Site FAQs

Respiratory diseases like COVID, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) have similar symptoms. Reporting a negative test may help show that another disease besides COVID is going around your area.

Public health and medical teams use different tools to respond to different situations. For example, if a COVID surge is happening, hospitals and community health centers know they need lots of rapid COVID tests. But they don't need to stock up on that kind of test if the area is facing a lot of flu but not much COVID.

Right now, public health teams are still studying how best to use the data that MakeMyTestCount gathers. The more complete that data is, the more useful it can be - for both COVID surges and for upticks in other respiratory viruses. That's why negative test results are just as important to know about as positive test results are.

Have a negative result to report? Go ahead — it's easy!

Try using a different device or a different browser to report your result. If that doesn't work, take a screen shot of the entire page where you see the error message and send it to [email protected]. That will help us to diagnose and fix the problem.

Yes! You can explore a demo version of the tool here.

You can report any kind of at-home test for COVID-19 or flu at MakeMyTestCount.org.

You do NOT need to report your test result here if:

• You are taking a test that is proctored (that means someone watched you take the test).

• You've reported your test result in an app that comes with your test.

• A health care provider (including a nurse or physician's assistant) tested you.

Have a test to report? Go ahead — it's easy!

If you told the website to "remember me on this device," you can get a printable document showing your results.

Here's how:

1. Click on "My Test Results" in the MakeMyTestCount.org nav bar at the top of the page.

2. Click the "Download My Test Results" button. That will give you a PDF showing all of the results that you have reported from the device you're using.

Results that show up in My Test Results are cookie-based, for privacy reasons. Cookies are bits of text that are used to identify a single device on the internet or other networks. When you check that page, you will only see results that were reported with the device you are currently using. If you clear your cookies on that device, you will no longer see any results that you reported before you cleared your cookies. If you update or reinstall your browser, the same thing may happen.

Please note: This record is for your personal use only. Results reported on MakeMyTestCount.org are not part of your official medical records.

If you used one device to report everyone's results (for example, your laptop), there isn't a way to tell whose results are whose in My Test Results. If you're planning to use the My Test Results page, you have two options:

1. You can get all of your family's results on one My Test Results page, but it won't tell you whose results are whose. If you want this option, report all of your family's results using the same device (for example, your laptop).

2. You can get each family member's results on a separate My Test Results page. To do that, use one device to report your results, another to report your spouse's, another for Child 1, another for Child 2, etc.

Results that show up in My Test Results are cookie-based, for privacy reasons. Cookies are bits of text that are used to identify a single device on the internet or other networks. If you clear your cookies, you will no longer see any results that you reported on that device before you cleared your cookies. If you update or reinstall your browser, the same thing may happen.

Please note: This record is for your personal use only. Results reported on MakeMyTestCount.org are not part of your official medical records.

Results that show up in My Test Results are cookie-based, for privacy reasons. Cookies are bits of text that are used to identify a single device on the internet or other networks. Each cookie is unique. Because the site uses cookies, there are a few possible reasons why you aren't seeing your past test results:

1. You didn't click "Remember me on this device" when you reported your results.

2. You're using a different device than the one on which you reported your results

3. You cleared your cookies after your reported your results

4. You updated or reinstalled your browser

Once you've cleared your cookies or have updated or reinstalled your browser, there is no way for the site to show the results you reported before that point.

You can't go back and change the information in a report you've already submitted. The best thing to do is to submit another report with the correct information.

MakeMyTestCount is committed to handling data securely and reliably. When you report the results of a test, that information is gathered byCareEvolution, a US technology company that has provided secure health data solutions since 2004. CareEvolution’s security and privacy program is based on the latest government and industry frameworks and guidelines, including FISMA, NIST SP 800-53, and HITRUST.

Your privacy is a central priority for the MakeMyTestCount program. When you report your test, you don't need to share any specific personal information if you don't want to. All you need to report is:

• Whether you were negative or positive

• The brand of test you took

• The date you took the test

• Your age

• Your home zip code

That's it.

However, you can choose to share additional information if you want to. Some of this information can still be anonymous:

• Whether you had symptoms

• Your sex assigned at birth

• Your race

• Your ethnicity

This demographic information may help public health teams better use the data from home tests.

