S. 4499 — ALERT Act of 2026

This section directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to carry out a 5-year program beginning not later than 180 days after enactment of the Advanced Long-term care Early Response Technology Act of 2026 to expand and enhance the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) for real-time infectious disease and public health surveillance across nursing homes nationwide. The section authorizes contracts with eligible U.S.-based entities holding HITRUST r2 certification and demonstrated state or local surveillance experience (but excluding electronic medical records companies) to build the required infrastructure, mandates capabilities for real-time monitoring, NHSN integration, a central epidemiologist hub, immediate notifications to Federal, State, and local authorities, and an optional staffed care management program for skilled nursing facilities, while imposing HIPAA-equivalent privacy protections and prohibiting regulatory use of collected data unless expressly authorized by law; it further requires a study and report to Congress on effectiveness, impacts on hospitalization rates and patient outcomes, and recommendations for continuation or expansion, and authorizes appropriations as necessary for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2031.

This section expands the models that may be tested by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to include support for the adoption by the National Healthcare Safety Network of technology to improve infectious disease surveillance in nursing homes. The technology must enable immediate detection and reporting of outbreaks, facilitate coordinated responses with local, State, and Federal public health authorities, and allow nursing homes to participate in a staffed care management program to improve resident health outcomes.