Schumer, Murray Demand Answers On Trump Admin’s Unexplained $10 Million Contract For System Which Has Since Replaced CDC In Controlling COVID-19 Hospital Data—A Move That Sidelines Public Health Experts

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Patty Murray, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, sent a new letter today to the head of TeleTracking Technologies, the company the Trump Administration recently awarded a six-month, $10.2 million contract that creates a system to replace the CDC as the collector of COVID-19 data from hospitals, demanding answers to better understand the circumstances in which this contract was awarded. The Senators seek to understand why in the middle of a rapidly escalating global pandemic, the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services have curtailed use of a system that has collected public health data for over 15 years. The White House and HHS have stripped responsibilities for collecting COVID-19 data from hospitals away from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and instructed hospitals to send that information only to the newly established TeleTracking system created under the contract and the HHS Protect system. As of July 15, the White House and HHS explicitly instructed hospitals to cease reporting COVID-19 information to the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), an unprecedented decision that effectively sidelines our nation’s leading public health experts who have collected real time data on infectious diseases for decades.

 

The Senators’ letter seeks detailed information regarding the contract including the process by which it was awarded, the White House and HHS personnel who spearheaded these efforts; and whether TeleTracking will be making COVID data available to the public in a manner consistent with past practices utilized by the NHSN COVID-19 module. It is imperative that COVID-19 data being collected by the federal government regarding hospital and Intensive Care Unit capacity, supply shortages, and more continue to remain available to the federal agencies, states, hospitals, and public.

 

The letter from Leader Schumer and Ranking Member Murray can be found here and below.

 

July 22, 2020

 

Michael Zamagias

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

TeleTracking Technologies Inc.

336 Fourth Ave #7

Pittsburgh, PA 15222

 

Dear Mr. Zamagias:

 

We write to request information regarding the recent contract awarded to TeleTracking Technologies Inc. (TeleTracking) by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create a new system for the collection and management of COVID-19 data from hospitals across the country.

 

Under the six-month contract for $10.2 million, the White House and HHS have stripped responsibilities for collecting COVID-19 data from hospitals away from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and instructed hospitals to send that information only to the newly established TeleTracking and HHS Protect systems. This represents a sudden and significant departure from the way the federal government has collected public health data regarding infectious diseases in the past.

 

Since 2005, the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) has served as a national database for key public health information from over 25,000 health care facilities across the United States, including during COVID-19. In response to the pandemic, the CDC launched a COVID-19 reporting module for hospitals to share capacity and utilization information, including patient numbers, supply shortages, remdesivir inventory, and ventilator usage rates with the federal government. The Trump Administration previously required hospitals and nursing homes to report this COVID-19 related data to the CDC. Since the creation of the NHSN COVID-19 module, a majority of U.S. hospitals have reported daily to the CDC on COVID-19 data, and many have built their own COVID-19 data management systems to comply with these directives.

 

We were alarmed to learn that, as of July 15, hospitals were explicitly instructed to cease reporting to the CDC network and instead directed to send information to TeleTracking to be reported into HHS’s recently created “HHS Protect” system. We are troubled by this misguided and dangerous decision, which sidelines our nation’s leading public health experts and needlessly creates new reporting systems for those on the front lines of this pandemic.  

 

In order to better understand the circumstances in which this contract was awarded to TeleTracking, please provide answers to the following questions no later than August 3rd, 2020:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

###