Health Information Compliance Alert

Tip: Check specialty orgs for differentiated professional advice.

Whether you’re creating a COVID-19 vaccination training template for staff or assisting patients with vaccine-related issues, there’s a myriad of online tools and technology available.

Take a look at five top resources for vaccine administration planning, training, and IT:

1. ONC: If you’re looking for a plethora of helpful links all in one place, then the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Information Technology (ONC) COVID-19 response page is the ticket. The nation’s health IT agency offers insight and resources on: data collecting and reporting; surveillance and cybersecurity; lab testing; outcome reporting and tracking; interoperability; and telehealth.

“Health IT now plays a crucial role in the collecting and reporting of COVID-19 data. Additionally, electronic health information exchange can facilitate effective strategies to combat COVID-19,” ONC says in its guidance. Examine the various options at www.healthit.gov/coronavirus.

2. Medicare: Several Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) toolkits offer guidance for healthcare providers ramping up their vaccination plans. “These resources are designed to increase the number of providers that can administer the vaccine and ensure adequate reimbursement for administering the vaccine in Medicare,” CMS says on its vaccine hub.

The agency toolkits provide Medicare-specific COVID-19 vaccination guidance on: enrollment and billing for shot administration; coding, billing, and reimbursement for COVID-19 shots; beneficiary incentives; quality reporting; SNF enforcement discretion for pharmacy immunizers; and COVID-19 therapies and subsequent add-on payments.

Access the Medicare tools at www.cms.gov/covidvax-provider.

3. CDC: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers an array of vaccination information toolkits, including ones for clinicians, essential workers, and community-based organizations, at www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/toolkits/index.html. The kits aim to help you “build confidence about COVID-19 vaccination among your healthcare teams … and staff,” the CDC says.

Plus: On a broader scale, the CDC’s online guidance for immunizations offers overviews on pricing, contracts, laws, and IT. See details at www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/index.html.

4. Clinician organizations: Many professional groups have created guides and reference materials on the COVID-19 vaccines. Two of the biggest, the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Nurses Association (ANA), offer clinicians guidance on shot administration, but also patient care, ethics, mental health, health equity, liability, staff-related issues, IT, and more. You can find the AMA tools and resources at www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/ama-covid-19-guides-health-care-professionals and the ANA guidance at www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/work-environment/health-safety/disaster-preparedness/coronavirus.

Tip: Specialists may want to check out pertinent professional organizations for specialty-focused assistance. As a specialist, you may not be part of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout — but, that doesn’t mean your patients won’t ask questions or need clinical advice. This is especially true if you care for patients with chronic diseases who need your medical input before deciding on vaccination.

5. FDA: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) delves deeply into the nuances of the COVID-19 vaccines with scientific and health perspectives to allay provider, patient, and industry concerns. The guidance includes a mix of fact sheets, FAQs, videos, and more on topics like vaccine basics, research and future vaccines, the emergency use authorization (EUA) process, and healthcare tips. Review the FDA guidance at www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/covid-19-vaccines.

Bonus: The FDA fact sheets on the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are available for both providers and recipients/caregivers. The offering for healthcare providers administering the vaccine has been translated into six different languages while the patient guidance is available in 27 different languages.

Reminder: Though the Biden administration recommends how the vaccines should be dispensed and administered, those final decisions are up to the states — and each one is handling it differently. State tools vary, but most include vaccine management and registration advice, including dashboards with modules, FAQs, patient engagement tips, graphics, inventory, IT assistance, and facility-specific insight.

Check with your individual state to see available resources.