If you wish, you can also share your contact information. The only people who would get that information would be your state and/or local public-health teams – and they would only get it if they signed up to receive it from MakeMyTestCount.

Different people have access to different parts of your test-result data.

If you shared your name and contact information, the only people who have access to that are your state or local public-health officials. They only get that information if they signed up to receive it from MakeMyTestCount. That data is called Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

The rest of the information collected through MakeMyTestCount is sent to a secure national database called HHS Protect. HHS Protect is run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which also receives COVID-19 and flu test results from laboratories and doctors’ offices. Federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal agencies that are involved in pandemic preparedness and response can use the information in that database. State and local public-health agencies who have signed up with the CDC can also get test-result data from HHS Protect for their geographic area.

In addition, the data may be accessed on the CDC’s public data website by researchers and others working on self-reported testing initiatives. The data shared on this site is aggregated, fully anonymized, and cannot be used to identify you individually.

Some members of the MakeMyTestCount team have administrative access to MakeMyTestCount data so that they can reliably operate the service. All MakeMyTestCount team members with this administrative access go through federal government background checks.

Public-health agencies that have signed up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) receive only data that come from their geographic area. They receive all the data from MakeMyTestCount that comes from their area. That includes any names and contact information that users have chosen to share.

Test-result data reported through MakeMyTestCount are sent to the APHL Informatics Messaging Services (AIMS) platform.AIMS is a secure, cloud-based platform maintained by the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL). It allows federal public-health agencies, regional commercial laboratories and hospitals, state health-information exchanges, and all 64 state and local public-health departments to securely transport millions of messages each month.

MakeMyTestCount transports data to AIMS using Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). If you shared your name and contact information, AIMS sends that information securely to your state or local public-health officials only. That data is called Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

AIMS de-identifies the rest of the data and sends it to HHS Protect, a secure national database that also receives COVID-19 and flu test results from laboratories and doctors’ offices. Public-health agencies who have signed up with CDC can get test-result data from HHS Protect for their geographic area.

Yes.

The Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) requires federal agencies to put programs in place that protect sensitive data and the systems the government uses to collect and store them. Along with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), FISMA requires government agencies to:

• Set minimum requirements for information security plans, policies, and procedures.

• Supply security and privacy requirements for information systems, software, and other components that agencies must put in place and approve.

• Standardize the risk-assessment process and set rigorous standards for securing information systems based on those assessments.

MakeMyTestCount is a project run by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which operates under the US Department of Health and Human Services. As part of a federal agency, the NIH must ensure that any project involving sensitive data complies with FISMA. All the sensitive data reported to MakeMyTestCount is securely collected by CareEvolution, whose programs comply with all FISMA’s requirements.

Yes.

All MakeMyTestCount data is encrypted while it is stored and routed through CareEvolution’s cloud environment. This encryption is part of the security standards set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 140-2: Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules.

Yes.

Technically, MakeMyTestCount is not required to comply with HIPAA – but we do. In fact, the security standards for the site are stronger than what HIPAA requires. Here are the details.

HIPAA only applies to certain types of organizations:

• Organizations that pay for health care, such as insurance companies and Medicare.

• Health-care providers who do business electronically.

• Organizations that move health-care data between the people who provide care and the people who pay for it.

• Anyone who does business with any of those three types of organizations.

MakeMyTestCount doesn’t fall into any of these categories. However, the strict privacy standards for the site are the same ones used for systems that do have to follow HIPAA requirements. That’s because all of the health information that’s reported to MakeMyTestCount is collected by CareEvolution, a US technology company that has been handling Protected Health Information (PHI) for over 20 years for hospitals, insurance companies, and other HIPAA-covered groups.

Yes.

An audit trail is a record of when things have happened to a piece of data, and what those things were. For MakeMyTestCount, CareEvolution keeps an audit trail that tracks when each test result reported through the site was sent and received. Keeping audit records in this way is part of FISMA, NIST, and HITRUST requirements.

All individuals that send data through MakeMyTestCount to public-health agencies are governed under CareEvolution’s MyDataHelps Privacy Policy.