CMS proposes a new annual Acute Hospital Care at Home reporting requirement, comments close October 26
Sep 6, 2026 edition · GC-2026-0010 · Published 2026-09-06 · Version 2 · Proposed
CMS is proposing an annual hospital-at-home services collection, with comments due October 26. The new CMS-10971 tool would describe clinician visits, food and pharmacy services; the notice seeks OMB approval and does not itself establish an approved reporting start date.
What happened
CMS’s August 27 Paperwork Reduction Act notice proposes a new Acute Hospital Care at Home Quantity, Intensity, and Mix of Services data collection, CMS-10971. It opens a sixty-day comment opportunity ending October 26, before submission to the Office of Management and Budget for approval. The tool would quantify services furnished to hospital-at-home patients, including clinician visits, food services and pharmacy services. The notice describes an annual collection and estimates 365 respondents, 13,000 annual responses and 13,000 annual burden hours. Those are estimated totals for the collection, not thirteen thousand hours per hospital.
The notice ties the work to section 6210(c) of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 and explains that CMS will use the information to report to Congress. Its scope includes patients admitted from an emergency department and patients transferred from an inpatient hospital unit under the initiative. Hospitals participate through waivers at the CMS Certification Number level. CMS invites input on necessity, usefulness, burden estimates, clarity and ways technology could reduce reporting effort. Because this is a request for a new control number, the proposed data fields and burden should be evaluated separately from any claim that an approved collection is already in operation.
Scope and timing
- Authority status
- Proposed
- Applicability
- Potentially applicable
- Audience
- Health systems
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
- Affected functions
- Clinical Operations, Compliance, Quality, HIM/CDI, Finance, Case Management
- Responsible owner
- Clinical Operations
- Recorded date
- 2026-10-26
- Date type
- comment
Why it matters
Participating programs can assess whether existing records support the proposed counts while the collection is still open for comment. The notice establishes a proposal and estimates, so planning should not presume a final operational reporting requirement or an approved start date.
Recommended action
Confirm hospital-at-home participation and ask the program’s data owners how the proposed clinician, food and pharmacy service counts could be produced. Compare the estimated effort with actual systems and decide whether to submit comments by October 26. Monitor separately for OMB approval and implementation instructions.
Related coverage
The October 26, 2026 comment deadline is the compliance calendar item; the reporting build is owned here. Compliance Sweep →
Sources
- Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request, CMS-10971 Acute Hospital Care at Home QIMS Data Collection ToolOfficial · Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Federal Register · 2026-08-27 · Source review 2026-08-30
- CMS-10971 proposed information collection, official Federal Register textOfficial · CMS, Government Publishing Office · 2026-08-27 · Source review 2026-10-15
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