS Takes Action Nationwide to Aggressively Respond to Coronavirus National Emergency | |
Medicaid’s Disaster Response Toolkit—provides guidance on policies and programs | https://www.medicaid.gov/state-resource-center/disaster-response-toolkit/index.html |
COVID-19 FAQs for State Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Agencies | https://www.medicaid.gov/state-resource-center/downloads/covid-19-faqs.pdf |
HHS GUIDANCE | |
HHS Laboratory Data Reporting Guidance — provides new guidance on additional data to be reported to HHS by laboratories along with COVID-19 test results | https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dls/locs/2020/update-on-covid-19-reporting-requirements.html |
Expansion of Telehealth Access — provides a statement from Secretary Alex Azar on the expansion of access to telehealth services during the COVID-19 outbreak | |
Limited Waiver of HIPAA Sanctions and Penalties — provides Office of Civil Rights guidance on waivers for HIPAA penalties during the COVID-19 outbreak | https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/hipaa-and-covid-19-limited-hipaa-waiver-bulletin-508.pdf |
HIPAA, Civil Rights, and COVID-19—provides HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) guidance on how HIPAA Privacy Rule allows patient information to be shared during COVID-19 outbreak | https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/special-topics/hipaa-covid19/index.html |
Webinar: OCR Update on HIPAA and COVID-19 — HIPAA privacy and security issues related to COVID-19 and recent OCR actions related to the pandemic | VIDEO: https://youtu.be/2C6iOdS_FR0 |
HHS Telehealth Guidance — provide additional resources to the ones listed above for health care providers to implement and access telehealth during COVID-19 national emergency | |
SUPPORTING INFORMATION | |
ICD-10-CM Official Coding Guidelines — provides information on supplement coding encounters related to COVID-19 Coronavirus Outbreak (CDC) as well as updated announcements from CDC regarding new ICD-10-CM codes | |
LOINC (Prerelease Terms) codes | |
SNOMED CT—Changes to concept descriptions related to the 2019 Coronavirus Outbreak | http://www.snomed.org/news-and-events/articles/march-2020-interim-snomedct-release-COVID-19 |
Public Health Information Network Vocabulary Access and Distribution System (PHIN VADS)—CDC provides a list of COVID-19 Informatics Resources including public health laboratory codes | |
CPT® releases new coronavirus (COVID-19) code & description for testing (American Medical Association) | |
Travel—CDC guidance for travelers and travel-related industries as it pertains to COVID-19 | https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/index.html |
Information for Laboratories—CDC interim guidance and resources for laboratory professionals | |
Interim Guidance for Collection and Submission of Postmortem Specimens from Deceased Persons Under Investigation (PUI) for COVID-19—CDC provides interim guidance on collection of postmortem specimens | https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/guidance-postmortem-specimens.html |
COVID-19 Telehealth Toolkit—developed by the National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers | https://www.telehealthresourcecenter.org/resource-documents/ |
ASPR TRACIE Resources—this page highlights resources to address current response and recovery | |
NIH COVID-19 Literature Hub—this page is a resource for research publications related to COVID-19 |