Home Health & Hospice Week

HHAs may have to catch up to market demand in a hurry.

The decision of whether to require COVID-19 vaccinations for direct care staff, once they are widely available, is putting many providers between a rock and a hard place.

No home health or hospice agencies contacted by AAPC have made COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory, although some said they may consider it in the future. But some assisted living facilities have said that only workers who have been vaccinated can serve patients there, shares Crissy King with Careline Health Group in Jackson, Michigan.

Excluding staff from facilities for lack of vaccinations may not hold up to legal scrutiny, however, notes Barry Cargill with the Michigan Home Care & Hospice Association.

Legal experts have OK’d the move to require vaccinations for your own staff, albeit with the usual American with Disabilities Act and other exceptions (see HCW by AAPC, Vol. XXX, No. 6).

Getting the vaccination is “a very personal decision,” says Jonathan Willman with Consolidated Home Health in Houston, especially as COVID vaccines are still under emergency use authorizations. “We don’t want to hammer people about it,” although Consolidated has offered lots of information and answered technical questions on the topic, he notes.

Many staffers think that they have gone this long safely using masks and other PPE without catching COVID, and why not keep doing that while the vaccine is tested more thoroughly, Willman says.

The time of mandatory vaccines may not be far off, though. “The market is very quickly pushing me towards having COVID-vaccinated staff that I’m going to need to get out to [clients],” Travis Boldt, director of operations for At Your Side Home Care in Houston, told the The Texas Tribune. “People are already asking me if I can guarantee that the staff is vaccinated,” Boldt said, according to the newspaper.

“The No. 1 thing residents and family members want to know is, ‘How will you keep my family safe?’” Kathleen Dixon, VP at Atria Senior Living in Houston, told the Tribune. “We believe our residents deserve to live in a vaccinated environment and our employees deserve to work in a vaccinated environment. It’s the responsible thing to do for as many people as possible to be vaccinated, and this includes private and home health aides who serve our residents.”