Health STATISTICS Act of 2020

Health Standards To Advance Transparency, Integrity, Science, Technology Infrastructure, and Confidential Statistics Act of 2020 or the Health STATISTICS Act of 2020

This bill directs various departments and agencies to undertake activities concerning the collection, reporting, and use of public health data.

Specifically, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) must take certain actions, including establishing a working group, to develop uniform standards for reporting public health data. Furthermore, the CDC must, in consultation with the National Institutes of Health, establish specific standards within 30 days for reporting COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) data, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must disseminate this data subject to privacy and other requirements. HHS may also award grants to entities that report public health data to support the adoption of uniform standards.

In addition, the Office of Management and Budget must issue directives concerning federal health data collection that address, for example, the use of determinants of health data and access to data for evidence-building initiatives.

The bill also directs the National Center for Health Statistics to expand an existing program that links different federal datasets to facilitate statistical public health research, including to address social determinants of health. The program must assess the availability of datasets, use existing authorities to link these datasets, and support linkage to a specified database of death record information.

Additionally, the CDC shall support research entities and public health departments to increase capacity for statistical public health research.